LESSONS FROM THE WRECKAGE: Tragic death a potent reminder about simple rules of the road for bikers and motorists (COLUMN)

I didn’t know Dr. Kurt Frankel. I only saw the debris from the wreck that took his life.

Shattered pieces of a bicycle lay strewn across the eastbound lanes of Highway 98, near County Road 283 a little after 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 2.

Kurt was an assistant professor at Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. from my alma mater, the University of Southern California. He was brilliant. He loved the outdoors. He appeared on CNN a number of times to help explain the physics behind earthquakes. He was an expert in tectonics, the science behind the shifts in the earth’s surface, the kind of forces that raise mountain ranges. He devoted his life to knowledge, and from his television appearances, one can tell that his passion for science and life was infectious.

The Florida Highway Patrol took pictures and measurements of the accident scene as I passed by. Kurt had been hit about 8:30 in the morning. He was wearing a helmet. His bike was as white as the sand on our beaches, easily visible in the morning sun. He was, according to the initial information released by the FHP, riding in the bike lane.

Alexandra Alford, the driver of the Mercedes that took Kurt’s life, is only 19. She is a promising tennis player, well-known locally and a rising star of the Ole Miss women’s tennis team.

We don’t know all the facts, but many questions remain. How could someone who has great skill at judging speed and distance on a tennis court not have seen that bright white bike? If Kurt was in the bike lane, how could she have allowed her car to drift so far out of traffic?

One has to wonder if a cell phone might have been involved. Even hands-free sets cause your brain to try to focus on the call, and limit your ability to process what you see outside the windshield. Chatting on the phone as you drive has the same effect as driving drunk.

Dialing or texting while driving is beyond dangerous. It is all too often deadly.

The day after Dr. Frankel’s death, someone said to me, “well, two lives were ruined.” This, though, seems to draw an equivalency between the emotional burden and possible legal consequences faced by Ms. Alford and the sudden, violent end of Dr. Frankel as his body was slammed into the pavement. Ms. Alford will have family and friends to comfort her, lawyers to represent her, and, if needed, therapists to help her cope with the burden of taking a stranger’s life.

It is up to others to decide if her actions behind the wheel will result in criminal penalties, but regardless, Ms. Alford will be alive to state her side of the story.

The rest of us should take just a moment to figure out how to speak on behalf of Kurt Frankel. Should we simply shake our heads and declare this a tragic accident? Or should we try to do what a good scientist would do — examine the evidence and try to learn from this tragedy? I think Dr. Frankel would urge us to do the latter. 

We undertake a special responsibility when we drive a motor vehicle. We take it for granted, but we are taking a piece of metal that weighs thousands of pounds and hurtling it down a road at great speed. The stats are ugly. Thirty-thousand Americans die in car wrecks every year. To put that in perspective, just over 6,000 Americans have died in both Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. We kill over five times that many with our cars every year. Six hundred plus of those killed are cyclists. Over 4,000 are pedestrians.

Every single one of these deaths is preventable.

There are some simple rules to follow to make our roads safer for all of us — other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. They won’t bring back Dr. Frankel, but they may save other lives:

• Never use a mobile phone while driving. Never. Let the call go to voicemail. Don’t read that text message. It can wait until you are in a parking lot, parked. If you have to call someone, pull over safely. Put the car in park. Then call. While Florida has no law banning driving while talking on a phone or even texting, the evidence is clear. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation website, distraction.gov, “whether it is a hands-free or hand-held device, the cognitive distraction is significant enough to degrade a driver’s performance. The driver is more likely to miss key visual and audio cues needed to avoid a crash.”

• Drive more slowly. The faster we go, the less able we are to judge speed and distance. Area roads on the Emerald Coast have many intersections and driveways. Obey the posted speed limit. Caution is a far more positive attitude than regret.

• Give bicyclists three feet or more when passing. They may need to swerve to avoid glass or trash or another obstacle in the roadway. Three feet from the edge of your mirror to the edge of their handlebars gives you both room. This is the law in Florida and many other states. This law also clearly puts the burden on the driver of the car to avoid the cyclist.

• Don’t honk at a bicyclist. While horns tell other motorists to pay attention, for cyclists a horn simply means, “prepare for impact.” At that moment, the last thing a motorist wants is for the cyclist to look behind them. Why? Turning back will make most cyclists drift to the left, which brings them further into traffic lanes.

• Honor the bike lane. Some motorists think the bike lane is a fine place to pull over to unload beach chairs or groceries. Others think it is a good place to drive their golf carts. These activities are illegal for a reason. Blocking the bike lane pushes less experienced cyclists out into the roadway.

• Stop even with stop signs. It’s the law, and it is a good law. On intersections on 30A, the stop signs are back from the road for a reason — the bike path crosses the road behind the sign. Pulling past means you are pulling across an active traffic lane of bikes, joggers and pedestrians.

• When turning across a bike lane, double-check that it is clear. When turning right, take a moment to look over your right shoulder to check for cyclists behind you.

• Never tailgate a bicyclist. Unlike cars, cyclists have no brake lights, so it may be hard to tell when they are slowing down. Give them plenty of room.

• Bicyclists have the right to travel. Understand that the roads serve us all. Cyclists may slow traffic momentarily, but in the long run, they ease traffic. They are one less car, in one less parking place. They are part of the solution to our growing traffic problem.

Many of us grew up in a world where we biked to school, to the movies and to neighborhood stores. As drivers, we need to make certain we are providing a safe opportunity for kids and adults to bike safely now. It is the right thing to do.

Our children, neighbors, teachers and friends ride bicycles. They are part of the fabric that brings vital tourist revenue into the South Walton area. Bicyclists deserve our respect. Certainly, someone as talented and passionate as Dr. Frankel deserves our respect.

We will now never know what his research would have taught us about our planet. His tragic death should teach us not to take driving for granted.  We should all try to drive more courteously, more cautiously, and with more consideration towards all others that use our roads, including pedestrians and bicyclists.

John Cork is an author, documentary filmmaker and avid cyclist who calls WaterSound Beach home.