Steve Magas is Ohio's Bike Lawyer. He has written about Ohio Bike Laws, bike crashes, bicycle advocacy and court cases for some 30 years. Soon we'll be adding a series of features about your favorite Ohio bike shops.
The Columbus Dispatch ran an intriguing story recently. They, and I, downloaded the most current data available from the Ohio Department of Public Safety relative to bicycle crashes and found some startling numbers. For 2013, the total crash numbers were reported as being lower… like a LOT lower… for 2013 than for any previous year recently. Could this possibly be true? Had there been Five HUNDRED fewer crashes?
Dr. Unk, the DrUnk Doctor who ran down a cyclist last year, was sentenced recently. You may recall that I started following this case shortly after Dr. Unk drove off the road, and into/over a cyclist.
[Blogger’s Note: This piece has been updated to incorporate some information received after the initial publication…]
On September 5, 2013, around 11:45 am, 57 year old Martha Shaw was riding her bike westbound on County Road 132. CR 132 is one those typical idyllic country roads in rural Ohio – two lane, 55 mph, but very little traffic. I don’t know the circumstances surrounding Ms. Shaw’s decision to ride that day, other than the fact that it was a gorgeous bright sunny day – perfect for a nice ride. From what I have read about Ms. Shaw, she was doing something she truly enjoyed at the moment she lost her life.
I don’t know the circumstances behind Cynthia Troyer’s driving that day either. The 57 year old Troyer was driving a big old 2003 Mercury Sable wagon westbound along CR 132 as well. Why did she smash into the rear of Martha Shaw’s bicycle? Why didn’t she “see” Ms. Shaw – who was clearly there to be seen? Why hasn’t she been charged with any sort of crime?
The crash report and investigation is very clear here. Martha Shaw was simply run down, at speed, by Cynthia Troyer. However, like many fatal crashes, there’s a lot more to investigating the crash than simply looking at the scene!
Martha Shaw was killed by Cynthia Troyer on 9/5/13
Maybe that title’s a little harsh – although Ed Miller DID plead guilty to being drunk while driving and DID plead guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide- killing Steve Barbour while driving drunk. But, where is he now?
Well, he’s back on the street after serving a little over one year of his three year sentence.
Fred Carey, a high school teacher and cyclist, was killed on February 21, 2014 on Round Bottom Road in Union Township, Clermont County Ohio. Mr. Carey was riding on Round Bottom, a popular cycling road, around 6:30pm. According to police, he was riding lawfully when he was struck from behind by a yellow van. The driver did not stick around, choosing to run and hide. Some time later, cops tracked down Todd Shaw, 51, and were able to locate the yellow van. While details have not been released, police have indicated that “alcohol was a factor.”
What do tow trucks and bicycles have in common? A case released yesterday by the Ohio Supreme Court doesn’t mention “bicycles” at all but could have a big impact on the governing of bicycle riders on the roadways in Ohio.
The Answer is that both Tow Trucks and Bicycles face two types of regulation – state and local…. In Cleveland v. State, released by the Ohio Supreme Court on January 21, 2014, the Court held that a sentence of a state law which took away the power of a municipality to regulate tow trucks violated the Ohio Constitution and had to be “severed” from the balance of the statute!
This made Tow Truck Owners sad, and local politicians very happy…
Tow Truck operators are not happy with the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to allow local regulation
“Recreational User” is an important legal concept, actually concept[s], cyclists ought to be aware of. The Supremes of Ohio just came out with a new recreational user case involving injured people vs insured people and …wait for it… the victim loses again…
What impact does this case have on cyclists? Not a good one, that’s for sure-
The case, Pauley v. Circleville started in 2006, when Circleville obtained 150-200 free truckloads of free dirt. It was used for various purposes including leaving 2 large mounds – 15 feet tall – In January 2007 a group of kids decided to sled down one of the mounds. It was dark but they lit up the hill with car headlights. There were other sled marks around- no warnings. One kid went down the hill, hit something and was critically injured – he’s a quadriplegic. They couldn’t find what was struck that night, but the next day they found a railroad tie in the dirt mound.
Mom sued the city. The city claimed immunity under the “recreational user” statute. That law says that if you open you land up for free you are generally immune from lawsuits over defects in the property. The plaintiffs argued that when you CREATE the defect, one that’s hidden from view, there should be liability since the property owner is making the land MORE dangerous.
