I was right hooked in Tucson, AZ a little over 10 years ago by a car that overtook me and turned right into a parking lot. Presumably the driver thought he would pass in front of me and misjudged. There was nothing other than me between the entrance to the parking lot and the driver and I was traveling in a wide non-buffered bike lane on a major arterial street (two lanes each direction). The driver was cited for driving closer than three feet to a cyclist but I do not know exactly how that law reads in AZ. The police officer who cited the driver had the advantage of a video shared with him by the manager of the computer store that the driver was going to that clearly showed the entire incident. The officer did not have to guess at what took place The driver had to enter the cycle lane in order to hit my front wheel with his rear fender (my last recollection before launching forward over my handlebars and sustaining a brain contusion with subarachnoid hemorrhage). My attorney (I was forced to sue as the driver's insurance company refused to negotiate in good faith) said it was the first time he had heard of that citation being issued in Tucson.
I'm really sorry you went through that — a brain contusion and subarachnoid hemorrhage is awful, and I hope your recovery has gone as well as it possibly could. Your attorney's comment that he'd never heard of that citation being issued before in Tucson really reminds me of what I found in Houston, where citations under our safe-passing law are similarly rare.
I was right hooked in Tucson, AZ a little over 10 years ago by a car that overtook me and turned right into a parking lot. Presumably the driver thought he would pass in front of me and misjudged. There was nothing other than me between the entrance to the parking lot and the driver and I was traveling in a wide non-buffered bike lane on a major arterial street (two lanes each direction). The driver was cited for driving closer than three feet to a cyclist but I do not know exactly how that law reads in AZ. The police officer who cited the driver had the advantage of a video shared with him by the manager of the computer store that the driver was going to that clearly showed the entire incident. The officer did not have to guess at what took place The driver had to enter the cycle lane in order to hit my front wheel with his rear fender (my last recollection before launching forward over my handlebars and sustaining a brain contusion with subarachnoid hemorrhage). My attorney (I was forced to sue as the driver's insurance company refused to negotiate in good faith) said it was the first time he had heard of that citation being issued in Tucson.
I'm really sorry you went through that — a brain contusion and subarachnoid hemorrhage is awful, and I hope your recovery has gone as well as it possibly could. Your attorney's comment that he'd never heard of that citation being issued before in Tucson really reminds me of what I found in Houston, where citations under our safe-passing law are similarly rare.