A tragic, fatal accident between a local bicyclist and a pizza delivery driver on Halloween night points out the urgent need for better lighting along our Harris County roadways. Unlit roadways need artificial lighting to improve nighttime visibility and reduce the chances of devastating accidents. The bicycle/car accident on Halloween claimed the life of a father of 11 children. This man, originally from Scotland, was an experienced bicyclist familiar with the road on which he met his tragic accident.
Investigators are attributing the accident to the lack of visibility on the darkened, unlit, nighttime road. It appears that the unfortunate pizza delivery driver never even saw the bicyclist before he struck him with his vehicle in the dark.
Harris County accident lawyers know that the reflectors and reflective clothing used by some bicyclists provides relatively little protection on an unlit road. Reflectors are best seen from certain angles, and drivers often can’t see them until it’s too late. Car headlights help at close range, but provide limited visibility at greater distances.
Car drivers look out for vehicles of their own size. Both bicyclists and motorcyclists already suffer increased dangers from the lower visibility of their smaller profiles on the road. In a darkened, nighttime context, the increased danger can prove fatal.
Unlit roads present enormous dangers of serious or fatal injuries to the bicyclists, pedestrians and even vehicle drivers who must use them to reach their destinations. Our Harris County accident lawyers note that permanent lights along the nighttime roadways could improve visibility for the greater good and safety of all roadway users.
But in the current economic climate of budgetary deficits and decreasing revenues at all levels of government, new installations of roadway lights seem fairly unlikely. On unlit, narrow rural roadways with proven risks of fatal nighttime accidents like the stretch of Huffman Cleveland where the bicycle/car accident occurred, we Harris County accident lawyers feel that government should take the necessary step of installing some lights along the roadway to improve nighttime visibility. A light alongside Huffman Cleveland might have saved Russell Brandon’s life. The cost of a roadway light seems insignificant next to the cost of a fatal roadway accident.