Faulty Police Report Fixed In Biker’s Death
The parents of 23-year-old Canadian bicyclist Iain Gerrard heard the words no parents ever want to hear: “Your son is dead.”
On July 14, 2014, the Gerrards learned their son had been killed in Mississippi on a bike tour of the Deep South. Iain’s parents were devastated by the news. Their grief quickly turned to anger over what one newspaper described as a “shoddy investigation” into Iain’s death.
The Mississippi State Trooper who filed the crash report initially said Iain was riding his bike on the wrong side of the road just before the fatal crash. That crash report was based on a statement by the truck driver. In one of the worst ever cases of blaming the victim, the truck driver later suggested Iain had intentionally ridden into the truck’s path.
The crash report was wrong, according to an investigation by Bike Law attorney Charlie Thomas of New Orleans, Louisiana. Thanks to Charlie’s investigation, the police report has since been amended.
Iain’s case is the latest instance where a bicyclist is wrongly blamed for a fatal crash. Bicycle journalist Alan Snel details a long list of similar blame-the-cyclist reports.
A Bike Trip Tracing America’s Roots Music
Iain was on a 4,000-kilometer bicycle tour from his home in Toronto to New Orleans and back. Iain was fascinated by American roots music, such as the Blues, and he dreamed of visiting the birthplaces of that art form, including Memphis and New Orleans.
Iain had toured Graceland and the famed Sun Studio in Memphis before heading south on July 14, 2014, into Mississippi on Highway 61, known as “The Blues Highway.”
About a half hour before his stopping point for the day, Iain was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer. Iain’s parents received the fateful call from the coroner that evening.
Initial Police Report Blamed Ian For Fatal Crash
Law enforcement officials, relying on a statement from the truck driver, concluded in the official accident report that Iain was bicycling in the wrong direction on the highway — something Iain’s parents said their safety conscious son would never do. The truck driver even told an insurance investigator that Iain might have attempted suicide by intentionally riding in front of his truck, according to one news report. When it comes to blaming the victim, it doesn’t get any more outrageous than that.
In fact, another motorist who witnessed the accident said Ian was riding in the same direction as traffic and had been hit from behind.
Bike Walk Tennessee, a statewide advocacy group, contacted Iain’s parents and said “it was concerned that statements made by the Mississippi Highway Patrol appeared to illustrate a misunderstanding of cycling laws,” according to a Jan. 18 article in the thestar.com. The article’s headline: “A haphazard investigation of Iain’s Gerrard’s death in America’s Deep South.”
At the suggestion of Bike Walk Tennessee, Iain’s parents hired Louisiana Bike Law attorney Charlie Thomas to handle their civil claim. Using a private investigator and an accident reconstruction expert, Thomas determined Iain had been hit from behind, contradicting the truck driver’s version of events. The bike itself was a crucial piece of evidence, retrieved from the Department of Transportation. The major damage was to the bike’s rear triangle. The front wheel and fork were largely intact.
Thomas said the officer who wrote the initial accident report tracked the bike down and examined it again.
“When he did, he finally called us and said that he was wrong in his opinion and that it indeed was a rear strike,” Thomas said in an interview with a video reporter from thestar.com.
The report from thestar.com indicates the officer declined to give the truck driver a ticket or label the fatality as anything other than an accident because he did not witness it.
Confidential Settlement Reached
The Gerrards recently reached a confidential settlement with the trucker driver’s insurer. But their grief over their son’s tragic death remains.
According to the article in thestar.com, “They are still angry with how their son’s death was handled by authorities and continue to question why the investigation was conducted so haphazardly.”
Please take a few moments to honor Iain’s memory by reading the heartbreaking article about his bike tour and by watching the video about him at the top of this post.
-
From Winner to Advocate: One Cyclist’s E-Bike Journey
Two years ago, on a family trip to Switzerland, my wife and I rented two electric-assisted mountain bikes, or e-MTBs, to tackle some steep trails near the Matterhorn. The salesperson said, in no uncertain terms, that the new e-MTBs were the way of the future, and we should give them a try. So we did. …
-
A Comprehensive Guide to E-Bikes in Louisiana: Laws, Tips, and Choosing the Best E-Bike
E-bikes are popping up everywhere. If you’re riding one in Louisiana or thinking about getting one, you may have questions about the laws, safety tips, and how to pick the right bike. That’s exactly what this post is here for! We’ll break down what you need to know about riding e-bikes in Louisiana, from legal…
-
The Lisa Torry Smith Act: A Win for Cycling Safety in Texas?
The Lisa Torry Smith Act brings important changes to Texas law. It makes clear that cyclists can ride in crosswalks and now requires drivers to stop and yield before entering a crosswalk with a pedestrian or cyclist. A gap in Texas law is allowing some drivers who hit people in crosswalks to get off scot-free,…
-
Far Right?! I was taking a LEFT!
Even Bike Law lawyers get hassled. Like many of us, riding for me is stress relief; it’s an escape from conflict and a busy schedule. Sometimes incidents on the road have the opposite effect and one incident this weekend made me question the state of humanity. It was not an unusual event, nor a particularly…
-
E-BIKES ARE LEGAL IN NC (WELL, SOME OF THEM)
Love them or hate them, e-bikes continue to rise in popularity. At the same time, lawmakers struggle to keep up with the developing technologies. Every week I get multiple inquiries from people trying to navigate North Carolina’s e-bike laws. If you’re confused, you’re not alone. We could easily fill a book with all the latest…
-
BIKES & CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Many of our cycling clients find themselves having to interact with the criminal justice system. Typically, it’s because the driver who hits them (or their family member) is charged with a crime or traffic offense. Occasionally bicyclists themselves are charged with traffic offenses! Every state’s criminal laws are different, but there is a lot of…
-
Another Successful Road Defect Case, This Time a $750,000 Settlement in Georgia
We recently shared the story of a trial victory from the State of Texas where a bicyclist was injured due to a defect in a road maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation. Texas Road Defect We now can tell the story of another huge win in a road defect case, this time from our Bike Law…
-
One Million Dollars for Texas Road Defect
The Texas Department of Transportation had offered cyclist Mike Bagg $0. Recently, attorneys with the Bike Law network took a case to a trial against a titan of a defendant: the Texas Department of Transportation. TxDOT was represented by the Attorney General’s Office, one of Texas’ largest legal teams. We had a great client, but it was…
-
More Roads = Better Transportation, And Other Myths
2023 got off to a rough start for Charlotte, North Carolina, particularly in the context of road safety. Within about a week, we lost a young woman who was riding her bicycle, a pedestrian killed in the same area of town, and four people were killed in a car wreck on I-85 in the University…