Seattle-area TV stations were reporting that a 12-year-old boy was struck by an Edmonds police car while he was either riding or walking his bicycle across an intersection near College Place Middle School Tuesday afternoon around 2:45 p.m.
According to one station, the boy had an injured knee and was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
We will have more details as they become available.
It sounds more like the boy hit the police car. I think the media had an unfair spin on this story.
I would hope that everyone knows you are still suppose to stop and look both ways when you cross a street and that bike riders are suppose to dismount and wall their bikes across if they are using the sidewalk. I would say that the bike rider hit the police car. I am happy that he wasn’t seriously hurt.
Clearly it was an accident. I am sure that both the 12 year old and the police officer were both shaken up by the experience. A 12 year old cannot and should not be held to any standard of judgement used by an adult, a 12 year old is a kid and hasn’t had the opportunity to drive a car yet. The police officer, whoever it was, is doubtless shaken by the incident too. Assigning blame without the benefits of the facts serves no one. It is clear that we will have one very mature 12 year old when he/she rides a bike now, and an officer who will be exceptionally careful while driving.
The best to both of them and hope that any injuries heal quickly (mental and physical).
Washington State law does not require a bicyclist to stop or dismount when riding on a sidewalk and entering an intersection. A bicyclist riding on the sidewalk or in a crosswalk is considered to be a pedestrian so drivers must yield to a bicyclist in a crosswalk. As a pedestrian, a bicyclist must not “suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk, run, or otherwise move into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to stop.”
I am not a lawyer, but according to the accounts I’ve seen, the boy on the bicycle appears to have violated that law.
Here are the relevant laws:
https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.755
https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.235