Under legislation passed by the Georgia General Assembly last year drivers who pass cyclists must maintain a safe distance of at least three feet.
The measure was welcomed by cycling groups and we welcome it as Marietta cycling injury attorneys. Sadly it hasn’t stopped the spate of deaths and injuries on the roads of Georgia, although it will take more time for the official statistics to be compiled.
Sadly recklessness in relation to cyclists appears to all too common on the roads of Georgia. Indeed a cyclist was killed in Atlanta just days after the new law took effect last year.
The Georgia Bikes Alliance cited 2,819 accidents involving cyclists from 2004 to 2006 in the state. Of these 1,049 involved a car and a cyclist traveling in the same direction. These are the kind of accidents the new law was enacted to prevent.
The alliance pointed to the deaths of 34 cyclists in 2004–2006. And over a three-year monitoring period 54 percent of those killed were in straight line accidents in which cars or other vehicles were traveling in the same direction.
This finding was consistent with a University of North Carolina Safety Research Center study of six states that found motorists passing too closely resulted in just 1.2 percent of accidents but 22 percent of those crashes led to serious injuries or deaths.
Given their vulnerability, cyclists are more likely to die of head injuries than other road users and young cyclists are the most vulnerable. Head injuries account for more than half of all cyclist deaths. A study from New York City put the figure at 74 percent.
The New York research said more than 90 percent of bicyclists who were killed were not wearing helmets. Indeed there is considerable evidence far too few cyclists are wearing helmets that would improve their chances of surviving an accident.
A study by Safe Kids USA found only 41 percent of children aged between 5 and 14 surveyed at selected sites were wearing a helmet.
While drivers need to make sure they give cyclists a wide berth when passing them, cyclists also have a responsibility to do all they can to maximize their own safety.
At the Keener Law Firm our experienced Marietta injury attorneys have more than two decades of experience in helping victims hurt on the roads of Georgia.
