The Advocate Who Wrote Dunwoody’s Bike Safety Law Became the Reason It Was Used
Quick answer: Pattie Baker, the Dunwoody bicycle advocate who helped champion and write the city's Vulnerable Road User (VRU) ordinance, was later hit by a driver on Tilly Mill Road in a hit-and-run that her GoPro camera captured in full, including the license plate. The driver became the first person charged under the very ordinance Pattie had helped bring into existence, in addition to charges for improper passing and hit and run. Hagen Rosskopf secured a settlement from the driver's insurance policy, and the driver pleaded guilty to all three charges.
Case Study 9 of 30: Cyclist + Advocate v. Hit & Run Driver
The details below come from an actual case Bruce Hagen and his team at Hagen Rosskopf handled for a real client, and one that also made local news at the time.
Meet the Advocate Behind the Law
If you live in Dunwoody, Georgia, you have Pattie Baker partly to thank for the city's Vulnerable Road User (VRU) ordinance. She championed the ordinance and helped write it, part of her long-running advocacy for safer streets in the city, where she also served as founding chair of Dunwoody's Sustainability Commission and was later named the city's Sustainability Hero. Pattie is also a certified bicycle safety instructor through the League of American Bicyclists, training that shapes both her advocacy work and how she rides. Dunwoody's VRU ordinance, adopted with the support of the city council, was the first of its kind in Georgia.
The Irony of the First Citation
Less than three months after the ordinance took effect, a driver hit Pattie while she was riding on Tilly Mill Road. That driver became the first person cited under Dunwoody's VRU ordinance (Sec. 30-187) for a crash involving a cyclist, in addition to being charged with improper passing of a cyclist under Georgia's Three-Foot Law (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-56) and hit and run (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-270).
The advocate who helped bring the law into existence became the person whose case proved why it was needed.
Caught on Camera, License Plate and All
Pattie's GoPro camera captured the entire incident, including the driver's tag clearly enough for police to identify and locate her. The footage showed a car passing in the opposite lane, then a vehicle behind Pattie honking before striking her bike and driving away while she called out for the driver to stop.
Pattie was also riding with a yellow pool noodle strapped to the back of her bike, a visual tool she uses regularly to make herself more visible to drivers and to illustrate the three-foot safe passing distance Georgia law requires. Her extensive bike handling skills, developed in part through her certification as a League of American Bicyclists safety instructor, helped her keep her balance after being struck, though she still suffered hip and back pain, and her GoPro Hero 5 camera was damaged in the collision.
The responding officer's investigation showed just how directly the evidence tied the driver to the crash. Two independent witnesses driving the same stretch of road had noticed the SUV's unusual movements just before the collision and remained at the scene to speak with police, corroborating the sequence of events even though they hadn't seen the moment of impact itself. After reviewing Pattie's GoPro footage, the officer paused the video at the moment of impact and was able to read the SUV's license plate, leading him to the registered owner's address the same day. When he located and questioned the driver, she admitted she remembered being in a collision with a cyclist. An inspection of her vehicle turned up three horizontal scuff marks on the front passenger-side bumper, with a yellow fiber at the center mark consistent with the pool noodle's color, along with a passenger-side mirror folded back and hanging outside its housing, matching exactly what the GoPro footage showed at the moment of impact.
Why Punitive Damages Were Part of This Claim
Beyond compensating Pattie for her injuries, our team pursued punitive damages as part of this claim. Under Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1), punitive damages are reserved for conduct showing willful misconduct, malice, wantonness, or that entire want of care which raises a presumption of conscious indifference to consequences, not ordinary negligence.
A driver who strikes a cyclist and keeps driving anyway fits squarely within that standard. The driver in this case admitted to police that she remembered being in a collision with a cyclist, yet she left the scene regardless, a decision made with knowledge of what she'd done, not by accident. That kind of knowing disregard for another person's safety after the fact is exactly the sort of conduct Georgia's punitive damages statute exists to address, separate from and in addition to compensating Pattie for her actual injuries.
