Ms Von Sengbusch, a health care administrator, says she was using the utmost care on her morning ride, and that the pedestrian, 28-year-old lawyer Meghan Rohan, caused the June 15 crash when she recklessly walked into the bike lane. The athlete claims she suffered "great physical pain and mental anguish" after the crash, was unable to work and was left with "painful and permanent" injuries - even though she finished second at an October 1 triathlon.
State law gives pedestrians the right of way, but Ms Von Sengbusch is seeking unspecified damages in her lawsuit. Longtime personal-injury lawyer Susan Karten, who is not involved in the case, called the biker's suit "outrageous" and "disgraceful". "The bicyclist has the obligation to watch out for pedestrians - it's not the other way around," she said.
"I've never heard of such a thing. It's like a pedestrian getting hit by a car, and the [motorist] suing the pedestrian and saying, 'You didn't get out of the way'." Ms Rohan's lawyer, Louis Adolfsen, said the cyclist's suit was unusual. "The idea that someone would sue you, when they hit you with a bike, seems to me unthinkable," he said. "I've never seen anything like this."
4 comments:
I'm a long time biker and runner...but I have to say that many bikers are self absorbed, narcissistic idiots who think that everyone should get out of their way...including cars.
I don't understand why bikers just assume that they don't need to ride defensively/responsively.
On the flipside, I am a very careful and considerate rider. I never run lights, I give way where I can, I limit my speed.... But I live in a very pedestrian-heavy city, and I have no ends of problems with walkers just stepping off pavements without looking. I've never hit anyone, but I've had several close calls due to people just not pausing or looking before stepping into a road. Simple consideration and spatial awareness from all parties is all that's required to prevent these problems.
As for Ms Sengbusch's lawsuit? Hope it gets thrown out. Sounds like sour grapes over not coming first in the triathlon.
Living in Oxford you see many retarded cyclists run red lights, fail to use helmets/lights/visivests.. but still, the number of cyclists or wander out into cycle lanes without even looking over their shoulder far outnumbers the cyclists. You wouldn't hold a car driver to blame when someone randomly decides that the road's a better place to be than the pavement. If the cyclist was that good, recovering from the injury caused by the plonker who stepped in front of her is likely to be cause a loss of income. I cycle at about 25 and coming off hurts!
Sorry, that should read "..but still, the number of pedestrians who wander out.."
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