Motorized bike rider killed in midtown crash

I casually dated Mike many, many years ago. He was a good guy who even though made some mistakes, did not deserve to die at 29 years old. I wish I would have known about this earlier. I would have gone to his service to pay my respects. I would be honored to be a part of implementing some sort of change in policies and/or laws pertaining to the legal ramifications of other cases like this. Despite all of the loopholes and whatnot the driver deserves to get something far more severe than a traffic ticket. Please let me know what I can do to help.

Mike was a great friend of mine and anybody willing to rally with me on this.. my fiance knew him for almost twenty years.. I've known him for ten years noone or nothing can bring him back but we as a body can fight for justice and prosecution only with other people and their help can we truly get justice. May christ live through all of us...

Sorry about Beck's demise.  But, these little loopholed motor bikes are not only aesthetically annoying but more importantly, the extra speed of what looks like a bike can be very confusing to motorists. I've come close to clipping a couple that zipping through traffic way too fast for the conditions.  What purpose do they serve other than non-licensed transportation after a DUI? 

There are 2 types of "assisted" bikes, the kind with the ICE (most kits are 50-80 cc engines, the AZ legal limit is 33 cc) and the electric kind that are allowed up to 750 Watts (1HP) and 20 MPH when powered, by Federal law and required to be treated as bicycles by that same law. Unfortunately this article did not distinguish which kind of assist this bike was using.

While this is very unfortunate, I have to say that those motorized "bicycles" are not bicycles. In Germany, where I'm from, those kinds of bikes are illegal and for good reason. Putting an engine on a bike frame without making the necessary technical adjustments to cope with the added force and speed is reckless and asking for a suicide mission, especially if the rider doesn't wear a helmet. It strikes me that most, if not all motorized bike riders do NOT wear helmets. Also, strapping a little blinky to something that easily goes 30-4o miles an hour and expecting other traffic participants to see you is just nuts. Whenever I ride my bike or drive in the dark, it strikes me how those motorized bikes seem to suddenly show up from nowhere. By the time you see those feeble lights most folks put on them, they're much too close and much too fast to react accordingly. Of course this does not mean the motorist in this case didn't have any fault in this, I just want to point out how dangerous those things are in my opinion.  There is a reason why real mopeds, which go at the same speeds, have much sturdier frames, wheels and more powerful brakes than those "motorized bikes." In Germany, wearing an actual motorcycle helmet is obligatory even with those small mopeds. Those "motorized bikes" should not be allowed on the roads in my opinion.

Is that it? A traffic ticket? This wasn't a fender bender, a person was killed. There should be a 'resulting in death' tacked onto the end of that along with a day in court. Sending the message that being so reckless someone dies isn't worse than a moving violation is insanity.