Somebody, please slap the politicians that ever approved “contributory negligence.”
Now that I’ve got that out of my system, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of an article by The Examiner that falls into the “Thoroughly Depressing and Ridiculous but not Without Merit” category:
More people are riding their bikes. Lots of people are uninsured / underinsured and won’t be able to pay for the harm they cause to you and your bike if you’re in an accident. In the event they are adequately insured, the police and/or courts are not likely to put much of the blame on the motorist. And if you’re unfortunate enough to live in a state that recognize contributory negligence, your totally effed if you’re judged to be even 0.00001% responsible for the accident.
The article cites cycling lawyer Bob Mionske, who contributes to Bicycling Magazine as their legal correspondent / columnist.
