Reader Article: "Stop Victim Blaming..."
Important read by John Greenfield.
On June 21 middle-school math teacher Janice Wendling and her husband, Mark, a power plant engineer, were training for an upcoming charity bike ride near the southwest suburb of Morris.
As they pedaled down the shoulder of Old Stage Road, a two-lane highway, around 7 PM, a 16-year-old boy—who happened to be a former student of Janice's—struck the couple from behind with an SUV. Mark was killed instantly; Janice was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly afterward. Police concluded that the crash was unintentional, and the teen was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash.
Some commenters on an ABC report of the tragedy were quick to blame the Wendlings for their own deaths. One person implied that the couple should have been more visible and shouldn’t have been on the road. "Wear bright colors and a helmet," the person wrote. "I no longer cycle on the two lane roads. . . It is not worth dying by riding out in rural areas."
"That is a bad stretch of road, and the cyclists often ride three or four abreast, and block the whole lane," wrote a commenter named Anton Bender. "They have no business on those two-lane country roads, and should ride on the bike paths. They are just a nuisance on the road!"
And yet, the Morris Herald-News reported that, earlier that month, the boy had been clocked by police doing 87 in a 55 mph zone on I-80 in Joliet. And earlier on the day of the crash, he'd been ticketed for driving 24 to 36 miles over the speed limit in nearby LaSalle County.
And according to the crash report, a witness at the scene told police that the teen threw an object into the woods. The police retrieved a baggie that was found to contain 15 grams of marijuana. The boy told the police that the last time he had smoked marijuana was two days earlier. He was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation and provided urine and blood samples. Ken White, deputy chief of the Grundy County sheriff's office, said Tuesday that the results of the tests have been forwarded to the Illinois state's attorney's office, but declined to provide the results of the tests. "We're waiting for them to decide what they're going to do," he said.
This kind of horrendous victim blaming reminds me of what often happens to victims of sexual violence. When a woman is a victim of a sexual assault or rape, there's a tendency for other people to blame her for the attack. They often callously argue that she should have conducted herself differently, that she shouldn't have been in that place at that time, or that she was wearing the "wrong" clothing. In 2011, for example, Toronto police officer Michael Sanguinetti infamously remarked at a law school safety forum that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized." The ensuing backlash sparked the international SlutWalk movement of demonstrations calling for an end to rape culture.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/stop-victim-blaming-cyclist-pe...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on
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At the time of the crash in Morris, I commented on a local article it appeared the driver was distracted and they should refer to the event as a "crash" and not an "accident". When I did this, I was immediately attacked by people from the community - threatened, told to pray for myself, and called a string of not terribly nice names. They were already assuming the driver should be forgiven so his life isn't "ruined" by this. It struck me how little concern people had for the victims of the crash - the cyclists. And their family. I don't think we should gloss over what happened and immediately jump to letting the driver off the hook. It's not making our roads any safer and seems to imply a lack of accountability. I really hope there is appropriate follow up with the driver, including potential jail time. Just as I hope we finally see an adequate conclusion to the Bobby Cann case - his family deserves as much.
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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on
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That's one of the things that frustrates me most about the general public's response to each of these crashes - lack of compassion for the injured person whose life may be ended or forever changed by that crash.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on
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I gotta say I am not entirely comfortable with the comparison of victim blaming for an unintentional traffic fatality to victim blaming the victim blaming for sexual assault...
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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on
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How's about using race instead. Like being white and finding out how it is to be black by riding a bicycle it a city that marginalizes your mode of transport and could cares less if you get run over by a drunken white privileged rich fool.
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Permalink Reply by Tom A.K. on
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Victim blaming for 'careless'(unintentional) traffic fatalities or blaming the victim because of their choice of a mode of transport is irrelevant to the argument and does not excuse the offender of their crime. That's not the point.of the argument.
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Permalink Reply by curt(is) locke on
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And the point of the argument is??
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All forms of victimization are unfair, and that those that are truly at fault need to be held accountable.
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Permalink Reply by mike w. on
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Maybe the comparison is a bit extreme, but it certainly gets one's attention; sometimes it takes a stark example to get people to think about larger issues and attitudes. Blaming the victim is a time-honoured legal tactic, and it seems people in general accept it -it's a way of easing consciences and avoiding responsibilities.
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What is it that makes you "not entirely comfortable"??
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As a woman, I can see the parallel and I'm not offended. What offends me is that a beautiful cycling couple that was training for a charity ride was lost to our cycling community. What also offends me is when too many excuses are made for the motorist and not enough attention is paid to the loss of human life due to negligence and distracted motorists (be it pot, alcohol, smart phone, etc.). We need to find a way to solutions that will make us safer on the streets we have every right to ride on and share with other vehicles. This article really spoke to me because I think we are all feeling it every time a tragedy like this occurs and the comments sections of local papers are filled with excuses for motorists and blame being directed at cyclists. Please, let's not go too far down this rabbit hole and focus on what really matters - bike safety.
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Permalink Reply by Filka Bean on
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Thanks for sharing this article, Yasmeen- I'm glad Greenfield has the gig at the Reader and can promote the crash-not-accident awareness here in Chicago and in a mainstream paper at that.
And don't take the drift too hard: at least no one's wanted to get into his praise of Critical Mass yet! ;)
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