Call

Blog

Law
02

Blog

Another Cyclist Killed, Another Shoddy Police Investigation

As the old, awful saying goes, if you want to get away with murder, kill a cyclist.   Well, it looks like it’s happened again here in Georgia.

On July 11, 2018, a very experienced rider and friend to many in the Rockdale County area, Albert “Ab” Roesel, was killed while out on a rural road doing a ride that he no doubt had done many times before.  Ab was 75 years old.   The police investigation concluded that Ab had been headed Southbound, crossed over into the Northbound lane while going around a curve to his left, then swerved back into the Southbound lane.  A Northbound driver swerved into the southbound lane “to avoid hitting the cyclist”, but Ab “also swerved into the Southbound lane and collided with the rear” of the truck.

From what we’ve heard so far, here’s where it happened

Bike Accident Scene

To anyone who has ever been on a bike on a rural road, this explanation sounds completely absurd.   Further, what common traits are shared among riders that are in their 70s?   Experience, safety, caution, awareness and prudence come to mind, just to name a few.  What traits don’t we associate with riders in their 70s?   Recklessness, foolishness, lack of judgment, etc.    The idea that Ab “swerved” across his lane into oncoming traffic and then “swerved” back into his lane just in time to meet up with the rear of a pick up truck strains believability.   Compare that to the possibility that the 30 year old driver of the pick up truck either wasn’t paying attention, was speeding, and/or distracted and which scenario seems more likely?

Keep in mind, the crash occurred in Ab’s lane.   Who was it that said that Ab swerved into the Northbound lane before swerving back into his Southbound lane?   There were no eye witnesses.   The statements regarding Ab’s maneuvers came, apparently, from one source:  the driver of the truck that crossed into the Southbound lane, killing Ab in the process.   Yet, apparently, that statement was enough for the local Sheriff to conclude that the crash was the cyclist’s fault.

From Bike Law’s perspective of representing bicycle crash victims, this is a scenario that we’ve seen repeated far too often, and all across the country.   Too many Law Enforcement officers, consciously or not, have an inherent bias against people who ride bicycles.  When they approach a crash scene for an investigation, they do not come at it with an eye towards objectively reviewing the facts, statements and physical evidence to reach a conclusion.   Instead, the mindset is to find ANY facts that would be consistent with showing that the bicyclist was at fault, and to latch on to those, to the exclusion of other facts and evidence.   If this were an isolated phenomenon, that would be easy to blame on an individual officer, but sadly this happens everywhere.

Among the many things that Bike Law advocates do to try to level the playing field for people on bikes is to provide free training and education for police officers so that they’ll be well informed on both the law and cyclists’ behavior when they approach a crash scene.   Additionally, we help victims and their families get to the truth behind crashes by both working with investigating officers AND facilitating independent crash reconstructions by highly qualified engineers and experts who don’t cut corners and who get to the underlying cause of a wreck.   An independent investigation does not always come out in favor of the cyclist, but it always digs much deeper than the cursory look done by law enforcement in a circumstance like the one that took Ab’s life, where it appears that the officers conclusions were too heavily influenced by the self-serving statement of the driver, a statement that in no way possible matches with the very likely behavior of Ab Roesel.

Here’s a link to the story. 

Comments

Ann Groninger Jan 04, 2024

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 […]

Read More
Bike Crash Road Defect Georgia
Peter Wilborn Jun 14, 2023

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 […]

Read More
Road defect dangerous to cyclists
Charlie Thomas Mar 14, 2023

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 a tough case to prove. So tough, in fact, […]

Read More
bike path charlotte
Ann Groninger Jan 13, 2023

  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 […]

Read More
North Carolina Bike Crash
Ann Groninger Dec 06, 2022

Unless you’re a very recent follower of ours, you’ve heard us talk before about “contributory negligence.” To recap: “pure contributory negligence” is the law in North Carolina and only 3 other states (Alabama, Virginia, Maryland). In pure contributory negligence states, if a person is injured by someone else’s fault and the injured person contributes even […]

Read More
Is It Illegal to Ride Your Bike on the Sidewalk bikelaw
Peter Wilborn Aug 01, 2022

The laws dictating whether you can ride your bike on the sidewalk differ depending where you live. Different states have different laws on this matter, and local ordinances also vary. Let’s take a look at the legal framework behind various state laws related to cycling on sidewalks. The laws of sidewalk-riding can be very complicated […]

Read More
Ebike crash
Bruce Hagen Apr 26, 2022

DRIVER ON METH KILLS 17 YEAR OLD BICYCLIST, BARROW COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY REFUSES TO CHARGE DRIVER WITH FELONY.   On August 23, 2020, at approximately 8:40pm, 17-year old Obianuju Osuegbu was on her way home from her summer job working at a grocery store. She had earned enough money that summer to buy herself a […]

Read More
Stop as Yield
Brian Weiss Apr 25, 2022

Finally, “Stop As Yield” (the much sought after common sense traffic law for bicyclists) is coming to Colorado in 2022, likely July 1st.   Stop as Yield, aka the “Safety Stop” After the Governor Polis signs the law and the Safety Stop becomes effective, anyone who rides a bicycle or scooter on public roads will […]

Read More
Contributory Negligence
Ann Groninger Apr 25, 2022

It took losing at trial and a long appellate process, but it ended in a blow to contributory negligence in North Carolina. We just won an appeal on a bicycle crash case that happened in 2016 and came to us in 2018. The case went to trial during the spring of 2021. Our client was […]

Read More
Load More