road rage

As Atlanta bicycle accident lawyers, we constantly monitor bicycle safety stories from around the country. Often, we find that these issues are mirrored very strongly in our very own Georgia. We have been following closely an incident in California, involving a doctor on trial for causing serious injuries to two bicyclists in a fit of road rage.

Dr Christopher Thompson admitted during his trial that he had been angry at frequent violations of traffic rules by local bicyclists. The good doctor apparently found this frustration reason enough to pull over in front of the two bicyclists, and slam on the brakes. The two bikers were minding their own business cycling along when they crashed into Thompson’s sedan. Both of them suffered serious injuries, and one of them required plastic surgery to correct severe facial damage. Last week, the doctor was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The judge noted that he showed no remorse for his behavior.

In Georgia too, we have noticed increasing public impatience, and even anger, towards bicyclists. Ask any Atlanta bicyclist, and he will tell you of the taunts, the yelling, the glares and the rude gestures that he suffers. Many motorists labor under the assumption that the streets are built solely for them, and all other users are intruders.There’s even a Facebook group that is dedicated solely to beating down bicyclists.

Earlier this month, we reported on an accident involving a car and a rental truck in Lowndes County on I-75. The accident, that occurred just before the Fourth of July weekend, left four people dead. Days later, several other details have emerged. Georgia State Patrol now believes that road rage could have been a possible factor in that crash.

The victims were four female passengers, including a mother, her two young daughters and her boyfriend, Jerome Roberts. Police are looking into whether road rage on the part of Roberts could have been a factor in the car accident. The tragic sequence of events unfolded when another motorist, Douglas Jones, called police to tell them that a driver in a gold 2003 Saturn Vue was driving recklessly and aggressively. A rental truck driver then struck both Jones’ car and the Saturn Vue. The passengers in the Saturn Vue were trapped, and both the rental truck and the Saturn caught fire. Witnesses at the scene pulled Roberts from his car, but he was declared dead at the scene. The three female passengers died in the car from serious burin injuries. Douglas Jones also suffered injuries. According to the police, they were still on the phone with him when the crash occurred.

The Georgia State Patrol has listed Jerome Roberts as the at-fault driver in its accident report.

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