Shaana Rahman Featured in the American Association for Justice's Trial Magazine

For their February 2012 edition entitled "Moving Violations", the AAJ's Trial Magazine chose to address motor vehicle and bike accidents and their place in the law. As such, I'm pleased to say that our very own Shaana Rahman was featured in Trial Magazine with her highly informative essay on what attorneys representing bicyclists should expect, and what they should be doing to protect your rights.

Rising Rate of Pedestrian Accidents Caused by Headphone Use

"Injuries to pedestrians wearing headphones have more than tripled in six years, say researchers from the University of Maryland."

On the average day, we see dozens of people walking across the street with headphones plugged into their ears. And as city-dwellers, we are practically allergic to silence. So it's not difficult to feel a bit scared when we read statistics that say, out of the times where headphone-wearing pedestrians have been deaf to train whistles and car horns, 3/4ths of them end in fatalities.

According to a Care2 article, "Distraction and sensory deprivation while using electronic devices is called 'inattentional blindness'." Case reports published by associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland, Dr. Lichenstein, and his associates listed the following statistics regarding injured pedestrians who were wearing headphones at the time of their accidents:

• 68% of victims were males.
• 67% of victims were under 30 years old.
• Over 50% of accidents involved trains
• 29% of vehicles involved reported sounding a warning prior to the accident

While pedestrians have no control over reckless drivers, they can help their odds at least a little by keeping their ears open. So try to keep both unplugged and aware of your surroundings out there.

Used Motorcycle Review's "Most Common Causes for Motorcycle Accidents"

Last Thursday's Used Motorcycle Review's blog post touched upon the 4 Most Common Causes of Motorcycle Accidents. These are the difficulties faced by motorcycle riders that might be helpful to keep in mind while riding safely:

1. Driver Negligence/Blind Spot

Many drivers have difficulty spotting or noticing motorcyclists on the road.

"Approximately 70% of collisions are the result of the negligence of drivers."

2. Poor Road Conditions

Many collisions occur "due to the presence of curbs, debris, potholes, bumps or even roadside barriers" when a rider tries to avoid an accident. These are the accidents that have caused severe lower body and spinal damage, and sometimes even brain damage.

3. Speed Disparities

Accidents don't always occur because of speeding, but can also occur as a result of going too slowly, compared to traffic flow around the rider. These accidents manifest as rear-ending or being rear-ended.

4. Other Factors

- Climbing skill of the driver

- Drunk driving

- Undivided roads

- Aggressive driving/recklessness

- Old bikes or old bike parts

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Source: Used Motorcycle Review

Assembly Bill 819 to Aid Bikeway Developments

For those unfamiliar with it, Assembly Bill 819 is the important new bill that would give California cities a significant boost towards advancing bikeway designs and renovations. Introduced in February 2011, the bill aims to "amend Section 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code, relating to bikeways." The bill's opening statement is as follows:

"Existing law requires the Department of Transportation, in cooperation with county and city governments, to establish minimum safety design criteria for the planning and construction of bikeways, and authorizes cities, counties, and local agencies to establish bikeways

[...]

This bill would include a class IV bikeway among the bikeways subject to the above provisions and would define a class IV bikeway to include a segregated bike lane which provides exclusive use of bicycles on streets, as specified." ^[1]

How would AB 819 change current bikeway advocacy plans?

Around this time last year, select San Francisco streets were newly painted with green bike boxes. The effort and lobbying put into implementing these boxes are often ignored, but it is important to acknowledge that just these 7 boxes took a year to complete. ^{[4, 5]}

Such delays in development are caused by current state laws and Caltrans guidelines, which dictate what and how new bikeways are created. And "under current state law, facilities like protected bike lanes and bike boxes--which are not established within Caltrans guidelines--must go through an expensive and time-consuming approval process." ^[2]

Meanwhile, AB 819 would allow planners to "use guidelines that have been established outside Caltrans, like the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide, which includes designs for protected bikeways." Such guidelines have allowed cities like New York, Chicago, and DC to develop protected bikeways with greater ease, efficiency, and therefore success than those in San Francisco. ^[3]

Current status of AB 819

Last Monday, the State Assemble Transportation Committee passed AB 819, but with crucial corrections. The amended bill "would only require Caltrans to create an experimentation process through which engineers can establish bikeway standards" ^[3] before making any real and effective changes to bike lanes and bikeways.

