There’s Another Way @bicyclingmag
In the US and the Netherlands, two children on bikes are struck by cars—and the responses couldn’t be more different By Bob Mionske The driver who hit Burgess Hu never saw him. She was making a right turn, and the police assume she was looking left . In other words, she wasn’t looking where she was going. As he biked into the driveway of Excelsior Middle School in Byron, California, 12-year-old Burgess was knocked down and dragged some 60 feet before the driver came to a stop. He never made it to school that day. Instead, as the school day began, Burgess lay dead under the wheels of the black GMC Yukon. In this country, “I didn’t see the cyclist” is the negligent driver’s universal get-out-of-jail free card. It shouldn’t be. If you say you were driving and didn’t see somebody, it’s almost always because you weren’t paying attention. Maybe you were reaching for something in the front seat, or maybe even the back seat. Maybe you were daydreaming. And then suddenly, there’s