Missouri Bicycle News

A story in Monday's Examiner about a crash involving a motor scooter has ramifications for cyclists using the roadway and for the Missouri Bicycle Federation's campaign to improve Missouri traffic laws:

Jerold Cox, 56, died Saturday when his Honda motor scooter was struck from behind on eastbound U.S. 40 near 36th Street. Cox was thrown from the bike and suffered fatal head injuries.

Police gave this account:

The other driver, eastbound in a Chevrolet Malibu, came over a slight rise and saw the scooter. He tried to swerve but could not avoid the collision. The 19-year-old Kansas City man was not charged.

Witnesses told police the Malibu did not appear to be speeding or driving recklessly.

A principle of traffic law

As a general principle of traffic safety, drivers must be responsible for being aware of traffic in front of them--whether actual traffic they can see, or potential traffic in places they cannot see. Regardless of the posted speed, motorists must adjust their speed and drive slower when hills or curves are present. The posted speed limit is the maximum allowable speed under ideal conditions. But there are many conditions when a slower speed must be maintained for safety.

The driver approaching from the rear must maintain a speed that allows the vehicle to stop in time to avoid any actual or potential vehicle, person, or other obstacle in the road ahead. If the driver cannot see a section of road ahead, then the driver must assume the worst--there may be something there that requires the vehicle to be brought to a full stop.

This is the only rational traffic law for dealing with such situations. By careful driving at appropriate speeds, the driver approaching from the rear can completely eliminate the possibility of such accidents. There is little--and sometimes nothing--the driver in front can do.

There is a minimum speed limit on Missouri freeways, but no minimum speed limit on other Missouri roads and highways. Vehicles may be slowed or stopped at any point on the highway to make turns, for traffic signals, or for unexpected road conditions. Pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages, agricultural equipment, bicyclists, or other legal and lawful road users may be ahead.

All drivers must allow for the possibility of any of these conditions appearing ahead in a portion of the roadway invisible to them because of a hill, curve, or other visual obstacle.

Ken Kifer calls the drivers who ignore anything they cannot actually see "Admiral Farraguts" ("Damn the torpedoes--full speed ahead!" in every situation, and "55 or die!"--with the result that many of them do). Kifer has a good explanation of why this kind of driving is so dangerous.

Current and proposed Missouri law

This principle is stated in Missouri's current vehicle code this way:

Every person operating a motor vehicle on the roads and highways of this state shall drive the vehicle in a careful and prudent manner and at a rate of speed so as not to endanger the property of another or the life or limb of any person and shall exercise the highest degree of care. (RSMO 304.012)

The Missouri Bicycle Federation has been working with Missouri lawmakers to update Missouri's vehicle code. As we worked with lawmakers this spring to create our proposed Transportation Safety Bill, we suggested that Missouri law should spell out typical situations where motorists need to control their speed, as the Uniform Vehicle Code does.

The Uniform Vehicle Code begins with similar language to the Missouri Code. But it goes on to list specifics:

Consistent with the foregoing, every person shall drive at a safe and appropriate speed when approaching and crossing an intersection or railroad grade crossing, when approaching and going around a curve, when approaching the crest of a hill, when traveling upon any narrow or winding roadway, and when special hazards exist with respect to pedestrians or other traffic or by reason of weather or highway conditions.

Legislators argued that there was no need to include these specifics in Missouri law, because they are already implied by the requirements to drive in a "careful and prudent manner" and "exercise the highest degree of care".

But cases such as this one belie this argument. Neither Missouri motor vehicle drivers nor police seem to understand that the motorist who approaches a blind spot over a hill must adjust speed so as to have time to safely stop in case of any vehicle or other obstacle in the blind spot.

If a motorist coming from behind strikes a vehicle or pedestrian who is operating lawfully and legally in such a blind spot, the fault must lie with the approaching motorist, who is driving too fast for conditions.

Perhaps this is not a case of a willfully malicious driver who should have serious criminal charges brought. But, clearly, the fault in the collision--and, at minimum, a traffic citation--must fall on the motorist approaching from behind, and not the motor scooter operator who was lawfully operating.

This is not "just an accident". It is a collision caused by a very specific, if very common, type of bad and dangerous driving.

Drivers must be educated about the necessity of adjusting speed in these situations. Unfortunately when drivers read newspaper articles such as the one quoted above, they receive just the opposite message--as long as they are sticking pretty close the posted speed limit, if they go over a hill or around a curve a nail someone, it's not problem. It's not their fault. It's "just one of those things" and nothing could have been done to prevent it.

Another fatal example

Another fatal example of the same kind of bad driving: Raytown, MO, next door to Independence, is very hilly. Many drivers here routinely roar over blind hills at too high speed. One such driver went over the top of a blind hill on a two-lane road, exceeding the speed limit by the usual small amount when driving "with the highest degree of care" would have required driving well under the speed limit. Just over the top of the hill in his lane was another vehicle waiting to make a left turn. The fast-moving driving had no time to stop, but swerved into the left lane to avoid the stopped car.

Of course, the left-turning car was stopped for a reason. A car was coming up the hill in the opposite direction. The swerving car hit the oncoming car. As is so often the case, the reckless driver was only slightly injured but an innocent bystander--a passenger in the oncoming car--was killed.

It is clear that under current law, neither Missouri drivers nor Missouri police officials "get it". Missouri's traffic law must be changed, Missouri motorists must change how they drive, and Missouri police officials must change how they enforce the law. permanent link to article: "Independence scooter crash has ramifications for cyclists"
posted by Brent Hugh at 7/02/2003 02:14:13 PM |comment on this article