There is some dispute about what caused the crash that killed Desiree McCloud. But all signs point to a surprisingly common cycling hazard: streetcar tracks.

McCloud, a 27-year-old Girl Scout troop leader, was biking with friends the night of her fatal crash in May 2016. Moments before she fell, she was seen riding between the streetcar tracks on East Yesler Way, a street in Seattle’s First Hill neighborhood. Though she was wearing a helmet at the time, McCloud landed on her head and suffered blunt-force head trauma. She died in the hospital a week and a half later.

Seattle police did not conclusively determine that the tracks caused McCloud’s death. But a medical investigator hired by her family told the Seattle Times that her injuries were consistent with being thrown over the bike—the kind of thing that happens when bike wheels get snagged in streetcar tracks, sending riders flying. Surveillance footage used by police in the investigation seems to bear that out.

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That footage will play a key role in a lawsuit filed by the McClould family last month. Cody McCloud, Desiree’s brother, is seeking $2 million in damages from the City of Seattle and Sound Transit, the regional transit authority, for failing to protect his sister from an obvious danger in the roadway.

“Streetcar tracks are a known hazard—known to the city of Seattle,” Phil Arnold, Cody McCloud’s lawyer, told the Times. “Seattle had many opportunities to fix this mess.”

Surveillance footage shows a blurry Desiree McCloud, right, biking between streetcar tracks moments before her fatal crash. Seattle Police Department

Arnold did not return Bicycling’s requests for comment, but Chicago-based bike attorney Brendan Kevenides said cities with unsafe streetcar tracks can absolutely be held liable for damages.

“The cities, they certainly know these are dangerous conditions for bicyclists and really need to do everything they can,” Kevenides said. He gave some examples: “If they’re unused tracks, either cover them up or remove them, or if they’re still being used, steer bicyclists around them or so they approach them perpendicularly.”

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Whatever happens with the McCloud case, we do know that streetcar tracks and bicycling don’t mix well. When the Seattle Times informally surveyed readers about them in 2016, the paper was inundated with stories from riders who had been injured after wiping out on tracks. “Every cyclist seems to have a streetcar story,” reporter Evan Bush wrote.

See how to safely bike across railroad tracks, which have similar features to streetcar tracks:

There are a number of ways cyclists can get tangled in streetcar tracks, sometimes with severe results. One especially dangerous type of crash—the one believed to have killed McCloud—is when their wheels get caught in a “flange,” or the gap between a track and the road. One way to eliminate this type of crash is with a product called a flange-filler, a plastic device that fills in the gap but compresses under the weight of a train. But they can sometimes get stuck in the compressed position, rendering them useless.

Streetcar tracks can cause other types of crashes as well. Their metal surface is quite slippery, especially in the rain. Cyclists passing over them, if they don’t cross at a right angle, can simply lose their grip on the road and take a spill. Even flange-filling devices can get slippery when wet.

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Brent Tongco, a spokesperson for the Seattle-based Cascade Bicycle Club, said the solution to the streetcar problem needs to go further than minor design tweaks. “The technical solution 'best practices' include giving light rail dedicated right-of-way, building parallel protected bike lanes, and designing protected intersections,” he said. “Basically, keep people biking as separate from streetcar tracks as possible.”

Two-state turning boxes help cyclists make turns in traffic, but they can also encourage safe streetcar-track crossing. NACTO

Seattle has done this in some cases already, like when it installed a protected bike lane on Broadway Avenue in tandem with the development of the First Hill streetcar. Cities planning new streetcar systems, meanwhile, can help avoid collisions by positioning platforms in the center of the road, as opposed to in the outer lanes where cyclists ride more often.

But if dedicated lanes for cyclists aren’t possible, planners can take other measures. “One thing we advise cities to do is not to set it up so cyclists have to be turning when they’re crossing a rail,” said Steve Durrant, a vice president at the firm Alta Planning and Design, which specializes in bicycle and pedestrian projects. Instead, planners should work to encourage cyclists to cross at as much of a right angle as possible. Two-stage turning boxes—painted road markings that position cyclists to make safe turns in traffic—can also encourage safer crossing at streetcar tracks.

Of course, cities don’t have the power to ban cyclists from certain surface streets, so they may never be able to fully eliminate dangerous run-ins with streetcar tracks. Smart design may be the best protection riders have to avoid serious injuries or worse.

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