Marin County resident unable to report road rage incident

Date of Incident: February 15, 2002
Received: February 27, 2002

 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 19:03:10 -0800 (PST)
From: rr-AT-roble.net
Reply-To: mcbc-AT-topica.com
To: mcbc-AT-topica.com
Subject: Letter to CHP Commander Morehen and Sheriff Doyle
 
                                                       Feb 27, 2002
CHP Commander Morehen and Sheriff Doyle,
 
I'm writing to ask for directions on how to report an aggressive driver
in West Marin County.  I ask because I have been trying to do this for
the last several days with no success.
 
The incident occurred on Bolinas - Fairfax Road on Feb. 15.  I
immediately contacted the Sheriff's office, who referred me to the CHP
(in Vallejo) who then, after a couple of calls, instructed me to call
the Marin CHP office.  Those were the first four calls.  Since then
I've contacted the Marin CHP office 4 more times and explained the
incident an additional 3 times but have yet to receive a WORM# or
call-back.
 
Having reached a dead end trying to report the incident to law
enforcement I did some Internet research and came across Malcom
Foster's excellent "Marin Share the Road" website which detailed the
participation of the Marin Sheriff and CHP (
http://www.malcolmfoster.com/Sharetheroad/MSTR_letter07.htm ) and
seemed to apply to just this situation.
 
What my research failed to do, however, was find any way for cyclists
to report dangerous drivers _before_ they cause an accident.  Despite
the names and phone numbers of two witnesses and positive ID of the car
and driver I have no indication that anything was done to follow-up.  I
would have hoped that such reports would generate a call to the driver
and follow-up with the reporting cyclist(s), as in some other Bay Area
jurisdictions, but this has not proven to be the case.
 
The roads of Marin County are, in my experience, the most dangerous of
all Bay Area Counties.  This is partly due to inadequate engineering
and maintenance but, as the above report illustrates, some of the
responsibility is due to insufficient or otherwise non-pro-active law
enforcement.
 
My question to CHP Commander Morehen and Sheriff Doyle is: are there
any plans to implement a road-rage reporting system for cyclists who
ride in Marin?
 
Thank you,
Roger Marquis, San Rafael
 
Cc: Marin District Attorney Paula Kamena,
    Marin County Bicycle Coalition,
    Marin CHP Deputy McPherson
 
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