Loss of best friend spurs Indiana native to lobby Congress for improvements

One second.

That’s the time Bloomington native Griffin Tichenor believes passed between the time he saw the dump truck headed toward him to when it crashed into him and his two riding partners on a popular cycling road in western North Carolina on July 1, 2025.

While he survived the crash, it ultimately took the lives of 27-year-old Leonard “Lennie” Antonelli and 32-year-old Jacob Hill.

Tichenor and Antonelli met in college at Indiana University Bloomington and bonded over their shared love of cycling, eventually competing in the school’s coveted Little 500 race.

After undergrad, the best friends ended up in Asheville, North Carolina, where Tichenor said they rode an estimated 10,000 miles per year and traveled around the country racing.

Tichenor said they knew how to handle their bikes, follow the rules of the road, and share the roads responsibly with other travelers.

That’s what makes the crash all the more shocking for Tichenor. And after surviving a virtually unsurvivable event, he knew he had to do something to carry on in a way that would make sure others wouldn’t experience the same tragedy.

“I can’t just go on with my life like nothing happened. I feel like it’s my obligation, my duty, to try and make this world safer in whatever way I can,” Tichenor said. “No one should have to die either for something so preventable.”

Now, Tichenor is using his story to advocate for federal legislation that would require technology to help vehicles detect cyclists and prevent the same fate from befalling anyone else.

Safety for vulnerable road users

The Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act was first introduced at the end of the 2024 congressional session with the intent of spreading the word about the issue in preparation for the current session.

Named after 17-year-old Magnus White, a rising cycling star who died in 2023 after being hit by a reckless driver while riding his bike, H.R. 3649 calls on the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to establish rules requiring cars to have automatic braking systems that detect not only cars but other “vulnerable road users” who share the road.

New safety rules already set to take effect in September 2029 would require certain automatic braking systems on all new cars and light trucks. But some safety advocates, such as The White Line Foundation, said those requirements are not enough to effectively protect cyclists and others. That’s why they are pushing for federal legislation to fill the gaps.

Advocates say the new rules fail to mandate systems that detect bicyclists because they only require AEB systems to prevent collisions with vehicles or pedestrians directly in front of the car.

The White Line Foundation wants a system that protects all vulnerable road users, including bicyclists, pedestrians, scooter riders and motorcyclists.

“Most people at some point in the day are a vulnerable road user,” said Jacqueline Claudia, executive director of The White Line Foundation. “Even if you drive your car, you park in a parking spot, you get out of it, and you cross a parking lot, or you cross the street to go to where you’re going.”

Since it was established in 2023 by White’s parents, the foundation has been working toward its goal to end road fatalities by 2035.

As part of its advocacy efforts, the foundation collects data demonstrating the number of reported vulnerable road user fatalities the United States sees each year. Data is collected from the U.S. Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a series of web scrapers the team uses to search the internet for information such as media articles, coroner reports and other useful data.

The data dates back to 2001, which saw almost 5,700 fatalities, or one death every 92 minutes, in the U.S. In 2023, the nation saw more than 8,600 fatalities.

Indiana ranked 30th in the recorded number of vulnerable road user fatalities in 2023, with 131 individuals losing their lives on the road.

A combined 139 pedestrians and bicyclists died on Indiana roads in fiscal year 2024, according to the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute’s annual report.

Very few of the deaths are reported on by local and national media, Tichenor said.

The White Line found that in 2023 only 14% of fatal crashes involving vulnerable road users received media coverage in the U.S.

“It doesn’t get reported on, and then no one knows it’s an issue. But that doesn’t mean that thousands of people aren’t dying every year,” he said.

The act, and the foundation’s advocacy, isn’t just for cyclists. Tichenor even hesitates to use the word because of the often disjointed relationship between bikes and drivers. He stresses that the act accounts for all occupants of the road, no matter their mode of transportation.

“As humans, we’re more distracted than ever. The cars we’re driving are bigger and faster than ever, the roads are faster and wider than ever,” he said. “We need all the help we can get from technology to step in when our focus lapses, because the consequences of that happening are often fatal.”

Lobbying for support

Right now, the act has 17 Democratic co-sponsors, including Congressman André Carson of Indianapolis, who offered the following statement to The Indiana Lawyer about his support for the bill.

“The Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act speeds up progress and enhances safety by requiring higher standards to reflect the technological advances,” Carson said in an email. “We can save lives simply by factoring in cyclists and pedestrians into all safety decisions. I look forward to bringing this bill to the House floor – for Magnus, and for all cyclists who have tragically lost their lives.”

Carson said he’s been a strong advocate for road safety in his congressional role, including his support of the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which went into effect in 2024 and mandates certain AEBs on light vehicles by September 2029. But the Cyclist Safety Act is needed right now, Carson said.

The legislation would require a final rule to be established no later than three years after the legislation is enacted and a compliance date no later than two motor vehicle model years after the final rule is issued.

While the bill has many Democratic co-sponsors, advocated are hoping it will garner some GOP support in order to increase its chance for passage or inclusion in another bill.

Tichenor went to Washington, D.C. in December to share his story.

“Since it’s such a common sense and cost-effective regulation, most of the staffers we spoke with are kind of saying the same thing. ‘This is common sense, we just can’t be the first one to support this for political reasons,’” Tichenor said. “So, we feel that if we can get that first domino to fall, and we can get a Republican co-sponsor, we will get this across the line.”

Both Claudia and Tichenor said the AEB technology the bill calls for is highly cost-effective. According to their research, the technology would cost around $23 per vehicle to install.

The technology to detect pedestrians and cyclists is already being implemented in Europe. In 2019, the European Parliament passed legislation requiring features like intelligent speed assistance and advanced emergency braking systems to detect pedestrians to be installed in new vehicles starting in May 2022 and in existing models in May 2024.

Given that European vehicles are already equipped with the technology, advocates say requiring it in the U.S. is a practical step since its installation is mandatory for several manufacturers worldwide who operate stateside.

The Indiana Lawyer reached out to several car companies with a presence in Indiana to inquire about their AEB standards, including Honda, Toyota, General Motors and Subaru.

Subaru spokesman Craig Koven told The Lawyer that the company’s EyeSight Driver Assist Technology includes AEB features like pre-collision braking and dual color cameras to scan the roads for danger. Some, but not all, Subaru models also include an additional camera for better cyclist and pedestrian detection.

The other auto companies contacted by The Lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but some form of AEB technology is available on many makes and models.

The rise of deregulation under the Trump administration could make the bill’s passage difficult. However, advocates hope that if the bill cannot pass on its own, it could be included in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, which is part of the larger Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act that expires in September.

“At the end of the day, the most important thing is that we get the safety technology that a lot of the world enjoys, the standard on our cars here, so that for that split second that a driver takes their eyes off the wheel … nobody has to have a life-impacting crash,” Claudia said.•