Mom Wendy Clouse wants cyclist-safety course for motorists after her daughter’s tragic death
Daily News
October 27, 2010
By Simone Weichselbaum
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/27/2010-10-27_bid_for_cyclistsafety_course.html
A heartbroken mom, whose only child died under the wheels of a bus in Brooklyn after an opening car door launched her bike into its path, wants to require all new motorists to learn how to share the road with cyclists.
Wendy Clouse is teaming up with state Sen. Eric Adams to create a proposed Jasmine Herron Law. It would change the state’s required five-hour driver education class to include lessons on how to deal with bikers, skateboarders and other users of alternative transportation.
Clouse, 50, lost her daughter Jasmine Herron, 23, on Sept. 11. Krystal Francis, 24, of Staten Island, opened her car door, hitting Herron and sending her flying into the path of an MTA bus on Atlantic Ave., cops said.
“I pray that God took her for a reason,” Clouse said from her Colorado home. “I hope that she can save a life.”
Francis was charged only with driving with a suspended license.
On Friday, Marcus Ewing, 27, became at least the third cyclist to be killed by an opening car door in the city this year. Police said Antonio Cobb opened his Honda’s door at 120th St. and Third Ave., fatally knocking Ewing into the path of a delivery truck.
Ewing’s death prompted Adams, a Brooklyn Democrat, to think of how a new law could help save cyclists from careless motorists.
Time’s Up, a biking advocacy group, teamed up Herron’s family and Adams.
