RIP Allison Bowers

From "Urban Velo":   
Our hearts go out to the friends and family of 11-year-old Allison Bowers, who was killed while riding her bicycle Tuesday night. The driver, a teenage male, attempted to pass a stopped vehicle who was letting the rest of the Bowers family cross the street safely. Police say the driver was not at fault.

It's truly sad that such a young child was killed in such a meaningless way.  I would love to know what the mitigating circumstances were that made the police say the driver was not at fault.  Am I wrong?  I am pretty sure that if you are passing a vehicle that is stopped and letting pedestrians (or cyclists) cross the street, and you strike them... you are at fault.

Is this another showing of the old "it was a person on a bike, they must be at fault" mentality?  I've seen it time and again where the police seem to think that the cyclist is at fault in an accident simply because he/she is on a bike!

Okay, I'm raving again.  I'll stop.

RIP Allison.  May God bless your famliy in this trying time.

-PB