Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:
  • Plaintiff was riding a bicycle while towing a second, unmanned bicycle with his right hand. As a Metro bus pulled away from a stop, its left side made contact with the towed bicycle, and Falaughn fell to the ground. Surveillance footage showed him get up, walk around the scene, and move the unmanned bicycle before lying back down at the urging of bystanders.
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  • While plaintiff was on the ground, an unidentified bystander took the bicycle plaintiff had been riding and rode off with it. Falaughn was transported by ambulance to LAC+USC Medical Center.
• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  That the Metro bus operator was negligent in pulling out of the bus zone on 7th Street without first confirming his mirrors and blind spot were clear of any cyclists before merging into the adjacent lane. Plaintiff argued that the bus operator began moving the bus forward at roughly 4-5 mph and only became aware of plaintiff riding alongside the bus's left side while towing a second bicycle after hearing shouting and the sound of a tire blowing out, by which point contact had already occurred.

  Plaintiff maintained that as a professional bus operator navigating a known cyclist corridor, the operator owed a heightened duty of care to visually clear the lane before pulling out, and that his failure to do so directly caused the collision.

• Defendant's Contentions:
  • Metro contended that the incident was caused by plaintiff's own negligence, not any fault on the part of the Metro operator. Metro argued that plaintiff, riding one bicycle while towing a second, unmanned bicycle by the handlebar with his right hand, attempted to overtake and pass the Metro bus while it was stopped at the bus zone, squeezing into the same lane the bus occupied just as it began pulling away, rather than passing safely to the left as required.
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  • Metro maintained that it was the towed, riderless bicycle that made contact with the bus, not the reverse, and that plaintiff lost control of it because he was unable to safely operate two bicycles at once while attempting the pass. On this theory, plaintiff's conduct violated Vehicle Code section 21750 (duty to pass at a safe distance without interfering with the overtaken vehicle) and section 21201(a) (equipment/control requirements for operating a bicycle on a roadway). Metro's retained accident reconstructionist, Thomas Fugger, supported this account through frame-by-frame analysis of the bus's onboard DVR footage, concluding that the bus exhibited little to "zero" leftward lateral motion as it departed the stop.