But Were they Wearing a Helmet?
This summer in Boulder, 17 year old USA Cycling hopeful Mangus White was killed when he was struck by a vehicle on a training ride near his home. A few days later, a 10 year-old boy was struck and killed while he was riding his bike in Fort Collins. I personally have been hit a handful of times by drivers absent-mindidly and quickly pulling out of driveways and alleys, or blindly turning into parking lots. In 2022 the CDC reviewed a statement that says nearly 1,000 cyclists die and over 130,000 are injured by vehicles on the road in the United States every year.
And almost immediately, the first question seems to be, well, what was the cyclist doing wrong? Were they riding haphazardly? Were they going too fast? Were they wearing a helmet?
These are the questions everyone asks themselves and each other when a cyclist or pedestrian gets killed. Weirdly enough the blame usually goes on the vulnerable road user because the United States is toxic and we love to blame the victim. The verbiage often used in media skirts around the fault of the diver and calls them “accidents,” which sure, I assume the truck who turned into me at the gas station, or the person who hit Mangus White didn’t really mean to do it, and I’m sure the person who hit the 10 year old wasn’t thinking about murder that day, but killing is killing, and however, the questions rattle on:
“Did he stop at that stop sign?” “Where was that kid’s parents?” “Did she look before she crossed?” “Were they riding outside the bike lane?”
Yes, it is absolutely true, and I have seen it far too many times with my own eyes that cyclists can do some really dumb things. I’ve seen cyclists blow through stop signs without looking, I’ve seen cyclists turn in front of moving vehicles. Heck, I just saw a gal riding her e-bike on a very busy street going the opposite direction of traffic. All these things are illegal and dangerous, but guess what? In most cases, the only person they are putting in harm's way is themselves.
If a cyclist were to throw themselves out into traffic, or in front of a moving vehicle. If they were to turn in front of a truck or quickly pull out of a driveway or alley, they will most likely be the one flown to the hospital, wrapped in bandages, or another worst case scenario. They will take the brunt of the force and they will – 100% of the time, in a vehicle vs. bicycle altercation – be the one to lose, because whether we care to admit it, your vehicle is, and will always be, more dangerous than my bicycle.
Yet, we still try to blame the victim, and we coddle the vehicle driver as if to admit that they are the preferred user of the road, and to this day, fatalities are still met with a simple slap on the wrist and sometimes a ticket and a fine.
Because the cyclist shouldn’t have been going so fast, they should have moved over, they weren’t all the way in the bike lane, they didn’t signal or stop at the stop sign, and why aren’t more people educating cyclists on bicycle laws?
Who is teaching cyclists how to obey laws: how to slow down, use turning signals, look both ways before crossing, look left before turning. How to ride in a straight line, how to pay attention and not be distracted, how to buckle their helmets and always yield to oncoming traffic? Don’t you know you can’t ride a bicycle while you’re drunk? Who is teaching these things to cyclists?
Who is teaching these things to vehicle drivers because everyday when I ride my bike to work, or the grocery store, or to my friend’s house, I see a car speeding. Cars running red lights, turning without signaling, driving outside their lanes, swerving in and out, driving while intoxicated, driving while looking down at their phones, blowing through stop signs, swerving to avoid hitting pedestrians, yelling, honking, raging. Hitting their horns, hitting other cars, hitting sidewalks, hitting light poles, hitting pedestrians, hitting 10 year old kids crossing the street, and then after they give a slap on the wrist for this horrible accident, the first question they ask is, but were they wearing a helmet?
A version of this story was printed in The Durango Telegraph Sept. 2023 and was reprinted in Ride Your Bike Zine!