Hit and Run

There have been three incidents in the last several weeks (two in Michigan, where I am, and one in North Carolina) in which bikers were killed or seriously injured by hit-and-run drivers. In two of the cases, the drivers were found; both had suspended licenses (presumably for drunk driving), which leads one to assume that they were drunk when they hit the bikers, and drove off because they didn't want their drunk driving to be discovered. I hope they are thrown in jail for a good long time. (They won't be. In fact, one of them was charged with hit-and-run driving rather than manslaughter, which is shocking.)

So the guilt of the drivers is clear. Anything I say from now on is with that in mind. This was the drivers' fault. Not the bikers' fault.

But for the sake of all of us bikers, I have questions, which have apparently not been asked by reporters: Were the bikers wearing helmets? Two of the bikers were riding at night. Did they have lights?

If they were wearing helmets and died, that reminds us that helmets are not the ultimate protection. If they were wearing helmets and didn't die, well, perhaps the helmet helped. If they were not wearing helmets . . . you get the idea. For the sake of collecting data, I wish we could find out.

But the big question for me is whether the riders who were hit at night had lights on their bikes. One of them was a hard-core bicyclist, apparently, so I suspect he did have lights. One was just riding home from work at 2 am. I suspect she didn't have lights. But, as someone who rides a lot at night, I'd like to know. I find it astonishing that the reporting about the incidents has made no mention of it. When the police in Traverse City are interviewed, they talk earnestly about bike safety, and they say the bike rider was riding in a completely safe way (with traffic, 12" from the curb), but they don't say whether she had a tail-light (or helmet). Really, if she had had a bright tail-light, it would have been safer for her to ride in the middle of the lane, where drunk drivers expect to see traffic, rather than hugging the curb.

Why don't we have laws that require bikes to have lights at night? When I ride at night, I always have at least TWO lights, sometimes three. And yet here the police chief never mentions lights when being interviewed about a bike fatality that happened at night. Something is missing in this discussion.


LATER:
The Traverse City police are treating this as a "serial hit-and-run" bike stalker, as if it's some sort of crazed son-of-sam style murderer of bike riders. I don't know the details, but it seems much more likely that this is a serial drunk driver who happens to hit bikes as he (no doubt it's a he) swerves his way home at night. Still deserving of being thrown in jail for a good long time.