Children’s safety issue divides bike experts

Molly Ball

Friday, June 4, 2004 | 7:15 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

June 5 - 6, 2004

Compared with the number of pedestrians, the number of bicyclists who are killed in the Las Vegas Valley is low. But the number of bicyclists injured in valley traffic is nearly equal to the number of pedestrians injured.

And many of the bicyclists injured or killed are children. The question of how to ensure children's safety when they ride has divided safety experts and rallied the public.

A committee of law enforcement officials, educators, safety personnel and advocates is to meet starting Wednesday to look at bicycle safety issues, and it should have plenty to talk about.

In 2002 in Clark County, 43 pedestrians were killed in traffic, compared with only six bicyclists. But 685 bicyclists were injured, compared to 728 pedestrians. Experts say bicyclists hit by cars are less likely to be killed because of physics.

In 2003, three of the eight bicyclists who died in Clark County were teenagers. So far this year five bicyclists have been killed in traffic. The youngest was 8-year-old Justyne Steffee. She died on May 19, two weeks after she was critically injured as she rode home from school. Police allege the driver of the car, Kimberly Bunch, 29, was speeding and high on drugs. Bunch has been charged with reckless driving, manslaughter and felony driving under the influence.

Justyne's death angered many area residents and prompted North Las Vegas police to write handfuls of traffic tickets to motorists at and around the intersection where she was struck. Last week, Justyne's mother, Nicole Steffee, took a petition with 359 signatures to the North Las Vegas City Council seeking a lower speed limit on the street where Justyne was hit.

As much reaction as there has been to Justyne's death, local traffic safety advocates say there was even more community anger after the March 22 crash that critically injured 13-year-old Manuel Cazares.

Manuel had been in a crosswalk when he tried to ride across East Tropicana Avenue to get to school. Two cars had stopped for him. But Erin Young, a 24-year-old who was reaching for a ringing cell phone, swerved her SUV around the stopped cars and struck the boy.

At first, police said Young would not be charged with any wrongdoing. Although she admitted she was not paying full attention to driving, and although she violated a law that prohibits passing a stopped vehicle at a crosswalk, the boy was also breaking the law by riding in the crosswalk, police said. Since both parties were at fault, neither would be charged.

But after the public outcry, the Clark County district attorney's office charged Young with a misdemeanor. She pleaded no contest and agreed to pay restitution rather than a fine.

Manuel's lawyer said the child is getting better and is undergoing physical therapy. But many Las Vegas parents questioned how authorities could blame a 13-year-old who had been in a crosswalk when he was struck.

Authorities said the law is simple and clear: A bicycle that is being ridden is considered a vehicle, and it is illegal for a vehicle to be in a crosswalk. The law mandates that bicycles must be walked, not ridden in crosswalks.

Dawn Vazquez's 16-year-old son, Christopher McDaniel, was involved in a similar collision, if less serious. An SUV struck Christopher as he rode across Grand Teton Drive at El Capitan Way, Vazquez said, leaving him with multiple bruises.

"I am outraged because I'm being told, 'He should have been walking his bike,' " Vazquez said. "Christopher doesn't drive. Christopher's not thinking about driving. He doesn't know the rules of the road, the rules for bicyclists."

But bicycle experts and advocates say children, although they may not be licensed drivers, are still responsible for understanding the rules when they ride.

"Parents give their kids a bicycle and they think it's a toy. In actuality it's a vehicle," said Maggie Saunders, an expert on bicycle and pedestrian safety for the Transportation Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"They don't give them the right training or skills," Saunders said.

In every state, including Nevada, bicyclists are required to travel in the roadway, with traffic, and to follow all the rules of the road -- stopping for stop signs, signaling turns and so on.

"The law is pretty correct and clear that (bicycles) are a means of transport, and they operate best when they are on the street, in traffic," said Jim Smallridge, a founding member of the nonprofit Silver State Bicycle Coalition.

That means that if a cyclist needs to turn a corner, he should merge into the correct lane of traffic and follow the traffic signal or signage at the intersection. If the street is too wide or too fast, the cyclist can go to the corner and wait for the "Walk" light, but he must walk his bicycle through the crosswalk.

Clark County's most recent bicyclist death came on May 19, when local woman Donna Kline, 45, was hit and killed on Boulder Highway. Once again, the cyclist was riding in a crosswalk. Once again, police said the driver was not at fault for the death.

Bicyclists may choose to ride through crosswalks because they figure that the quicker they get across, the safer they will be. But their speed is exactly the reason that riding in crosswalks is unsafe, safety experts say.

When bicyclists ride through crosswalks perpendicular to traffic, they are traveling too fast for cars to see them and stop for them, the experts say.

Parents who teach their children to ride on sidewalks and out of the way of traffic are doing them a disservice, Saunders said. The children will not learn to ride in traffic as they should, and motorists will not become accustomed to bicyclists as part of the natural landscape of the roads they travel.

"Right now there's a bit of debate between child-safety people and bicycle people about whether kids should ride their bikes on the sidewalk," Saunders added. But in her view, sidewalks are actually more dangerous because of the driveways that line them.

"Every driveway is an intersection, with cars pulling in or backing out," she said.

Erin Breen of UNLV's Safe Community Partnership does not agree. She thinks too many children are being sacrificed to the bicycle advocates' sense of principle.

Some also believe that children should not be held to the same level of responsibility as adults when they ride. Dawn Vazquez, Christopher's mother, is one.

"Children aren't old enough to vote, but they are old enough to beheld responsible for riding a bike. Is it the children's fault?" Vazquez said.

"The law should differentiate between children and adults," Jerry Wiese, Manuel's lawyer, agreed. "How can you hold a 13-year-old responsible when he's in the crosswalk on his way to school, even if he is on a bike?"

Saunders said the issue is a touchy one. "As a society, we have laws in place to protect children because they don't have the reasoning ability to detect danger," she said. "They're kids, and kids expect adults to look out for them even when they're doing something wrong."

The question, she said, is whether the motorist, who has passed a licensing exam and who wields the more dangerous instrument, bears a greater share of the responsibility than a bicyclist.

Metro Police Traffic Sgt. Tracy McDonald said police are loath to give tickets to misbehaving bicyclists. "It's at the officer's discretion. A lot of us, we don't do enforcement for bicyclists because we understand their plight."

However, McDonald said, officers often stop children who are riding in crosswalks, giving them a warning and sometimes calling their parents in an attempt to avert a tragedy.