Yield to Life: Regarding the SUV and a 12 yr old Boy in Dover, NH

I read with disgust this morning how an SUV struck a bicyclist and not an adult cyclist mind you, but a child, in Dover, NH.  I’d ask what it is about cyclists that get the ire of motorists, but I know the answer to that question.  As an avid cyclist myself, I find myself shaking my head all too often at the ignorant and fool hardly behavior of other cyclists.  For instance since school has resumed, I’ve seen several kids riding in the dimly it, pre-sunrise mornings in Barrington, NH sans helmets, headphones on and no reflective clothing or lights.  Or there is that old chestnut, cyclists riding more than one abreast and not getting single file when a car comes up from behind.  Cyclists have a right to use the same roads as motorists.  The argument that we don’t pay usage fees such as excise or registration fees doesn’t wash for those who use it as an argument to get us off the roads.  Until this past year I didn’t have a child, yet I paid taxes that went to educational services; you didn’t see me complaining.

Now back to the 12 yr old, the boy who was struck down.  He was lucky, yes his arm was broken, but he lived, all too often we hear of vehicle cycling interactions that do not end on relatively happy notes.  This woman disregarded the rules of the road.  I looked on a map, she would have had to stop and cut over a lane.  The Boy had to turn right, thus he had the right of way, not her and it was her responsibility to stop and yield.  What was she doing that she did not see him?  Or for that matter how important was her eventual destination that she had to endanger the life of another person.  The fact that neither she nor the other motorist who scolded him stopped to actually check on him, speaks a great deal to their humanity, of that there can be no argument.

As we’ve seen with this scenario, the cyclist vs. motorist interaction always favors the motorist – always.  The physics of car/ cyclist interactions dictate no other outcome than damage or death to the cyclist.  So why is it so imperative for someone to put another person’s life in danger?  The next time you see a cyclist and have to turn into a lane they are in or pass them, remember to yield to life because that person is someone’s father, mother, daughter, son, brother or sister, not some random person who you don’t know.
In my next blog or the one thereafter, I'll discuss my own experience in the car/ cyclist arena.

Yield to Life.