We lost a tandem couple just two miles from my house this morning. I was headed out to ride into town when it happened. Watched all the emergency vehicles scream by. Witnesses said the driver veered off the road before he reached the tandem couple and then veered over again and hit them. No charges filed... Bexar County shows yet again that it's perfectly fine to kill someone as long as you are in a motor vehicle and they are on a bicycle. A guy we know drove up on the site just after it happened and described the situation to us at the bike shop, though I can't relate it here. If you look at the damage to the front and side of the truck in the pic at the url above, you can imagine. This is on the section of road that TxDOT destroyed recently when they turned it back into a 4-lane divided gravel path.
 
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Couple-killed-when-truck-slams-into-drags-b icycle/go3yQ221t0iNLcWTSJZ5Bg.cspx

What kind of writeup are you doing? What info do you need?
 
As to the 3-foot law, I'm a little mixed about that one. On one hand, it sounds good, but there's almost no way it would be enforced, especially with the current behavior of the law enforcement community locally. I have never heard of a traffic incident involving a bicycle resulting in any citation for the driver. Of all the ones I know about 1st hand, the driver committed several offenses that should have resulted in citations even if there was no 'crash'. I've had local cops try to 'accidently' kill me, run me off the road, pull me over for invented offenses (camera running stopped them), etc.
 
Florida has the 3-foot law and when I rode there last year I was clipped *twice* within 3 days when I was *riding on the shoulder*. I couldn't see that the law had had any effect on the drivers there and I'd be surprised if it had much here.
 
Bexar Co (and the State of Tx in general through Perry) is run by crooked developers. They have their criminal hands in everything and they hate bicyclists and want them off the roads. TxDOT has stated in local public meetings that they are purposefully trying to force bicyclists off of public roads (specifically they stated that was the reason for removing shoulders on several roads). They have been destroying roads and shoulders all over the state and they have been targeting popular cycling routes here in Bexar Co.
 
Why is the Tx Bicycle coalition so vehemently against trying to preserve Tx roads and shoulders? IMO, that is far more important an issue than the 3ft rule. If you have no roads to ride on, what good is having a 3ft clearance (3ft isn't nearly enough on a 70mph road anyway).
 
The responsibility for preserving roads for cycling belongs to all of us who cycle. A guy pulled up to the bike shop yesterday complaining about how TxDOT had destroyed this very section of Hwy 16 so that he could no longer ride it. I fairly gently explained the background and history related to it and in the end he said something like "Good luck with your task" as he left. I don't know if he heard me or not but I replied "It's *your* task now, not mine."
 
We like to complain about boulder-seal, but precisely how many of us have actually done anything about it? Nothing will be done as long as I'm the only one trying to stop it. It can be stopped. Your county simply needs to have the willpower to do it. Many counties in Tx have already done so.

I have a blog I do on bicycle safety, that's where the writeup goes (went) http://opusthepoet.wordpress.com  
So far I have read reports about close to 5000 bike wrecks around the world in the various places I have kept the blog. I put my opinions (about a lot of things) on the blog where people that want to can read them, and not on other places so that people that don't want to don't have to read them. They are after all opinions not facts

Slight update: The county prosecutor's office is apparently going after this one finally so stay tuned for a number of charges likely to be filed.
 
With the historical slant of the county prosecutors office, I personally suspect what affected this was, unfortunately, a woman getting killed.
 
At the funeral service last night several hundred cyclists lined up across the street so as not to disturb the service yet to try to honor the couple. I heard the parents of the couple shook the hands of each of the cyclists.

Bexar Co sheriff's officers have a long history of being very biased against cyclists. I've had them threaten to push me off the road 3 times with their cruisers, one pulled out directly in front of me and stopped sideways in the middle to the road in an obvious effort to get me to t-bone him, and twice threaten me with totally invented charges until they finally saw the camera that was logging the entire event. So don't hold your breath about them doing anything. The Co prosecutor is apparently going after this case, for a change, though. I can't say anything more at this time. Please wait a bit. More info to come soon.

When I was by the courthouse at the TTT the sheriff and I watched someone blow the stop sign and then drive on the wrong side of the road until he almost rode headlong into another car and then corrected himself all the while swerving around the road. I wasn't sure if he was going to call it in or go so I kinda asked him to go and not to worry about directing traffic since the car was heading right along the course.
He got back a few minutes later and mentioned that they guys excuse was he was texting and that was that. There isn't a rule against texting so it wasn't criminally negligent based on the laws only stupid and wreckless. So if it was reckless driving that doesn't mean much here.
 
"Sec. 545.401.  RECKLESS DRIVING; OFFENSE.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person drives a vehicle in wilful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.
 
(b)  An offense under this section is a misdemeanor punishable by:
 
(1)  a fine not to exceed $200;
 
(2)  confinement in county jail for not more than 30 days; or
 
(3)  both the fine and the confinement.
 
(c)  Notwithstanding Section 542.001, this section applies to:
 
(1)  a private access way or parking area provided for a client or patron by a business, other than a private residential property or the property of a garage or parking lot for which a charge is made for the storing or parking of motor vehicles; and
 
(2)  a highway or other public place.
 
(d)  Notwithstanding Section 542.004, this section applies to a person, a team, or motor vehicles and other equipment engaged in work on a highway surface."

I'd think it should but in the car v bike world it is rare that I have seen anything happen unless the driver was drunk but hopefully this can be an exception or the start of changing that.
I would hope if they can prove reckless driving and it resulted directly in someones death then it would fill the "a person commits an offense" portion and pick your poison manslaughter or homicide (I saw no vehicular homicide in tx though? *shrug*). If you can't use reckless driving as a step then texting itself isn't an offence because it isn't illegal. My only experience with the law is corresponding with the gov't over my companies hiring/termination practices and they make up whatever they want to go from one thing to the other.
 
Way back when I first started driving it was beat into my head that whether it was my fault or not if I killed someone I was doomed and not just from guilt.

Amen. That's why it is important that we not pass up opportunities to gently, kindly (when possible) work to educate people that unlike Motor Vehicle drivers, cyclists have the right to travel on public roads and that roads are for people, not Motor Vehicles.
 
I always remind people "what if it had been a child who was in the road?" If you can't safely control your vehicle enough to avoid those kinds of circumstances, you are driving way too fast and way over your head.  
 
If some of you doubt what Bud said about the average driver, ride with an officer who knows the laws. It will astonish you. That's part of why I doubt the 3 foot proposed law would have much of any effect. It didn't appear to in Florida to me and I doubt it will here. What does have an effect is having more female riders on the road. I saw this in Austin the last few years as female ridership increased, in Florida and traveling with my daughter.
 
Nevertheless, I think this case will be different. As I said, I think having a female killed made the difference with the Co prosecutor. I can't believe I am 'defending' them... :^( but the word is they are pulling out the stops on this one.
 
Good read: "Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back"