This Forestville cyclist was hit from behind by a car and couldn’t believe police didn’t cite the driver

Jake Bayless has ridden his bike tens of thousands of miles on the back roads of Sonoma County. He regularly commutes by bicycle from his Forestville home to Santa Rosa’s City Hall Annex, where he works as an analyst and programmer.

About six years ago, Bayless attached a rear-facing video camera to the seat post of his bike.

“I thought it would be a smart idea,” he said, “because I’ve seen it go the wrong way for other people.”

That camera captured the moment on April 1, 2020, when he was hit from behind by a gray Mazda3 sedan driven by Michael Bernard, of Monte Rio.

It left Bayless with chronic pain — “My butt hurts right now,” he recently shared, while seated in a booth at Mac’s Deli & Café in Santa Rosa — and a keen sense of disappointment in the California Highway Patrol.

Despite seeing video of the collision, which clearly depicts reckless driving on Bernard’s part, CHP officers declined to even write him a citation.

Driver tried to ‘thread the needle’

Cycling on a weekday afternoon with his son, Jasper, then 15, the pair had rolled over scenic Wohler Bridge, then onto Westside Road, a two-lane byway through the vineyards between Forestville and Healdsburg.

After cresting a mild grade, they began a sweeping, slightly downhill descent — son in front, father in back — with a leftward curve that limited vision of oncoming traffic.

In the video captured by Bayless’ camera, the Mazda approaches from behind, driver leaning on the horn. As the car accelerates to pass, it moves right — to avoid a pickup truck coming the other way.

Rather than brake, the “aggressive, impatient” motorist tried to “thread the needle,” Bayless recalled, between biker and pickup.

Instead, Bernard rear-ended Bayless, knocking his bike out from under him. “Suddenly at 20 miles an hour,” he recalled, “the bike was gone and I landed square on my tailbone.”

While acknowledging that Bernard caused the collision, investigating CHP Officer J. Gilbert also placed some blame on Bayless, for not riding his bicycle as close “as practicable” to the right edge of the road, as required in Section 21202 of the California Vehicle Code.

But Gilbert’s conclusion — included in a report approved by his supervisor, Timothy Randall — appears to be based on an incomplete reading of that section.

Article three of Section 21202 allows bicyclists to ride in the middle — to “take the lane,” as bikers often say — if it is “too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side.”

Was the officer unaware of Bayless’ right to take the lane, or did he judge that it did not apply in this case?

In an emailed response to The Press Democrat, Officer David deRutte, a CHP spokesperson, summarized Officer Gilbert’s findings but did not answer that question.

‘This makes no sense’

After reviewing the video, prosecutors in the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office disagreed with the CHP.

“Sometimes we go in a different direction” from the decisions and recommendations made by law enforcement agencies, said Assistant District Attorney Brian Staebell.

Staebell credited two prosecutors in particular, Deputy District Attorneys Matt Hobson and Adam McBride. “They looked at (the video) and said ‘This makes no sense. This is a case we can prove in court.’”

The DA’s office charged Bernard with misdemeanor reckless driving. Over McBride’s objections, Bernard was allowed to enter a diversion program, requiring him to perform 40 hours of community service, and take 12 hours of anger management classes, along with an “attitudinal driving class.” Bernard also had to write Bayless an apology letter, and pay $35,000 in restitution.

Once he did those things, the charge was dismissed.

Bernard did not respond to a request for comment left on his voicemail.

Of that $35,000, some $25,000 went to his lawyers, Bayless said. The restitution also helped reimburse him for, among other costs, a replacement bike, a sit-stand desk, during the six weeks he could not sit, and compensation for sick days he was forced to take.

Had Bayless not agreed to that amount, the case was scheduled to go to criminal trial in April.

Bayless also filed a civil suit against Bernard, whose insurance company has agreed to pay him $25,000. Keeping a watchful eye on that situation is the collection agency for Kaiser, Bayless’ medical insurance carrier. Between his ambulance and emergency room visits, he racked up $69,000 in medical costs. So Kaiser “is holding their hand out,” as well, he said.

“The biggest disappointment in this whole process, for me,” said Bayless, was the fact that the CHP “didn’t identify any fault in this driver’s behavior. I had to take it to the DA, and plead my case.” Without that video evidence, he believes, “nothing would have happened.”

Eris Weaver, executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, said she was “disappointed but not surprised” by the CHP’s willingness to give Bernard a pass.

“This is typical,” said Weaver, who has sat through “many proceedings” with bicyclists who’ve had run-ins with cars.

“It’s not uncommon for the cyclist to be blamed, for the driver not to be cited, and for the CHP to not do any further investigation,” she said.

That “as closely as practicable to the right-hand curb” passage in Section 21202 is frequently misinterpreted by law enforcement, said Weaver, who notes that as far to the right “as practicable” has a different meaning than “as possible.”

What the coalition’s instructors teach in its bike safety classes, she said, is that “practicable” means “safely.”

“So even if there’s a bike lane, if it’s full of debris and gigantic potholes and broken glass, it is legal for you to take the lane. You do not have to hug that stripe.”

The same applies when a rider, such as Bayless, is on a rural road with no shoulder and no bike lane, she said.

“He was riding completely safely and legally.”

‘Someone you love’

“I can’t speak to the (CHP) officers’ knowledge of the law,” said Healdsburg resident Peter Stetina, former World Tour road racer turned gravel “privateer.”

“They should know. That’s their job. But as a cyclist, I would like other road users to understand that I’m not getting enjoyment from holding someone up. If I’m out in the middle of the road, there’s a reason.

“If I’m in the middle of the lane, it’s for my inherent safety, whether it’s (to avoid) one of our infamous potholes or the lack of a shoulder and a drop-off, whatever it is.”

Stetina believes the county could do a lot more to accommodate its community of cyclists — and to educate motorists.

Where “getting shaved” by a driver is a “daily occurrence” in Sonoma, he added, that’s not the case in the Tahoe area, where he spends half the year, for altitude training,

“They support their athletes up there,” he says. “They give them space” on the road.

“In Sonoma County I’ve had people grumble to me when I tell them I’m a cyclist at a dinner party, that we shouldn’t be riding at all during October, because, well, harvest, and they have to get their grapes somewhere on time.”

While the byways of Sonoma County are spectacular, they’re also narrow, and too often used by motorists who are “impatient and entitled,” said Miguel Crawford, founder of the gravel-centric Grasshopper Adventure Series, which turns 26 this year.

“It is rarely the case that I’m out for a road ride and there isn’t some driver passing us in a really dangerous way. That happens almost every single ride.”

Some cyclists behave badly, as well, Crawford allows. But that doesn’t mean they should all be painted with the same brush. Crawford believes drivers often forget that the bicyclists that so annoy them are their neighbors and colleagues — members of their community.

“They’re doctors, kindergarten teachers — they’re not this ‘other,’” he said.

“What I tell people,” said Weaver, of the bicycle coalition, “is to drive as if everybody else on the road is someone you love.”

You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.