On May 17, 2006 at 7pm, Maryland cycling groups from Hagerstown, Frederick, and Baltimore will join cyclists across the country in a Ride of Silence to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured on public roads. The Ride of Silence was started in 2003 when an endurance rider was killed after being hit by the mirror of a bus.

In 2003, 622 people died in car-related accidents while riding bicycles. Although the number is dropping, bicycle accidents are 2% of all traffic fatalities and 2% of all traffic injuries. Bicycle rides account for less than 1% of trips.

Hospital records indicate that only 10% of bicycle accidents are ever reported. Millions of people ride their bikes on the road every year.

A $51million lawsuit was filed on May 15, 2006 against the state of Maryland by the parents of an inmate who say that guards were too busy watching television and sleeping to intervene when their son was strangled by another inmate on a prison bus in 2005.

The suit was filed at the Baltimore City Circuit Court against Maryland, the heads of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, the Division of Correction, the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center known as Supermax, the driver of the bus, and a number of correction officers.

The parents of Philip E. Parker Jr. say that their son was “dragged” off the bus at the maximum security prison in Baltimore and left on the floor for several minutes before being administered CPR.

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