Washington Injury Law Blog

There’s a crazy idiot out there shooting a blow gun at Seattle bicycle riders.  Avram Dolen of Seattle was riding his bike across the Ballard bridge Monday when he was hit in the butt with a 4″ steel blow gun dart.  A female bicyclist was hit in the thigh in the same area.  Dolen reported the attack to police and received a tetanus shot at the hospital later.  The blow gun toting attacker has not been found.

As a Kirkland Washington Bicycle Accident Attorney I often hear about bicyclists being shot with paintballs, garbage thrown at them out windows, drivers yelling at them as they go by, or even cars swerving at them.  But being hunted with a dangerous weapon is another matter.

In my practice I see how many people hold a bias against bike riders and don’t feel they should have to share the road regardless of Washington law requiring it.  If your an avid cyclist in western Washington you no doubt have your own story to tell about some crazy idiot who almost killed you.  Some people take this bias too far and try to hurt innocent bicycle riders.  It’s a real shame, and it needs to stop.

A few years back some friends and I were riding our road bikes on a back road heading into Monroe, Washington.  There were four of us riding in a single file pace line.  A pick-up truck raced by us driving dangerously close to us, and the passenger yelled and threw something at us.  After one of my friends comminicated his objection to being hit with something with a one finger salute the truck decided to pull over ahead of us on a side street, so he and his passenger could yell at us some more.  These guys were crazy lunatics for sure.  of course, flipping them off didn’t help matters but I couldn’t blame him.  Luckily, the truck decided to drive off when we got close enough to read its license plate.  We were doing nothing but enjoying a nice bicycle ride, when we were attacked simply because we were bicyclists.

If you’re a person who doesn’t particularly like sharing the road with bikers please be patient with them.  I know they may go too slow for you and there are some bikers who don’t stop at all the stop signs and blow through red lights, but there are car drivers who do the same.  It doesn’t mean all bikers are bad news scofflaws.  Things can get out of hand and crazy if we all don’t look out for each other.

Ride and drive safe!

Max J. Meyers, Esq.