Why Compound the Tragedy of Bike Wrecks?

Mike Hendricks and bike activists are pushing to get new laws enacted to increase the punishment of drivers involved in fatal bike wrecks. ". . . To get the motoring public’s attention, we need harsher legal penalties when driver error is involved in taking a life. Something more than the wrist slap and less than vehicular manslaughter, as prosecutors won’t normally bring the felony charge without proof of intent or impairment." I hope our legislators are as wise as our prosecutors, and reject the "do something, do anything" foolishness of the bike activists, for the good of the non-biking majority.

I appreciate bicyclists. Their low-carbon, low-noise form of transportation doesn't increase our country's reliance on foreign oil, and their fitness is admirable. If I had a shower and closet at my office, I'd be tempted to do a two-wheel commute in good weather.

I've heard plenty of stories from bikers about people throwing things at them from cars, and I've read about the sad deaths resulting from collisions. And I support enforcement of current laws, including assault and battery, and vehicular homicide where they are violated. We all want to prevent any bad thing from happening to anybody, but it's a hard world out there, and that's why we have our laws.

Now, the truth is, we're all negligent at times. Nobody drives a bike or a car with the hyper-alertness it deserves. We all fiddle with radio buttons, we all daydream about stuff, and a lot of us make and take phone calls. And none of us expects to hit a car, much less a bike. 99.999% of the time, we don't.

I've been in wrecks caused by my own negligence. So have a lot of people. Now, by the grace of God, my wrecks haven't hurt anyone. I've had a couple rear-enders, and we've exchanged insurance information and moved on with our lives. If Hendricks and the Missouri Bicycling Federation had his way, and if a bike had been involved in one of those accidents, I would have gone to jail.

No. Just because some bicyclist decides to take a more dangerous way to get to work, I don't think the rest of us ought to be exposed to prison time if we change the radio station.

The root of Hendricks' problem, and that of the rest of the Missouri Bicycle Federation, is perfectly illustrated by the context he uses to discuss the issue. A couple of bike riders died on August 5, and, as Hendricks says, "almost two weeks after the loss, we don’t know much more than that." So, we don't know what happened. We don't know if the motorist did anything wrong at all. We don't know if the bikers made a fatal mistake. We just don't know.

We do know that it's sad, though, just like every accidental death.

Hendricks starts his column, "I didn’t know either of them. But I still felt duty-bound to haul my bike to Longview Lake for this week’s memorial ride in honor of Larry and Sierra Gaunt."

I understand that it is cathartic to do something essentially meaningless as a way to respond to the senselessness of death. So, if he wants to go ride a bike in a safe place, I fully support him in his chosen way of acknowledging the death of the Gaunts. That's just fine. If you want to ride your bike in circles for people you didn't know, you go do that. Sometimes, it feels good to do something, do anything, to respond to the randomness of death.

But when you want to use your irrationality to threaten the rest of us with jail time, you're going too far. We have sufficient laws to rule our roads. If the motorist that hit the Gaunts did something wrong, he'll be charged under the laws that apply to all of us. Who knows what grief he may be suffering already - I know it would shake me terribly, even if I were totally innocent.

But for the bike advocates to use this case, about which none of us knows much at all, as a rallying point to threaten us all with jail is just ridiculous. I am truly, deeply, sincerely sorry for the loss that the Gaunt family has suffered. But I'm counting on my legislators to refuse to join in the "do something, do anything" response their sad case provokes in people like Hendricks.