This week US Congressman Joe Neguse, who represents Colorado, launched the Magnus White Bike owner Security Act of 2024 (H.R. 10347), laws designed to guard weak highway customers, together with bicyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists, highway staff in development zones and plenty of others. The invoice requires the combination of superior computerized emergency braking (AEB) expertise in new autos for enhanced security.
The federal invoice was named in honor of 17-year-old Magnus White, a US 17-18 males’s junior cyclocross nationwide champion and rising star in mountain biking who was killed in July 2023 when a driver of a automotive struck him from behind whereas {the teenager} was on a coaching rider close to his dwelling in Colorado.
“We won’t convey Magnus again. That ache won’t ever go away. This invoice is not nearly expertise—it is about saving lives when drivers fail,” Jill White, mom of Magnus and co-founder of the non-profit group The White Line, mentioned in a press launch.
The proposed laws specifies that every one new autos weighing below 10,000 kilos could be required “to incorporate AEB techniques able to detecting and responding to weak highway customers in numerous situations”.
Along with cyclists, the invoice identifies ‘weak highway customers’ as “all people not protected by a car’s construction”, together with pedestrians, motorcyclists, customers of e-scooters, e-bikes, and skateboards; folks utilizing wheelchairs; highway staff in development zones; and folks working farming gear.
This invoice duties the US Division of Transportation to develop guidelines for AEB implementation inside three years as soon as the invoice is handed, and automakers would want to conform throughout two mannequin years. Beginning in 2029, car producers should make each automotive with AEB, in line with a brand new security rule handed in April this 12 months by the USDOT’s Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration.
“I’m deeply impressed by Jill and Michael’s continued braveness and advocacy, turning their ache into function and honoring Magnus’s reminiscence by serving to to make our roads safer for everybody. The Magnus White Bike owner Security Act implements commonsense options that forestall tragedies and finally save lives,” mentioned Assistant Chief Neguse, quoted within the press launch from The White Line.
White had been driving his bike in preparation to compete on the 2023 UCI World Mountain Bike Championships in Glasgow. 5 months after his demise, the Colorado State Patrol turned over their investigation to the Colorado District Legal professional’s workplace and a 23-year-old girl, Yeva Smilianska of Westminster, Colorado, was charged and arrested on costs of felony vehicular murder.
The trial was set to start December 16, 2024, a 12 months after the formal costs and arrest, however Colorado Public Radio reported that after a request for continuance was introduced on November 7 by prosecutors, “prosecuting and protection attorneys agreed that the trial couldn’t proceed with out Trooper Sean McCall’s testimony”. The brand new date for the trial has been moved to March 17, 2025.
