Protecting The Rights Of Those Who Ride

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.

Sun Glare? Can’t See? Kill A Kid? NO PROBLEM- at least in New Philadelphia, Ohio

Tuesday 12 Jun 2018 by Steve Magas | 1 Comment

On his last day alive on planet Earth 12 year old William Logan Morris chose to ride his bicycle along County Road 52 near New Philadelphia, Ohio on a cold, crisp sunny December afternoon. He was riding southwest along County Road 52 around 4:15pm on December 14, 2017. This road, in Tuscarawas County, is a typical Ohio country road… two- lane, asphalt – narrow lane [looks like about 10′ lanes from the crash report] – there was a centerline present but no edge lines – no real “berm” other than dirt.

The crash report says it was 25 degrees – visibility was “10 Miles” – so a nice bright sunny…er… well… the report says “95% Cloud Cover”- but let’s assume it’s bright and sunny… Sunset that day was 5pm, so the crash was well within the daylight hours…

William Morris was killed around 4:15pm that day when a huge Dodge Ram 1500 truck driven by 41 year old Troy Dalpiaz slammed into him from behind.

As young William Morris was riding on County Road 52 he was likely unaware that Mr. Dalpiaz was hurtling towards him from behind at 40-45 mph and “couldn’t see” him. Children tend to believe the best in us – they trust adults to do the right thing. I would bet that William Morris never dreamed that anyone would be stupid enough to drive a big truck down the road if they “couldn’t see” what was in front of them.

Mr. Dalpiaz was driving the 2+ ton truck down the road at, he claims, 40-45 mph… I say “he claims” because the posted speed here is 55 mph and few folks go flying down these open country roads while driving 10 mph below… but hey… let’s give him the benefit of the doubt…

Sunset on December 14, 2017 was at 5pm… so … Surprise … Surprise – the sun was setting in the west 40-45 minutes before sunset… Mr. Dalpiaz was driving “southwest” so towards the setting sun… So Surprise Surprise… there was sunshine coming into Mr. Dalpiaz’s front windshield. “Sun Glare” as the prosecutor noted… made visibility difficult, if not impossible.

Mr. Dalpiaz ~~wisely chose to not drive into the sun when he couldn’t see anything in front of him~~ …er … kept on driving forward at 45 mph in a 2 ton pickup truck – even though he couldn’t see …

In fact he told the Ohio State Highway Patrol after he killed William Morris that he couldn’t see… he never saw young William Morris before he slammed into him with the right side of the truck… in fact, it appears that he never saw ANYTHING for ” FIVE TO SIX SECONDS” prior to the crash… he was just driving along on Hopes & Prayers I guess…

Sadly… the prosecutor here felt these facts were not enough to charge the driver of the truck with ANY sort of crime at all…

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HAPPY BIKE MONTH 2018!!!

Tuesday 1 May 2018 by Steve Magas | No Comments

Here we go – Midnight on May 1- the start of Bike Month 2018.

Amazingly, in Ohio we have had Zero Fatalities in January – February -March – April 2018 so far as I can tell.

Now, we’ve had really crappy weather too – cold and wet and snowy here for much of the time – but the Good Stuff is coming now…so LET’S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE and Have a:

HAPPY
BIKE
MONTH
& HAVE
FUN!

Among the “WORST” States for Hit/Run – Ohio?!?

Thursday 26 Apr 2018 by Steve Magas | 2 Comments

“Ohio One of the Worst States for Hit/Run”

Big headline from Columbus TV station… but.. wait… what about… the… facts?

Ohio had 61 hit/run crashes involving at least 1 death in 2016…that’s a horrible thing, and a horrible number. For Ohio, that’s a BIG number… 61 represents a BIG jump from the prior year when we had 42, and from the prior 10 yr average of 37.2. However, Ohio’s numbers for 10 years have run the gamut from a low of 30 to 2016’s high of 61 – which states are really the “WORST” though?

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Uncategorized

Where In the Heck Are We Supposed to RIDE??

Thursday 5 Apr 2018 by Steve Magas | No Comments

Very nice article by CO bike lawyer Megan Hottman analyzing Colorado’s version of O.R.C. Sec. 4511.55 in Ohio – the “Where in the heck are cyclists supposed to ride” statute…
http://www.roadbikereview.com/…/how-far-to-the-right-should…

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The “Right To Travel”

Thursday 29 Mar 2018 by Steve Magas | No Comments

A very interesting decision came out of Ohio’s First Appellate District [Cincinnati/Hamilton County] the other day.

