What we’re fighting for

What is a reasonable penalty for a car driver who kills or seriously injures a motorcyclist, bicyclist, pedestrian, or even another car driver?

We know what’s not reasonable: The $70 fine imposed on an Iowa driver for crossing the center line of a highway and killing three motorcyclists. The sentence handed down to an Oklahoma woman, putting her on probation for 30 months and ordering her to perform unspecified “acts of kindness and generosity” after she pleaded guilty to negligent homicide for killing a motorcyclist who was slowing to make a right turn. The 10-day suspended sentence and three-month driver’s-license suspension for an Ohio driver convicted of vehicular homicide after backing out of a driveway into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist, who was killed.

None of those penalties comes close to addressing the consequences of those crashes. But what is reasonable? That’s the complex question we’ve tried to deal with in developing the AMA’s Justice for All legislation.

The right-of-way model legislation prepared by the AMA seeks to impose fines on drivers who commit traffic offenses that injure or kill others. But the main thrust is on driver’s-license suspensions designed to get dangerous drivers off the road—at least for a period of time.

These laws wouldn't just apply to crashes in which motorcyclists are the victims. If a car driver injures or kills another car driver, the same penalty would apply. In fact, they could apply to a speeding motorcyclist who runs down a pedestrian or bicyclist, too.

The idea is to recognize that driving (and riding) is a serious responsibility. The consequences of mistakes can be high for victims, and they should be high for offenders, too.

There is one more part of the Justice for All legislation that does single out motorcyclists. It’s a separate bill that we’d like to get passed to include motorcyclist-awareness instruction in each state’s driver-education program. This information, developed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, is vital to getting car drivers to watch for motorcycles on the road.

Together, these bills form the basis for the AMA Justice for All campaign. Working with motorcyclists in all states over the coming years, we hope to get them introduced—and passed—in every state.