The court agreed with the City holding “[n]o owner owes any duty to a recreational user to keep the premises safe for entry or use.” Since there is “no duty” there can be no recovery – even if the land owner creates a blind, hidden defect that hurts someone. [Now, this wouldn’t apply if the owner “set a trap” I imagine – that is an “intentional” act]
You can read the case here – http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/ROD/docs/pdf/0/2013/2013-Ohio-4541.pdf
How does this impact bicycle riders.
First, if you ride on a bike trail you are riding on an area covered by the recreational user statute- if you are riding on a roadway, sidewalk or bike lane the rec. user law does NOT apply. If the owner of a bike trail creates a hazard – there is no liability.
While this case in Circleville was percolating, I had a case in Greene County involving a fellow who fractured his hip in a bike crash. The crash was caused by the failure of the county & a contractor to put down striping on the bike trail which would not be slippery when wet. I filed the suit and we went through discovery. However, the case law in this area was going so poorly that we decided not to push it further. I predicted that our current Supreme Court was going to whack the victims and protect the insurance companies… which is exactly what it does… in case after case…
The other “recreational user” concept you need to understand as a bicycle rider is the one which screws you over if you happen to get whacked by a cyclist on the bike trail.
If you ride your bike TO the bike trail, using roads and sidewalks then a “negligence” standard applies. If someone else is careless, negligent, and you get hurt as a result you have a claim against them for damages – your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering…
BUT
If someone is careless on the bike trail and you get hurt, you LOSE – you have NO claim against them. You are on the hook for YOUR OWN medical bills and wage loss. Why? Because courts have held that you become a “recreational user” when you enter the bike trail – sort of like someone playing soccer or softball. There is NO LIABILITY if you are a recreational user, even if somebody is ridiculously careless and you end up as a quadriplegic.
A friend of mine challenged this theory on a bike v. bike crash case in Warren County – and lost – took it to the court of appeals -and lost -tried to get into the Supreme Court, but they didn’t take the case. PRobably good that they didn’t… maybe a new judge or two will be elected and we can stand a better chance of winning this argument in the future.
There were two dissenting judges in the Pauley case – Pfeiffer & O’Neill. Justice Pfeiffer makes a cogent point –
As many of you know, I am a numbers guy – as an old not-quite-reformed math major who made a right angle turn, or perhaps a tangent arc, into law school, I’ve never shied away from “doing the math.”
Here’s some of the math from 2012 – Ohio had, roughly, 11,536,504 people living in its 88 counties, according to the 2010 census. I looked at the county-by-county breakdown of population for the 10 largest counties in Ohio. I then downloaded from the Ohio Department of Public Safety webpage the 2012 crash data for all of Ohio listing bicycle crashes, deaths and injuries in Ohio, and then again for each of the top 10 largest counties. I downloaded the results by Age and then reshuffled the deck and downloaded by “Light Condition” – i.e., daylight, darkness. I was wondering if things were sort of … even… all over the state … if bigger, more urban counties were more “dangerous” …
The results are, I think, rather intriguing and certainly raise more questions than they answer.
There’s a neat new website around – Ohio Active. The site has links and articles for all kinds of cool stuff relating to riding a bike, staying fit, health and nutrition and more. I offered to write some stuff for them and they asked to do a bit of a profile about my practice.
I’m not all that great at shameless self promotion and horn tooting, but I thought this article turned out pretty cool!! If Mom were still around I’m sure she would cut it out and paste it up on the fridge as well as mail it out to all the aunts, uncles and cousins!!
OK, so many heavy posts recently… Time to shake it up…
This is my two and a half year old grandson learning how to go underwater – his favorite game in Florida was “Bobbing for the GoPro”
Which brings me to an important Bicycling point… I purchased the GoPro a few months ago with the plan of shooting some short bicycling movies, editing with a voiceover and graphics and creating several neat little YooHoo…er… YaHoot…er… YouTube videos… so far I’ve been too busy with real work, and stuff that’s not quite “real work” but very important [like the Three Foot Bill, Bike Month, several new advocacy issues, radio appearances, testifying before the Ohio House Transportation committee, speaking at Ohio’s Bike Awareness Day, the sentencing of Andy Gast’s killer…]
So, in the future, I hope to be able to post here some very clever, mildly humorous, short, easy to understand videos… just as soon as I learn how to quit shooting 25 second, high def, colorful videos of me staring blankly into the camera trying to figure out if it’s on…
More later… details to follow… Film at 11… er… well… we’ll see…
Ride LEGAL & Be Safe!
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