Blue Ash, Ohio has a local “toy vehicle” ordinance that says:
“No person on roller skates or riding in or by any means of any sled, toy vehicle, skateboard or similar device shall be permitted on any street, highway or public lot unless the same is designated and marked as a ‘play street’ or ‘play lot.’ ” Blue Ash Code of Ordinances 311.03(a).

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Ohio’s 2017 Fatal Bicycle Crashes – A Brief Review

Friday 5 Jan 2018 by Steve Magas | No Comments

While the Ohio Department of Public Safety [ODPS] does not release its “Crash Facts” until later in the year, we can be fairly certain that all of the fatal bicycle crashes have now been reported. I try to track EVERY fatal bike crash in “real time” – meaning I set my Google Alerts to try to pick up media reports and I rely on folks around the state to send me reports that they see.

I’ve reviewed the preliminary ODPS stats, which reflect a total of 19 cyclists killed in Ohio in 2017. I’ll review each crash after we receive the full and complete report from each crash. We will obtain the report, all photos, all cruiser/body cam videos, all field sketches & measurements, all witness statements and any other data available. We will try to determine exactly what happened adn how the crash might have been avoided. We will try to determine if any criminal charges came out of the crash and what happened in the case.

For now, here’s a brief summary of the crashes.

19 Fatal Crashes

Fault Assigned by Police?

10 – Cyclist at Fault
9 – Motorist At Fault

CYCLIST at Fault

3- Not Visible Dark-No lights
– Darting
– Illegally in Roadway
– Wrong Side of Road
3 – “Other improper action”
– Failure to Yield

MOTORIST at Fault

– Failure to Yield
– Left of Center
5 – Follow too closely
– Ran Red Light
– Ran Stop Sign
-Improper Lane Change

Daylight v. Night?

11 – In the DARK
7- Cyclist at Fault
4 – Motorist At Fault

Hit/Skip

5 – Hit/Skip
4 – In the DARK
3 – Unsolved
4 – Rear-end Collisions
1- Head-On Collision

WHERE WERE THEY KILLED

16 – Communities with Population < 50,000
3 – Communities with Population > 50,000

Counties in which 2 Cyclists were killed?

– Hamilton
– Franklin
– Cuyahoga
– Tuscarawas

Date	County
1/1/17	Montgomery
1/5/17	Tuscarawas
1/6/17	Franklin
2/6/17	Sandusky
2/16/17	Williams
3/10/17	Jackson
5/22/17	Hamilton
6/2/17	Clark
6/30/17	Cuyahoga
8/8/17	Cuyahoga
8/16/17	Franklin
8/18/17	Wayne
8/19/17	Hamilton
9/27/17	Mercer
10/3/17	Holmes
10/24/17	Lorain
10/27/17	Washington
11/1/17	Coshocton
12/14/17	Tuscarawas

WHO WAS KILLED?

Date	Victim	Age
1/1/17	Wilbur Vanwey	47
1/5/17	Joseph Yoder	46
1/6/17	Jason Bostic	35
2/6/17	John Parish	60
2/16/17	Keith Brown	57
3/10/17	Benjamin Snyder	15
5/22/17	William Rust	61
6/2/17	Kaden Webb	11
6/30/17	Emmanuel Wen	2
8/8/17	Jesse Parker	36
8/16/17	Joshua Richardson	41
8/18/17	Jeremy Grimm	42
8/19/17	Anthony Grace	44
9/27/17	Nicholas Hemmelgarn	67
10/3/17	Nelson J. Miller	30
10/24/17	Jason A Baird	26
10/27/17	Therea Leigh Fillmon	49
11/1/17	Robert Yoder	14
12/14/17	William L. Morris	12

Emmanuel Wen, the two year old listed above, probably should not be listed as a “cyclist.” Apparently he was riding on a “Big Wheel” type 3 wheeled “toy” when he left the driveway and got onto Cedar Road where he was struck by a large vehicle.