How the Case Resolved
Our team secured a settlement from the driver's insurance policy. Separately, in the criminal matter, the driver pleaded guilty to all three charges, including the VRU ordinance violation, and paid a fine.
The Legal Team Behind the Case
- Bruce Hagen and Matt Hagen — Lawyers for People on Bikes
- J. Williams — Case manager
- Amie Risley — Negotiations paralegal
Hagen Rosskopf operates as Bike Law Georgia, part of Bike Law USA, a national network of attorneys who focus exclusively on representing injured cyclists and advocating for safer roads. Bruce Hagen was directly involved in helping craft the language of Dunwoody's Vulnerable Road User ordinance alongside city leadership before it passed in 2019.
What This Case Shows
A camera, a piece of pool noodle, and years of advocacy work all mattered here, but so did an ordinance that existed specifically because someone fought to get it passed. Laws like Dunwoody's VRU ordinance don't just create paperwork for police; they create real charges against real drivers, sometimes remarkably soon after they take effect. It's also a reminder that the same tools discussed in our other case studies, a bike camera capturing irrefutable evidence and a driver being held to a specific statutory duty, don't just help build a legal case. They help build the case for why these laws need to exist everywhere, not just in the cities that have already passed them.
In Pattie's Words
Pattie has written extensively about bicycling and advocacy, including in her book, Traveling at the Speed of Bike, available online and through independent booksellers. Our favorite line of hers:
"The biggest advocacy action you can take is to simply exist in public space on a bike. Right now. Today. Especially if you are a woman."
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Vulnerable Road User (VRU) ordinance? A VRU ordinance is a local law that increases penalties and clarifies duties for drivers around road users considered especially vulnerable, typically pedestrians and cyclists. Dunwoody's ordinance (Sec. 30-187), the first of its kind in Georgia, requires drivers to maintain a three-foot passing distance, prohibits unsafe turns in front of pedestrians and cyclists, and bars intimidating or harassing them, with penalties up to six months in jail or a fine.
Does Georgia have a statewide three-foot passing law for cyclists? Yes. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-56 requires drivers overtaking a cyclist to leave a minimum of three feet of clearance. Some cities, including Dunwoody, have adopted their own local ordinances that reinforce or add additional detail and penalties on top of the statewide requirement.
Why does a bike camera matter so much in a hit-and-run case? Footage that clearly captures a license plate can be the difference between an unsolved hit-and-run and an identified, charged driver. In this case, GoPro footage gave police everything needed to locate the driver, which made both the criminal charges and the civil settlement possible.
When are punitive damages available in a Georgia bicycle accident case? Punitive damages are only available under Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1) where there's clear and convincing evidence of willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or that entire want of care which raises a presumption of conscious indifference to consequences, not ordinary carelessness. A driver who strikes a cyclist and knowingly leaves the scene, as in this case, is a common example of conduct that can meet that standard. Georgia also caps punitive damages at $250,000 in most cases, with exceptions for circumstances like specific intent to cause harm or DUI.
Does Georgia have a statewide Vulnerable Road User law, and which cities have adopted one? Not currently at the state level. Vulnerable Road User protections in Georgia exist through individual city ordinances rather than a single statewide law. Dunwoody was the first city in Georgia, and the first in the southeastern United States, to adopt one, in 2019. Brookhaven followed, unanimously passing its own VRU ordinance in October 2020, effective January 1, 2021, with Bruce Hagen speaking to the Brookhaven council in support of the measure. Bruce has continued to advocate for the Georgia General Assembly to adopt a statewide version. Because municipal ordinances can be adopted or updated at any time, anyone outside Dunwoody or Brookhaven should check with their own city or county, or with an attorney, to find out whether a local VRU ordinance is currently in effect where they ride.
Injured while cycling in Dunwoody, Georgia, or anywhere in the metro Atlanta area? Contact Hagen Rosskopf, our Atlanta bicycle accident attorneys, for a free consultation. There's no fee unless we win your case.