Flying Zombie you are lucky. Drivers here take off. Lucky me that some SUV driver locked the driver that hit me in lane so he couldn't take off.
Yielding the right away is the law. Yet I never seen a cop write a ticket to a motorist who failed to yield. Motorist never yield in Mi they have more important things to do drink coffee, tex, talk on phone, or whatever.
In Jersey, peds don't have the right of way unless they're in the crosswalk. A few years back, in my county, they generated a lot of revenue and changed a lot of habits when they would put plain-clothes cops at crosswalks, with a cruiser a block away to pull over and ticket folks who didn't yield. It was the most commonly written ticket for a few months. Seems to have been effective at getting more motorists to yield to peds in the crosswalk.
Cycles are considered "vehicles" in NJ, and pretty much every other state, AFAIK. So, bikes don't enjoy the same rights/responsibilities as peds--- they have right of way in the same situations where an automobile would, and in no others.
The story in question occurred in Canada, where the law may vary a bit, but it's never good when you strike another road ser from behind. I don't recall all the details of the story from when it broke, but I seem to recall that there were visibility issues (occurred in the middle of the night on a road with an 80kph limit), the kids didn't have lights, s'posedly riding erratically, etc. So, like most stories, there's probably 2 sides. However, once the motorist left the scene--in her husband's vehicle, as he was right behind her, and her vehicle was disabled from the crash-- it became a hit'n'run, and that's about as low as you can get....
.... until you then sue the family of the dead kid and his friends, who you'd also hit. That's about as low as is humanly imaginable.
Unbelievably sad.
