I spent the morning in traffic court.

Nope, I wasn’t there because I got a ticket, but rather to support Portland cyclist Sean Barrett. Sean was hit by a car last November near the Rose Quarter. The driver made a sudden right turn from two lanes over, darting into the bike lane where Sean was.

Luckily for Sean, a second driver who witnessed the crash stayed to help. Unluckily, 911 operators refused to send out an ambulance when the witness called, and thus police never arrived on the scene. No ticket was issued, and when Sean tried to follow up with the police, they told him they wouldn't fill out an accident report or issue a ticket.

In the past, that would have been the (frustrating) end of the story, and it’s a story I hear too often here at the BTA.

Portland lawyer (and dedicated cycling advocate) Ray Thomas has recently been working on a revolutionary tool to help cyclists in this situation (more info here), and Sean was in the perfect position to try this out. (The first such case was recently resolved in favor of the cyclist; here’s a recent Portland Mercury article about it.)

Oregon law allows citizens to initiate a traffic complaint in court (ORS 153.058). It’s seldom used, though–this morning in court the judge said that he had never seen such a case in his six years on the traffic court bench.

Following Ray's advice, Sean prepared his case thoroughly, filling out plenty of paperwork, creating a detailed hand-drawn map, and making sure his witness would be present. Thankfully, she was.

The driver had originally pled not guilty, but she changed her plea to “no contest,� which led to a conviction for failure to yield in a bike lane (ORS 811.050) and improper right hand turn (ORS 811.355). Those convictions will go on her driving record, and, I hope she’ll think twice before she darts across a bike lane without looking again.

I was there with BTA head honcho Evan, and bike community members Ken and Meghan (as well as Sean’s mom), to lend moral support and demonstrate that the bike community is watching these cases. I couldn’t be happier for Sean that he was able to see justice done, and make sure that cyclists are given their rightful protection under law.

We’ll continue to work on this idea with Ray and others. With two wins out of two cases, it’s clear that citizen-initiated enforcement is an idea whose time has come.

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