William Rust was killed by an hit/run motorist who was allegedly using heroin. He was killed near the same place on US 52 that Michael Prater was killed a year earlier… by a hit/run motorist using heroin… who is now serving a 13.5 year prison term. We are still waiting for Steve Sickle, William Rust’s killer, to come to trial. His case is set for “Pleas or Trial Setting” on January 8, 2017.

Nineteen people were killed. Nineteen families grieving… friends… relatives… trying to figure out what happened and why. Nineteen separate crashes – 19 deaths out of the … 40,000… or so … which happened due to something stupid or careless on U.S. roads… I hope we, as a country, society, can start to take traffic safety seriously some day…

CURTILAGE? The NRA & AMA Support a Convicted Criminal? And this relates to Bicycles…how??

Wednesday 3 Jan 2018 by Steve Magas | 4 Comments

“Curtilage” – that’s a funny word, eh? To lawyers dealing with fundamental constitutional rights, though, it’s a pretty important word. It’s a word that has recently made for some “strange bedfellows”… as shown in recent US Supreme Court filings.

In Collins v. Virginia the question of whether the search of a motorcycle without a warrant was lawful is the question. Collins was convicted of crimes relating to a stolen motorcycle. He challenged the search. “Amicus curiae” [“friend of the court”] Briefs SUPPORTING the criminal defendant’s claim that the search was illegal were filed by both the NRA and the American Motorcycle Association [AMA]!

The “curtilage” of one’s property is the area immediately surrounding a dwelling house which has been given the same protection under the law as was afforded the house itself. The US Supreme Court has held that the Fourth Amendment protects the curtilage of a house and that the extent of the curtilage is determined by factors that bear upon whether an individual reasonably may expect that the area in question should be treated as the home itself. In essence, Police cannot typically search the “curtilage” of one’s home without a warrant.

Here’s one artist’s interesting view of the 4th Amendment issues surrounding property, curtilage, outbuildings, garbage and the like…

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Ohio’s 2017 Bicycle Crash Stats – The Good – The Bad – The Odd – The Ugly

Tuesday 2 Jan 2018 by Steve Magas | 1 Comment

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Out with 2017 and onto 2018!

Here are some early returns on numbers… Ohio cyclist crash numbers – crashes – deaths – for 2017 from the Ohio Department of Traffic Safety’s crash stats page.

These are very preliminary numbers at this point. Ohio generally doesn’t finalize it’s “Crash Facts” report until much later in the year. The “trend” for Ohio is not good, however, and is something we, as advocates, need to study and work on…

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STOOOPID Article In Forbes Says Columbus, Ohio is the SIXTH WORST City for Cycling…

Wednesday 6 Dec 2017 by Steve Magas | 2 Comments

So that venerable cycling magazine – FORBES – comes out with an article written by “Data Journalist” Niall McCarthy… about “the Most Dangerous Cities” in the US for bicycling.

McCarthy concludes that little old Columbus, Ohio was NUMBER SIX – the 6th most dangerous city in the entire country for riding a bike… I was… surprised…

Ok… Well… that sounds interesting… I wonder what data he used. What other cities were in the Top 10? Since Florida is the league leader in cycling fatalities I’ll bet several Florida cities were in there too, right?

Being a math guy who studies bicycle crashes and researches EVERY fatal bicycle crash in Ohio I was very curious about the data and methodology he developed to reach this somewhat shocking conclusion.

My conclusion? The article is STOOOOOPID… the list is STOOOOPID… why? It’s based on data for cities with populations in excess of 500,000 when some of THE MOST DANGEROUS CITIES have populations less than 500,000.

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OH EM GEEEE – THE SKY IS FALLING! er… well… maybe not so much

Friday 25 Aug 2017 by Steve Magas | No Comments

The Washington Post published an article with a headline that “Cycling Crash Deaths Are Soaring!” What…? Wait a minute… soaring? What numbers are they looking at?

The WP cites to a new report – from the Governors Highway Safety Association – called “A Right to the Road-Understanding and Addressing Bicyclist Safety.” Did that report say cyclist deaths are “soaring?” What’s going on here…

Maybe a little bit of Chicken Little…

Why do I say that?

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Protecting The Rights Of Those Who Ride

Now, we’ve had really crappy weather too – cold and wet and snowy here for much of the time – but the Good Stuff is coming now…so LET’S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE and Have a:

HAPPY BIKE MONTH & HAVE FUN!

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HAPPY
BIKE
MONTH
& HAVE
FUN!