Tucson bike lawyer


The Arizona Daily Star has an article today on Tucson's "bicycle friendly" nature. It features comments by Richard Corbett and others about Tucson's desire to be the second city in the entire nation to achieve "Platinum" status by the League of American Bicyclists. This would put us at the very top in terms of how "bike friendly" our city is.

I have lots of mixed feelings about this, as readers of this blog know. For one thing, once you are at the top there should be nowhere else to go, but I see lots of room for improvement. Particularly in terms of how local law enforcement handles bicyclists who get assaulted by motorists, but also how it handles those who are injured.

I have clients who were hit in left-hooks, right-hooks, hit by baseball bats, shot at by paint-ball guns, struck head-on, deliberately struck from behind, and hit with fists -- all of whom got next to no help from the police department. I have a client who was charged with misdemeanor damage because his body left a dent in the car that swerved into him. I have another who was cited for not having a bike light on his bike after a motorist did an illegal U-turn and plowed into him in broad daylight, sending him to the hospital.

I have a client who was left bleeding on the pavement after the motorist who hit her called 911 and then fled the scene. The city would not trace the call to cite the motorist -- I had to subpoena them to get the number the call was made from, and then subpoena the phone company to get her identity. The city still will not pursue her for her hit-and-run.

My client who was struck with the baseball bat has gotten no response from the city even though he got the license plate of the assailant and we know where he lives.

And don't get me started on the tickets that motorists routinely do not receive after striking my clients. I have one client who was riding through a green light on Fourth Avenue when a car struck her, making a left-turn directly into her, sending her to the hospital. The officer wrote in the report that since both vehicles had the green light, it was impossible to determine fault!

Something tells me that we have a ways to go before we get to platinum.

--Erik Ryberg

<a href="http://www.tucsonbikelawyer.com/2008/03/az-star-on-platinum-status.html">http://www.tucsonbikelawyer.com/2008/03/az-star-on-platinum-status.html</a>;

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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