One thing we do here at The BIkeLawyer’s World Headquarters is keep an eye on the BIG Picture as well as handling individual cases throughout the State of Ohio. We also try to keep track of particularly egregious crashes to see how they were investigated by police and pursued by prosecutors. Sometimes we find cycling crash cases getting shoved aside and sometimes they are very aggressively handled…
To help us look at Ohio data we often start at the Ohio Bicycle Federation’s website- www.OhioBike.org. I have been an OBF Board Member for many years. We developed a spot on the website to allow folks to take a look at some crash data.
If you go to the website there is a dropdown menu for “COLLISION DATA” – Once there you’ll see tabs for BIKE MAP and PEDESTRIAN MAP.
Clicking the BIKE MAP tab will bring up a map of Ohio. Each bike crash that occurs on the road is marked with a DOT. These dots come from data found in the Ohio Crash Reports gathered by the Ohio Department of Public Safety. This means there is typically motor vehicle involved. Today, the crash reports include GPS coordinates and our Bike Crash Map pulls the location data and sets out the dot. When you open the big map you can choose to see the data 1 year at a time or have data from many years shown at once.
Here’s a visual view of where crashes happened statewide in Ohio from 2020-2024.
The COLOR of each dot tells you a little bit about the crash . The key is found in the panel to the left to the left:
While you can show 1 year or several, you cannot limit the data to show just the fatal or just the serious crashes. We average around 1500 investigated bike crashes each year in Ohio – with around 20+ fatal crashes.
Each dot, regardless of the level of the crash, is “loaded” with data however. When you click any dot you pull up all the “‘”Crash Report”‘” data relating to that crash in a panel to the left of the screen!
Here’s one I randomly chose – a black dot, so a fatal crash, near Bowling Green Ohio. Just looking at the dot only tells you that it was a fatal crash, and shows the location, but tells you nothing of the details. However, when you click the dot it opens a panel filled with data.
When I clicked the random black dot I chose I can see in the panel that the crash happened on July 2023, at 1611, military time for 2:11 pm – so basically broad daylight in July. The dot looks like it isn’t even on the “road” but on the sidewalk.
When I slide the data panel down a bit I can see the “narrative” for the crash from the crash report, which is enlightening in this one…
Here, we see that the cyclist, Unit 1, was on the sidewalk. The motorist, Unit 2, was driving south on Main when almost hit a car. The motorist then drove off the road. The cyclist tried to get out of the way, per a witness, but was struck by the car and killed.
With THAT information in hand, I did a quick google search and found media reports on the crash. After reviewing that report I realized that I remembered this crash very well as I heard about it when it happened. It was such a SENSELESS, horrific crash – a guy loses control of his motor vehicle on a nice Saturday afternoon in a small town and slams into a cyclist on the sidewalk, killing him? How does that even happen? How does that make ANY sense?
We also learn from the media report that the driver was charged fairly aggressively and that police clearly suspected alcohol or drugs.
What these dots and data do NOT tell you is the toll these violent acts take on the family and friends of the victim. Here, the family was also trying to make sense of the crash – in this article they note that Mr. Szabo lived in Columbus but used to come back to Bowling Green each weekend to visit with his mother, who had health issues. He would do some shopping for Hern and visit with her. He had just bought the bike a few weeks before the crash – and was riding on the sidewalk a couple just blocks from home. Mr. Szabo was 60 years old when he was killed so violently.
In doing a little more follow up digging, I used the data in the left panel to find the “Document Number” – 20238114596 – which corresponds with the police report. I then plugged that information into the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s crash report database here – There I was able to tap into the basic short version of the crash report.
If we were handling the case we would obtain a full copy, typically 50+ pages, to get the entire investigation. We would also obtain cruiser and body cam imagery, photos, forensic reports, toxicology reports, the autopsy details … EVERYTHING we could find.
A little more digging reveals that the motorist, James Lindsay, was charged with multiple crimes and eventually pleaded guilty to Aggravated Vehicular Homicide, Operating a Vehicle Under the Influence of Alcohol and attempted Failure to Stop after an Accident. So I checked out the criminal file online in the Wood County Clerk’s office – I located the file & from there I could scroll through the digital docket to find the Sentencing Order of 12/5/23.
After reviewing the case, the pre-sentence report and other factors the judge issued a ruling on Mr. Lindsay’s sentence:
From there I went to the Ohio Inmate Locator page and found that Mr. Lindsay was indeed serving his time at the Marion Correctional Institution. He will be eligible for consideration for parole on June 28, 2035
This one black dot on the map represents a human being whose life was taken violently by the drunken acts of man behind the wheel of a two ton bowling ball – a life taken on a nice quiet Saturday afternoon in a small town in northwest Ohio. That black dot represents a grieving family – a mother who lost her loving son – friends mourning the loss of a good man. Mr.Lindsay’s reprehensible actions set off a series of shock waves that will reverberate for this family, for Mr. Szabo’s friends, for this community, for years…decades… to come…
As legal advocates we fight for justice for the families of our clients … as CYCLING advocates we fight for safer roads, thorough investigations, aggressive prosecutions, and stiffer sentencing. We fight to keep folks like Mr. Lindsay off the road. We fight to make roads safer for ALL cyclists.
As HUMANS we should all be upset at the number of “DOTS” on this map… and remember, Ohio is one of the SAFER STATES… given our population, the number of bike crashes and rate of bike fatalities in our State is actually lower than the national average…
Each one of these dots represents a PERSON on a bicycle who was involved in a crash with a car. Some were at fault – some were not – some were fine – some got hurt a little bit – some received serious injuries – some were killed – But EACH encounter that makes it on this map is probably going to be one of the most violent events in that person’s life… as ADVOCATES we will continue our fight to cut down the number of dots!
Tags: bicycle, city, crash, data, fatal, statistics, Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist
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