They seem to love to punch taxis whose drivers are attempting to execute turns. They disregard traffic lights and stop signs. They often move against traffic and sometimes on sidewalks. They are of course, doing God's work, showing those uppity Arabs and Venezuelans that we don't need their oil...
San Francisco cyclists kills old man who dies after four days of suffering. Cyclist gets zero prison time.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jul/24/san-francisco-cyclist-manslaughter
A cyclist has pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter after running down a 71-year-old pedestrian in what San Francisco's top prosecutor said appeared to be the first conviction of its kind in the US.
Under the unusual plea deal last week, Chris Bucchere, 37, would not serve any jail time but would be sentenced to three years probation and 1,000 hours of community service following the death of Sutchi Hui of San Bruno, district attorney George Gascon said.
"Our goal is to send a message to cyclists about safety," Gascon said. "Just because you are riding a bicycle doesn't mean all bets are off. All of the rules of the road that apply to everyone else apply to you too."
Bucchere, a software engineer from San Francisco had been riding recklessly and had run three red lights when he struck Hui as he and his wife crossed a street in the Castro district of San Francisco on 29 March 2012, prosecutors said.
Hui died four days later from his injuries. His wife was not hurt. Hui's family has filed a civil suit against Bucchere.
Bucchere's lawyer, Ted Cassman, did not return calls seeking comment.
Gascon said the victim's family did not want to see Bucchere imprisoned and prosecutors did not think a judge would sentence him to jail, so they offered probation and community service in the plea deal.
He added that they did not want to risk a possible not guilty verdict at a trial.
"We believe this is the best outcome for this type of case," he said.
Gascon said his office had carried out research and could not find any other cases in which a prosecutor had obtained a manslaughter conviction against a cyclist.
"To our knowledge, we believe it is the first in the nation," he said.
