The story is heart wrenching. A Madeira Beach\ngarbage truck driver hit a bicyclist riding lawfully within the speed limit in\na bike lane. Julie Henning was left with \u201cmultiple compound fractures, a\ncrushed pelvis, eight broken ribs, a punctured lung and a traumatic brain\ninjury.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The follow-up Tampa Bay Times story this week<\/a> is welcomed\u2014and rare. Too often, we hear only the original report of the crash. In this case, that May 23, 2020, story<\/a> had all the hallmarks of bike meets car collisions. The story said Henning \u201ccouldn\u2019t stop before hitting the garbage truck because she was riding downhill,\u201d suggesting it was her fault. It made no mention of the truck driver\u2019s culpability. Perhaps that wasn\u2019t known at the time, but within a few weeks, the official report was available: The driver was cited for failure to yield. Henning had done everything right and yet was left shattered. But there was no follow-up story until Henning sued the city. It was then we learned of the driver\u2019s culpability and that the city was aware of his poor driving habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One line in the story illustrates a key problem\ncyclists face: \u201cThe driver, John Leppert, said he never saw her.\u201d How often do\nwe hear that in reports about bike crashes? That simple statement is enough to\nallow careless, thoughtless motorists a \u201cget out of jail free card.\u201d As long as\na motorist is not intoxicated, you can be sure that the police will not arrest and\ndistrict attorneys will not prosecute. All the driver needs to say is, \u201cI didn\u2019t\nsee her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until we hold accountable drivers who do not pay\nattention and respect vulnerable road users, including cyclists, pedestrians\nand scooter riders, etc., there will be many Julie Hennings whose lives are\nupended, if not ended, by motorists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cyclists can help themselves by trying to increase\ntheir visibility. It is lawful for bicyclists to take the full lane, even if\nthere is a bike lane available, if staying in the bike lane is dangerous. In the\nmiddle of a travel lane cyclists are more visible to motorists behind and in\nfront of them, as well as to those entering the lanes from parking lots and\nside streets. After all, that\u2019s where motorists look for vehicles. Crouched\nalong the far-right hand side of the lane, especially adjacent to parked cars, hides\ncyclists from view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But we need the media to do more follow-up stories\nbecause the initial ones are no more than re-writes of law enforcement\u2019s press\nreleases, which usually don\u2019t include any mention of tickets issued. Such stories\nalso often highlight irrelevant issues that suggest the cyclist is at fault. For\nexample, wearing a helmet when hit by a car travelling at 40 mph is not going\nto save a cyclist, but many stories mention that fact as if to suggest it would\nhave made a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same day that Julie Henning was hit, an unidentified St. Pete cyclist was killed by a drunk driver. The brief Times story<\/a> contained this line: \u201cThe bicyclist traveled into the path of the car, which hit him,\u201d suggesting the cyclist was at fault for riding into the path of a drunk driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need a true telling of bicycle\/motor\nvehicle crashes. With only the initial reports based on incomplete information,\na narrative is created that cyclists are reckless or foolish, when indeed, it\u2019s\noften the motorist who was, or at least inattentive. Clearly assigning\nresponsibility may change public perception and increase public safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Griendling is a past\npresident of the St. Petersburg Bicycle Club and a member of the St. Petersburg\nMayor\u2019s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. The views are his own.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The story is heart wrenching. A Madeira Beach garbage truck driver hit a bicyclist riding lawfully within the speed limit in a bike lane. Julie Henning was left with \u201cmultiple compound fractures, a crushed pelvis, eight broken ribs, a punctured lung and a traumatic brain injury.\u201d The follow-up Tampa Bay Times story this week is… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}