A recent incident has cyclists "arguing that consequence-free way to kill someone in Texas is to do it with a car."
So wrote Dug Begley in yesterday's Houston Chronicle. He was referring to the inaction of law enforcement officials against a 16-year-old who "rolled coal"--accelerated and passed a group of cyclists in order to blow black exhaust on them--then whipped around and plowed into another group of riders, injuring six of them.
The driver stopped and talked to police, but it's clear that his actions were intended to at least intimidate, and at worst to maim or kill, cyclists. He cannot plausibly claim he "didn't see them," as Begley describes the road as "ramrod straight" and the weather was sunny, with scarcely a cloud anywhere, on Saturday morning when he struck.
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| Cyclists on the Bluebonnet Express Ride in 2012, near the site where a young man plowed into a group of cyclists on Saturday. Photo by Patric Schneider |
While other jurisdictions are starting to take incidents against cyclists more seriously, BikeHouston executive director Joe Cutrufo says that cyclists in his area are "treated like an invasive species" when, in fact, we "have every right to use the roads."
I hope that Waller County police and prosecutors acknowledge as much, and to treat the driver as someone who committed assault with a deadly weapon.
