House approves bill on bicycling distance

A bill that would require drivers to stay at least three feet away from a bicyclist — if that distance can safely be obtained — passed the House Thursday.

Rep. Roz McGee's HB49 is the first law that would actually tell drivers how to deal with bike riders, even though there are a lot of other laws that tell bicyclists how to act on public roads.

One after another, legislators rose to give grisly details about how they were almost hit by cars while riding.

Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, did them one better. "I'm a car-crash survivor. I was hit from the rear at 35 miles per hour." Kiser said he could have been killed if he'd fallen under the car. Instead he and his bike were stuck to the car's grill. "I became a grill ornament."

While court administrators would ultimately decide the penalty for a moving violation of deliberating driving too close to a bicyclist, Rep. Scott Wyatt, R-Logan, also a bicyclist and an attorney, guessed the fine would be around $40 and points would be assessed against the driver's license.