Bob Inglis

"Mr. Speaker, the bicycling community, Greenville, S.C., and my own office had a tragic loss last week. Jeanne Menard was a bicycling enthusiast in Greenville, who was struck and killed by a car."

"Maybe it was the fact that the sun was low in the sky; maybe it was a dirty windshield; maybe it was inattention; maybe it was all of those things. In any event, somebody who had given her time very recently to distributing helmets to school children in one of our parks was killed in our town."

"As a society we want to promote a healthy lifestyle. We want people to ride bikes in order to relieve congestion in our streets, in order to make them healthier and also just to have some fun. The problem is we’re not all attentive to those bikes. In South Carolina, there were 21 bicyclists killed in 2004 and so far this year 10. Nationwide 600 bicyclists have been killed yearly in crashes with automobiles."

"I applaud the groups like the League of American Bicyclists, the Palmetto Cycling Coalition, the Spartanburg Freewheelers and the Greenville Spinners, of which Jeanne Menard was a part, in their efforts to promote bike safety. I hope that all of us will take the time to spread the word in our own."