DC Judge Upholds Three Foot Law; Case Highlights Need for Contrib Reform
Last week in the District’s small claims court, Judge Michael O’Keefe made a significant ruling for District bicyclists. In the incident at-issue, a driver passed a cyclist too closely, leading to a crash that caused minor injuries and property damage for the cyclist.
- MPD failed to cite the driver for passing too closely. In fact, MPD initially cited the cyclist.
- The US Attorney’s office declined to bring any criminal charges against the driver whatsoever.
- The relevant insurer wrongly declined to pay the cyclist’s damages, citing his contributory negligence for being in the road and failing to move out of the way of the unsafe driver.