Though a step forward, it is still not the greenlight the California Bicycle Coalition and other advocacy groups have been waiting for. Despite such setbacks CBC Communications Director Jim Brown says, "We're continuing to work with Caltrans to figure out how innovative bikeway designs already used in other parts of the U.S. and Europe can be implemented in California." ^[3]

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Sources:

¹ AB 819 Assembly Bill

² New Bill Could Free CA Planners to Use More Innovative Bikeway Designs

³ State Assembly Undermines Bill to Let California Cities Build Safer Bikeways

⁴ Eyes on the Street: San Francisco's First Green Bike Box Remains Unfinished

⁵ Eyes on the Street: San Francisco's First Green Bike Box Gets Bike Stencil

Shaana Rahman and S.F. StreetsBlog on Criminal Charges for Drivers Who Kill Pedestrians

In Tuesday's StreetsBlog Post, "Will DA Gascón Reform the Double Standard for Drivers Who Kill?", our very own Shaana Rahman was interviewed for her thoughts and experience on the matter of charging drivers and bicyclists who kill pedestrians as criminal offenders:

Shaana Rahman, a lawyer who represents victims of traffic crashes in civil court, explained that injuring or killing a pedestrian due to negligence has traditionally been categorized as a civil offense rather than a criminal offense, which requires “intent to harm.”

“What I have seen in my practice is unless there’s an issue where a driver or cyclist is under the influence of drugs or alcohol or driving recklessly and willfully, such as drag racing or something of that nature, by and large there are no criminal charges filed against folks who injure other people in those situations,” she said. Regarding the criminal charges against Ang, she added, “In this situation, with this particular bicyclist where you don’t have those aggravating circumstances, it seemed unusual to me.”

This recent decision to charge bicyclist Randolph Ang for the death of pedestrian Dionette Cherney has been met with both support and criticism. Support for breaking from the established tradition of DA inaction against pedestrian deaths by drivers and criticism for beginning this tide change with this year's one bicyclist-caused death betwixt 12 driver-caused deaths.

But the most important question to consider is the one raised by Streetsblog: "Is Gascón getting serious about driver recklessness and negligence?" As quoted in the article, Ms. Rahman believes this could indicate “a fundamental shift in the punishment aspect of drivers who, in all other circumstances, would be seen as negligent drivers.”

“Criminal charges are important to deter certain behavior,” she said, and with so many cases of negligent drivers who kill or injure other people, “he’s going to have his hands full.”

Shaana Rahman & KGO Radio on Embarcadero Collision

For those who missed it, Shaana Rahman spoke to KGO this past Tuesday afternoon regarding the District Attorney's decision on Monday to charge Randolph Ang, the cyclist involved in the fatal collision with pedestrian Dionette Cherney, with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. The collision occurred on July 15th, 2011 on Embarcadero and Mission and resulted in Ms. Cherney's death after the 68-year-old tourist received "blunt force injuries to the head" from being knocked to the pavement. On Monday, Assistant D.A. Omid Talai announced that Mr. Ang would be arraigned on November 23rd to carry out his one-year sentence in county jail.*

Reactions to Mr. Ang's sentence have ranged from cries of too little to too much. Fast forward to 43:52 to hear Ms. Rahman's speak on this tragic accident. What are your thoughts?

Shaana Rahman on KGO Radio by rahmanlawsf

Audio Clip Courtesy of KGO Radio

*Source: The Bay Citizen

The Tour de Fat is Back!

Grab your bike and get ready to party. Because this year's Tour de Fat is gonna be next Saturday the 24th at Linley Meadow in Golden Gate Park, from 10am to 5pm.

Organized by member-volunteers over at the SF Bike Coalition, the Tour de Fat is a free and open celebration for everyone of all ages. This year's entertainment features live music, face painting, and silk screening. On top of the fun will be the conventional bike parade, as well as the slightly-less-conventional fire-jumping bike show.

And finally, if a rodeo-circus isn't your cup of tea, remember that there will be plenty of good food and beer for sale in the park as well, with all proceeds going to the SFBC and The Bay Area Ridge Trail Council!

For event details, visit the SFBC website at http://www.sfbike.org/?fat