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Photo by R. E. ~ via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
A woman was charged with manslaughter Thursday for hitting a man on his bicycle who died 13 months later. Naira Margaryan allegedly his Gerardo Ramos when she ran a stop sign around 6:45 a.m. on on Sept. 23, 2008. Ramos was apparently riding his bike on the sidewalk and was struck by Margaryan's Mercedes Benz as he crossed the street.
Glendale Detective Ashraf Mankarios told the Glendale News-Press that charges were filed because Margaryan was partially at fault. “They agreed that it’s 50-50. [Ramos] violated the vehicle code, but in essence had she stopped, he would have gone right through and in front of her.”
That got StreetblogLA's Damien Newton attention, who said on Twitter that Mankarios cited a "fake state law."
That's true, there is no state vehicle code denying cyclists the right of sidewalk riding, only one that allows cities to enact a municipal ordinance to prohibit sidewalk riding. And according to Glendale's ordinance, "no person shall ride or operate a bicycle upon any public sidewalk in any business district within the city except where such sidewalk is officially designated as part of an established bicycle route."
Unless the residential-looking intersection of Condord and Milford is a business district (and if then, why?), something feels fishy here. The good thing, however, is that charges were filed.
