Case Name: State vs. Patrick H. Collins
Court: Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island
Decision Date: 1888-12-11
Citations: 16 R.I. 371
Docket Number: 
Parties: State vs. Patrick H. Collins.
Judges: 
Reporter: Rhode Island Reports
Volume: 16
Pages: 371–372

Head Matter:
State vs. Patrick H. Collins.
A bicycle is a “carriage or vehicle ” within the meaning of Pub. Stat. R. I. cap. 66* § 1} which requires any person travelling on a highway with a carriage or vehicle to turn out to the right on meeting another person so travelling.
Exceptions to the Court of Common Pleas.
December 11, 1888.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The question raised by the exceptions is whether a bicycle is a carriage or vehicle within the meaning of Pub. Stat. R. I. cap. 66, § 1, which enacts that "Every person travelling with any carriage or other vehicle, who shall meet any other person so travelling on any highway or bridge, shall seasonably drive his carriage or vehicle to the right of the centre of the travelled part of the road, so as to enable such person to pass with his carriage or vehicle without interference or interruption." We are of the opinion that it is a carriage or vehicle which carries a person mounted upon it, and which is propelled and driven by him. The word " vehicle " is certainly broad enough to include any machine which is used and driven on the travelled part of the highway, for the purpose of conveyance upon the highway. The purpose of the section is to prevent accident or colli sion, and such accident or collision may happen from a bicycle and other carriage meeting, unless the rule laid down in the section is observed. In Taylor v. Goodwin, L. R. 4 Q. B. Div. 228, it was decided that a bicycle is a carriage within the act which forbids the driving of any sort of carriage " furiously so as to endanger the life or limb of any passenger."
Nicholas Van Slyclc Cyrus M. Van Slyek, for plaintiff.
Mathbone Gardner, for defendant.
Exceptions overruled, and case remitted to Court of Common Pleas for sentence.