Three Foot Law Prosecution

On Sun, 2 Mar 2008 15:38:15 +0000 (UTC), [email hidden]

Quoted message said:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8425419

(Link will work for about a week.)

Interesting due to:
1. lack of a witness;
2. the cops didn't see it (grrr);
3. there's no proof the owner of the license plate was driving;
4. no injury or damage to bike or car.

These are all fudges you hear about when trying to get a case
processed. Good for him! Hopefully this will be a deterrent and will
serve as a model for other locales to adopt this.

For the next week:
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Pushed too far, cyclist presses charges
Alleged 'prank' brings first prosecution under '3-foot law'
By Brandon Loomis
The Salt Lake Tribune

Jason Bultman was pedaling his bicycle up 500 East in Salt Lake City in
November when a red pickup zoomed up beside him and a hand swiped across
his back.

Startled, the all-seasons bicycle commuter feared he was so
close to the truck that it would send him sprawling. Instead the truck
veered away, the passenger withdrew inside and Bultman took down the
license number for what would become the first reported prosecution of
Utah's 2005 law requiring motorists, in most situations, to give
cyclists a 3-foot buffer.

Police followed up with the driver and Salt Lake City
prosecutors confirmed they filed charges under the 3-foot rule, adopted
by the Utah Legislature in response to the 2004 death of University of
Utah graduate student Josie Johnson. She died after being hit while
cycling in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

"It's kind of interesting that you can actually prosecute
someone for violating the 3-foot law," Bultman said. "[People] were
saying it's unenforceable."

City prosecutor Sim Gill said his office filed the charge
against a George Richard Young, 46, but attempts to find him and serve a
summons for an arraignment earlier this month failed. The city will try
again before issuing an arrest warrant, he said.

Attempts by The Salt Lake Tribune to reach Young at his last
reported address were unsuccessful.

"Just because you happen to be in a motor vehicle doesn't mean
you don't have a responsibility to operate in a way that respects
everybody's rights to be in the roadway, including bicyclists," Gill
said.

The charge is a misdemeanor with up to a possible $750 fine
and 90 days in jail, though Gill said there's no minimum mandatory fine
and the courts are untested on these matters.

Bultman said authorities gave him several options to charge
the passenger, including assault. Instead, he opted for the 3-foot rule,
figuring it was the driver who had endangered him by swerving too near.

"I was well off into the shoulder and was all of the sudden
brushed," Bultman said. "The guy was hanging out the passenger-side
window of the truck. I don't know how the mirror missed me."

If the driver and passenger taunted Bultman in the way he
described, they chose the wrong cyclist. Not only was he aware of the
new law, but he is president of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective.
Plus, in 2004 he suffered a crushed ankle in a car-bicycle crash. "My
side job in life is to try to educate people that bicycling is a great
way to get around town."

Education, not revenge, led him to press charges for what he
called a "botched prank" with likely no harm intended.

"Good for him," said another cycling advocate, John Weis, when
he heard of Bultman's case. Weis was director of Johnson's graduate
pathology program at the U. when she was killed, and he helped lobby for
the 2005 legislation.

He had expected the law to raise awareness, but not
necessarily draw prosecutions, he said.

"Even before we had the 3-foot law, we had a law that said you
can't get too close to a bicyclist, and police told me they had never
used it," Weis said.

The law is not easily prosecuted, acknowledged its sponsor,
Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake City. But jailing people was never as
important as making drivers more conscious of the necessary buffer, she
said.

"Luckily, this incident did not result in bodily injury or
death," said McGee.

[email hidden]
    ---
    * ROBERT GEHRKE contributed to this story.

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