CASE LAW - R v Munden

But the first lines of the sentence caught my attention very quickly and prompts this note.

I log many Km's during the cycling season and see many instances of negligent behaviour, but just this past early November, I was in a position that a vehicle came too close for comfort.

I was crossing a well travelled bridge during a windy day; not only was that a reason to be concentrating, but there isn't an established Bicycle lane, so we regularly ride with traffic.

The powers that be, have put up a cyclist stimulated sign that begins flashing overhead and warning of "Cyclist on Bridge", to vehicle operators.

Ambiguous message some would say, what's a vehicle operator to do with it?

The idea is for the cyclist to have the lane, and vehicles are to remain behind until it is safe to pass.

Rarely does this scenario work out the way the bureaucrat thought it would; rather, cars are usually crowding the cyclist(who has to mind the raised curb sidewalk and drainage grates, who has to be 300mm away from the curb to miss those. When the wind blows or the cyclist is not completely competent, the distance from the curb/grates will be more.

Now add in the initiative to have 1.5m from cyclists' elbows to vehicle mirror at speeds over 50Km/Hr(the bridge speed limit is 50Km/Hr, but really, that never happens); under 50 and 1m is standard. So you begin to see the lane we share with vehicles is getting too tight to pass safely. Here's the rub: the cyclist gets the short end of the stick 99% of the time, when an incompetent operator scrapes by.

The driver that passed me, on that windy day did so against better judgment and reasoning; he clearly hadn't been reading the sign not more than 20 seconds earlier. Or couldn't care less.

I yelled my best, !OY!, DON'T DO THAT!.

I was able to see him clearly for that split second.

He heard me as his reaction was to shake his head. There wasn't any gesticulation to him on my part, I was too busy adjusting to the wind gusts.

I thought that I had seen the last of him.

On my return ride, I was accosted by the same vehicle, only this time a lot closer and with his horn blasting in my left ear; he had to be over the Fog line to be so close. I was shocked.

I pulled over and immediately phoned the Nelson RCMP, reported his description, down to his glasses, plaid jacket and approximate age and height, vehicle description and year, to the extension ladders on his roof and his regi number.

In these circumstances, one must be calm enough to record properly. Turns out I wasn't, although I was very sure. I mistook a letter, and the poor officer couldn't match the suburban to the plate. I say poor because he was the only patrol covering a vast area and wasn't in my vicinity. When he called me, about 15 minutes later, he had coincidentally answered another almost same report.

My gripe is the lack of education for all of us, I drive a truck, I pedal a bicycle, we all are making bad choices. But weilding a vehicle against a cyclist is a fool's game; surely when vehicle operators do so, they do not think how things are going to pan out, for their future, the cyclist's or the family members of both, or the community that will be impacted.

The BC Cycling Coalition is making progress getting all authorities on board to change the distance of separation between Bicycle and vehicle, but it isn't happening quick enough nor is it widely visible to John Q public. So it's going to be a long ride on this one kids.

More education please.

intent is smeared all over the criminal code.  I hope some driver never intentionally runs down the judge who was responsible for the is ruling

We have a case over here in 2018 on the Malahat on Vancouver Island (just went through the court system last week) where a woman driving impaired at almost twice the speed limit in a construction zone, went out of control, crossed the center line, had a head-on collision with another vehicle killing both the driver and passenger.

She was charged with multiple offenses including, impaired driving causing death x 2, Dangerous Driving causing Death X 2, etc., etc.

She ended up pleading guilty to Driving Without Due Care and Attention and received a $1000.00 fine and a one-year driving ban. Just imagine how the families of these poor victims feel ??

I could go into the textbook excuses that the judge used for the totally inappropriate sentence but that's another story.

So I believe that, considering the behavior of a small minority of bicycle riders he received a sentence on the high side.

Attempted murder? 5 years.

If I was a hired hit man, I’d hope my target was a cyclist. I’d simply run them down with my car and kill them that way and never risk doing hard time or being accused of manslaughter or homicide.

The laws are inappropriate when it comes to deliberate harm using a vehicle as a weapon. They need to change. Higher accountability is needed. No excuses.

Nothing is an “accident” when it comes to striking cyclists with a vehicle.

I’ve been hit and run twice on my cycle and four times hit with ICBC claims. The second hit and run appeared deliberate