Potential legal grey area on non-'roadway' bike trails for hit and runs

My father was involved in an cyclist-cyclist accident on the Robert McClory trail on July 4th near downtown Lake Bluff between 8-9am. It appears it was not his fault and the at-fault parties (not injured) refused to identify themselves or stay around until emergency responders arrived. My father broke his neck and had to surgery + stay in the hospital for an additional 5 days. His helmet saved his life and he will likely recover.

I spoke with the Lake Bluff police and they told me that basically there is no such law that requires a cyclist or pedestrian to identify themselves and stay on the scene when such accidents involving injuries happen on bike paths. Is this correct?

Obviously for an accident on a roadway, involved parties are legally mandated to stay on the scene (cyclists and cars), but I was surprised to hear that even the chance that there is a legal hit-and-run loophole for non-'roadway' bike trails. A quick google search showed that California specifically cleaned up the language in their laws to make it illegal for someone to leave the scene of a similar accident where injuries are involved https://www.sgvtribune.com/2018/12/31/a-bicyclist-hit-and-run-on-a-...

Thoughts? Is this 'loophole' due to a misunderstanding of the vehicle code in Illinois or is it a real possibility that someone is legally allowed to walk away from injuring another party accidentally on a bike path with out fearing criminal consequences for a hit-and-run? 

 I'm assuming that trails currently fall under the same legal grey area as parking lots and other types private property where police seem to be weary of filling out car accident reports. 

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Permalink Reply by Tooscrapps on July 12, 2019 at 7:01am

And yet the Dutch have figured out how to "norm" cycling without mandatory registration, licensing, and insurance.

You still are responsible if you injure somebody, even if it's using something that isn't "registered". I throw a baseball and hit you in the face, you can sue me for damages. If I did it maliciously, I assaulted you. The same applies here to a being on a bike.

The solution here is to change this law and make it a crime for people to leave the scene of the crash described above. That way the police are obligated to investigate it and use some of the powers the normal citizen doesn't possess. Again, it's no cure-all, but it is better than trying to feel through it in the dark.

Permalink Reply by ketoguychicago on July 12, 2019 at 7:12am

I think I agree - personal responsibility would be the way to go, while the crux of what you rightly point out is likely that Dutch may exhibit a different set of social norms in certain respects.   There is in common law a "duty to rescue" for accidents, but that gets deep in the weeds and is a tort notion more so than a criminal basis for liability.   At issue in the instance presented and even a new law regarding leaving the scene, we don't know who it was (yet) and are lacking the mechanism to determine that, such as we would a motorcycle or boat, airplane...

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on July 14, 2019 at 11:48am

+1

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