[*BCM*] MassBike To Blame For Biker Awareness

[rawillis3 at juno.com]

-- "turtle" <turtle at zworg.com> wrote:

> *  Elevating road rage incidents to "assault with a deadly weapon" status

> Technically, current law can already can be applied this way, though
it's not automatic. 

-- In my work with the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation, I have met with prosecutors who say that they are not ready for this.  What they "need," in order to charge a motorist with assault, or even negligent homicide, is an "independently chargeable" offense, such as d.u.i., or maybe running a red light.  We are making slow progress here -- we just got a "safe passing distance" requirement enacted into state law (we were hoping to define "safe" as "no less than three feet," but that did not make it through), which in theory gives the prosecutor something to hang her hat on . . .

R.