Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

Norwegian riders are mad as hell after a car driver got acquitted in court for running down and seriously injuring a motorcyclist (see case translation below)

According to the news sites reporting on the case, the court aqcuitted the female car driver by a 2 to 1 vote. Two of the judges claimed the driver had taken due care but despite this hitting the young motorcyclist, among other injuries shattering his foot and making him spend two weeks in hospital.

The third judge said that this, together with the fact that the car driver violated a yield rule at the intersection, is not compliant with "taking due care" and wanted the car driver jailed and fined. Unfortunately, he was down-voted.

In effect this verdict says that if the car driver had hit another car, she would have been jailed and fined. But not when she - or any other car driver hereafter, if the verdict stays as it is - hits a motorcyclist.

Naturally, the Norwegian Motorcyclists' Union NMCU is on the case. Norwegian riders are mad as hell, supporting NMCU's demand for the State Attorney to appeal the verdict.

Because it's NOT OK to run down motorcyclists.

Write your supportive comment below and I'll pass it on to NMCU to show them that riders all over do care and support their work on this case!

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Translated text from the NMCU's homepage:

Two of the three judges in Tønsberg District Court acquitted a car driver who did not yield to a young motorcyclist. The reason for this was the fact that the female car driver hit a motorcycle, not a car. The Prosecutor had demanded for the driver to be jailed for 30 days, two years revocation of the driving license, redress and trial costs to be paid by her. But the two judges Ms Grete Müller and Ms Berit Follesø did not agree, out-voting the third District Court judge Mr Didrik Behrens.

The accident happened in an intersection one Thursday morning in June 2009. According to the trial records, it was heavy traffic in both directions on the main road. The young motorcyclist was riding his bright red motorcycle in a small pocket between the cars in the moving queue that had formed. He was riding in the middle of his lane in the same speed as the queue, approximately 60 km/h. In court the car driver claimed she didn't see the motorcycle because it's so narrow and that it was obscured by a signpost in the intersection.

The rider had his ancle crushed, his elbow broken and sustained a number of wounds after the car hit him. He was hospitalized for 13 days and had to be on a sick leave for two months. In the District Court, the two judges concluded that the car driver took all the due care one could expect in the situation. Hence, she was acquitted.

The Norwegian Motorcyclists' Union warns that the reason for the acquittal is downright dangerous, if the verdict stays as it is. The two lay judges are basing their stance on the claim that the car driver did all she could to take due care, and that the accident happened because a motorcycle is harder to spot than a car. With this, the majority of the court is actually claiming that the Road Traffic Act's requirement for taking due care may be graded, which in NMCU's view is an extremely dangerous signal to send to Norwegian car drivers.

Collisions between car and motorcycle account for half of all motorcycle related accidents in Norway. 10 to 15 riders are annually killed and more than 200 injured in such accidents. In 1999, the Institute forTransport Economics (TØI) issued a report on behalf of the Norwegian Public Road Administration (NPRA) which documented that in 8 out of 10 suchcollisions, the car driver is to blame for the accident.

The more common situation is where the car driver fails to yield for, or in other ways fails to observe, the motorcycle. The problem is NOT that motorcycles and mopeds are «invisible». In the report from TØI it is shown that motorcycles are way above the threshold of what is actually possible to sense. What may be the case, though, is that the car drivers are not mentally prepared to look for two-wheelers.

In the report, TØI recommends the NPRA to create more consiousness among car drivers with regard to motorcycles, thus "training" them to spot motorcyclists. If the verdict in Tønsberg District Court stays as it is, it will send a signal to the road users that you will be let off the hook if you crash with something smaller than a car.

The NMCU has therefore asked the Prosecutor and State Attorney to appeal the verdict.

EDIT 30 MARCH 2010:

The Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA) puts the story on its site.

EDIT 8 APRIL 2010:

Your comments in this blog has made headline news in Norway, and the verdict has been appealed!

EDIT 2 MAY 2010:

The Appeal Court has accepted the appeal so a new trial will be held in August.

EDIT 23 AUGUST 2010:

Justice to the riders: The Appeal Court sentenced the lady car driver to 18 days in jail and 6 months loss of her driver's licence.