According to a press release by the Taylor County Attorney, bicyclist Gerald Williams of Lenox was struck by a vehicle driven by Jessica M. Brown and killed. The car was damaged bad enough it couldn’t be driven. Ms. Brown reports she thought she hit a deer. A day later, the body of Mr. Williams was found in the ditch.

Brown was convicted of “Failure to Stop at an Assured Clear Distance on January 3, 2014. She was ordered to pay a fine in the amount of $500.00, a statutory surcharge of $175.00 and court costs in the amount of $60.00.

This is a weak punishment.

At about the same time of the crash, the Iowa Department of Transportation announced a Vision Zero campaign. The goal is to reduce roadway fatalities to ZERO. Everyone that hears about this campaigns says, “is that realistic? Isn’t there an acceptable level of fatalities?” When asked how many traffic fatalities would be acceptable if it was members of your family, the number is always zero.

We cannot reach zero fatalities without change. We need safer traffic facilities, we need penalties in our traffic code that effect change, and we need society to stop the problem.

Trails and bike lanes have been increasing in mileage over the past two decades. These facilities have been shown to increase safety - and not just for bicyclists. Recent studies have shown bike lanes reduce motorist crashes too. Over the past two years, millions of dollars in Federal funding has been cut in trail programs. Some of the funding intended for transportation alternatives was allowed to be diverted to highways and bridges.

There is a new proposal to combine bicycle funding with transit funding. This could produce amazing results, but the funding is much smaller than either mode needs. This means biking or transit or both will see another reduction of funding.

Trails today cost twice as much as 20 years ago. We cannot increase the amount of facilities with decreased funding. If we want to reduce fatalities, we need to increase bicycle facilities.

Our traffic justice system is at best lenient to drivers and broken at worst. Why should you drive with due regard for the safety of others when the penalty for a fatal crash is $35? If you are driving drunk, why not leave the scene because a hit-and-run penalty is much lower than a vehicular homicide conviction?

The Iowa Attorney General’s office issued new training on bicycle crashes this year because we found instances where traffic penalties were lower for motorists who hit bicyclists than car vs. car crashes.

We have tried to improve laws relating to door zone crashes that can produce very serious injuries or even fatalities. Some legislators have treated this proposal as a joke. Some have claimed we don’t need “common sense” laws. To reduce traffic fatalities, it is time to get serious and address real issues.

Most of us drive. We understand our safety is dependent upon the decisions of other drivers we meet on the roadway as much as it is our own. And, we have all made driving mistakes. Empathy, acceptance, and forgiveness is common for drivers who are involved in a fatal crash.

Public safety stopped calling crashes “accidents” a long time ago. There are attributable causes when fatalities occur. It is not OK that Gerald Williams was killed.

Acceptance and empathy is not reducing our fatalities. There is no societal taboo for traffic crashes with attributable causes like there is with drunk driving. Frankly, there should be.

Our system is broken but not beyond repair. No traffic fatality is acceptable. We must utilize better policy to increase safety and reduce fatalities by prioritizing the improvement of traffic facilities.