In wake of bike fatalities, government’s response demonstrates support for cyclists - Metro - The Boston Globe
▻http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/09/21/wake-bike-fatalities-government-response-demonstrates-support-for-cyclists/WGxTPDNw1pBm5ZUAP4IP9K/story.html
- Marco Gehlen, a Hague police traffic investigator, said real-life accident reenactments are required for every bike fatality or serious injury. In the case of high-speed crashes, the effort is outsourced to a company in Germany, which videotapes the test crashes with slow-motion cameras. The service costs the Hague police more than $13,000 for each case.
Rigorous accident investigations in the Netherlands are also used to quickly redesign streets in the aftermath of a fatal crash.
– The legal system automatically places all of the responsibility for crashes on the motorist, not the cyclist. Even if a driver proves the crash occurred because of a bicyclists’ wrongdoing, the motorists’ insurance company is still responsible for at least 50 percent of the damage to the bike and its rider — and it’s automatically 100 percent if the cyclist is a child.
“The car is always wrong, by law,” said Amsterdam urban planner Rob van der Bijl.
– About a decade ago, Gehlen said, truck-on-bike right-hook collisions like the one in Zoetermeer resulted in dozens of deaths per year, most of them among children. But the hazards of riding alongside trucks began to be taught to children in their school bike-education programs. Ten years later, he says, that number is down to 10 to 15 deaths per year from right-hook collisions, mostly among middle-aged cyclists.
“Sometimes,” Hamelink said, “the best solution is something other than the police solution.”