I have never liked riding my bike on bike paths. I think that they are actually more dangerous than riding on the road. Most paths are used by a variety of walkers, dog walkers, skateboarders, roller skaters, people on scooters, little kids wobbling on trikes or children’s bikes, or casual adult cyclists wobbling on their fat tire city bikes or Walmart mountain bikes. Even though I obey the bike path speed limit (usually 15 mph) and slow down and unclip whenever anyone approaches, I’m never really comfortable. unless the path is deserted.
So this story from Belgium got my attention:
The viral video shows the young girl and her mother walking along a nature trail as the unidentified 63-year-old cyclist comes up behind them and looks to deliberately stick out his knee, knocking the child down face-first into the snow. The cyclist then pedals away without apologizing, prompting the family to report the incident to police.
I don’t do viral videos. Life is too short and the Brumby Road internet connection is too slow. But apparently lots of people do and the cyclist was excoriated on social media. When cyclists behave badly there are plenty of haters out there ready to pile on. But did he behave badly?
The case eventually went to court in February 2021, according to a report from the New York Post, where the cyclist said he stuck out his knee to “avoid a fall” and that he “did not immediately realize” he knocked the young girl over.
Here are a couple of photos of the incident:
The first photo shows the girl standing on the far left side of the road, forcing the cyclist into the snow bank. The cyclist is wedged into a very narrow gap and good bike handlers will stick out the left knee to avoid crashing on the right. I’m not a good bike handler so I would probably have crashed. The fact that his knee hit the girl and caused her to lose her balance is unfortunate but really not the cyclist’s fault.
On the other hand, I have a very hard time believing that they cyclist did not know he had collided with the girl. Once he regained control he should have stopped. In the U.S. ‘hit and run’ is a serious offence, even for cyclists.
Now there is hardly a more cycling friendly country on Earth than Belgium. Cycling is deeply rooted in their culture. Look at that 63 year old out on a frigid day riding on a very wet and slippery cobbled path and you get a feel for the passion. Bicycle racing is the 2nd most popular sport there, after soccer. Almost everyone has a bike of some kind. So when the case went to trial, it really wasn’t surprising that the judge gave the cyclist a sweetheart deal, kind of like what the DOJ had in mind for Hunter before a judge threw it out.
The judge in the case ordered the cyclist to pay a small fine equivalent to about $1, reasoning that the biker did not intentionally hurt the girl, who was identified by the name Neia, and that he had since faced a rash of social media criticism.
The cyclist reacted to the ‘rash of social criticism’ by suing the girl’s parents for defamation. In the U.S. this case would have been laughable. You hit a little girl, leave the scene and then when daddy posts the video you scream defamation? But this is Belgium, and he won! The damages will be determined in court in April. Maybe he will get his $1 back.
Belgium actually has a law that says a cyclist MUST use a cycle path if there is one. I’ve never been cycling in Belgium but I have wanted to do so for a long time. And I still might make it. So I will be forced onto cycle paths whether I like them or not. I’ll be careful to unclip and stop for 5 year old girls, and then probably get hit from behind by a racing cyclist pedaling furiously with his head down. A problematic path puzzlement…
Rich Freggiaro Cycling Blog 