Bike Law Georgia

Case Study 26 of 30

Cyclist v. Georgia Power Freightliner Truck

Warning: This case study describes a crash that took the life of a cyclist.

James was riding on State Route 8 in Tallapoosa, GA. This is a road with a long straight decline with ambient light at night from both a Quick Stop and a Masonic Lodge. He was in the center of the lane because there were rumble strips in the center and to the right of the road.

James was riding an old bike. Because it was dark, and because the bike lacked certain safety equipment like a rear reflector, James exercised his right under Georgia law to "take the lane" so that he might be as conspicuous as possible to drivers behind him.

Evidence collected after the crash showed that James sensed a vehicle approaching and moved over to the right so the vehicle could have additional room to pass. Behind him was a huge Freightliner M2 106 truck owned by Georgia Power.

James did not survive his injuries and died at the scene before EMS could arrive.

The truck driver told the investigating state trooper that the bicycle was in the middle of the road and in order to avoid hitting him, he went to the right. He also stated that for an unknown reason the cyclist also started moving towards the shoulder of the road.
(We will never understand why attempting to pass the cyclist on the right made any sense to that driver.)
He also stated that he didn't have any video footage available from his dashcam although this is pretty standard for commercial vehicles.

The police report stated that the driver was not culpable for the traffic crash and blamed the cyclist when in reality the driver was just not paying adequate attention and was perhaps driving too fast. We disagreed with the police report and took on a hell of a fight.

We hired the best experts we know to prove that the cyclist was still visible enough given the height of the truck's cab. We went out to the scene ourselves and re-enacted the crash in order to better understand what happened. We fought tooth and nail for the video evidence from truck's dashcam that Georgia Power ultimately never produced. We fought their big law firm and their endless motions to get the case dismissed. We fought for 4 years and reached a dead end after a motion was granted against us.

James was the kind of cyclist that our society just glosses over. It's easy to not give a damn when an 'invisible cyclist' dies.

James didn't live a perfect life. He was 35 years old, emerging from a rough patch and in recent years had left his old ways behind. He worked as a handyman and lived with his stepfather. The 2020 pandemic had hit him hard. But on the day he died, he was excited about a starting a new job the next morning at a rubber factory. Because neither he nor his stepfather owned a car, James was riding a kids’ bicycle he had modified with available parts to fit his 6’1” frame. He relied on this bike as his primary form of transportation and his friends shared with us that he had been riding bikes in Tallapoosa since his childhood. He was heading to sleep at a friend’s house just beyond the crash site, who had offered James a ride to work the next morning.

James was making the best of difficult circumstances and trying to build a better life when he was killed by Georgia Power’s inattentive and distracted driver.

We tried everything we could to get justice for James. His life had enormous value, he was loved by his family, and he was worth every bit of the fight.

❤️In James memory along with other invisible cyclists we've represented, we produce and distribute thousands of red blinking rear bike lights at no cost to cyclists statewide.

The Legal Team
Bruce Hagen and Kendrick K McWilliams - Lawyers for cyclists
Dan Pruitt - Litigation Paralegal