A biker was injured on July 8 in Franklin, Tennessee on the Natchez Trace Parkway when a private school administrator hit him with his SUV, and kept driving.
The serious accident was caught on the Go Pro video camera of another biker. It shows that the SUV driver deliberately ran into the biker, and could have easily moved over to avoid him. A white truck passed the bikers seconds before and easily avoided them by moving into the left lane.
The two bikers were briefly taking the entire lane as one man was passing the other. The Natchez Trace Parkway is in a park and signs are posted on the road stating that bikers can take the entire lane.
The driver is the administrator of a private school in Nashville, and he has been charged with reckless endangerment, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to immediately notify of an accident, and failure to render aid. At least one of these is a felony charge.
According to the police report, Neely told the police that a man and woman on the side of the road had thrown a bike at his car.
The biker who was hit suffered non-life-threatening injuries and has been released from the hospital.
Our View
Our personal injury lawyers are glad to hear that this cyclist only suffered non-life-threatening injuries and is on his road to recovery. If the driver is found guilty of what he is charged, we hope that he receives the maximum punishment under the law.
It is very important for drivers and cyclists to share the roads. A cyclist has the same rights on Tennessee roads as any car driver. They also are obligated to follow the same traffic laws as car drivers. But under Tennessee state law, cyclists are allowed to ride two abreast, as long as they are not slowing traffic. And as the news story states, this road in Tennessee is posted with signs that bikers may take the lane.
In the video of this accident, there was no traffic coming in the other direction, so it would appear that the SUV driver had plenty of opportunities to move over and chose not to do so.
If the driver is convicted of the charges above, this would provide support for the filing of a personal injury lawsuit. While the biker sounds as if he will recover, he could face pain and suffering on both a mental and physical basis for a long time. He also could miss work time, so a personal injury lawsuit could be appropriate.
An experienced personal injury attorney with dual licensure in Virginia and North Carolina, Eric Washburn received a B.B.A. in Finance from James Madison University—initially worked in the information technology field before obtaining his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan. Once an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Danville, Va., Eric has been recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine as a “Rising Star” Super Lawyer in Virginia since 2014.
Comments for this article are closed.