We have updates on the driver charged with murdering a cyclist yesterday and a whole lot more in today’s Feed.
In news from CA the driver that crossed 2 lanes of traffic and onto the shoulder to kill one and injure 2 and scare the poop out of 2 more cyclists was convicted of a previous DUI charge, which allows the DA to pursue murder charges for the cyclist that was killed, and pursuing them he is. Drunk Driver Faces Murder Charges In Cyclist Death and Cyclist Killed, 2 Injured in Hit-And-Run Crash also Canyon Country man held in death of cyclist also Driver booked on murder charge in cyclist’s death Finally a drunk driving law I can get behind, instead of trying to avoid the drunk drivers that ignore most of the DUI laws out there.
More on the cyclist killed by another DUI hit-and-run in AZ. Bicyclist killed on his way to work ID’d No word yet on how many previous arrests this driver had for DUI…
A cyclist is killed by a left cross maneuver performed by a 16 YO suspected drunk driver. There are just so many things wrong about that statement that I can’t even begin to say. Waukesha Bicyclist Killed in Iowa County and Cyclist killed near Dodgeville remembered as caring leader According to reports the cyclist was near the bottom of a long downhill run doing a fair share of the speed limit and the pickup truck turned across his path leaving him no time to react before hitting the passenger side door. He was killed despite wearing a helmet.
More on the NC rider who was killed making a left turn. Cyclist who led others is killed Reports sent me by people at the scene as well as through comments here at the blog say he was at an uncontrolled intersection where he turned in front of the oncoming car and was killed. Speculation was that perhaps his vision had been impaired by sweat or something ahead of him or that he misjudged the speed of the oncoming vehicle.
Closer to home for me is this report on a hit-and-run in Corpus Christi. Bicyclist Hit By Truck, Remains In The Hospital Hit from behind and then fled the scene, is there anything more cowardly? I’m sure there is but one of the advantages of brain damage is I can’t think of any at the moment.
A wreck in MD that sounds like the wreck we just had in CA at the top of the post, only in a smaller scale. Bicyclist killed by car Crossed the centerline and hit the cyclist on the opposite shoulder of the road head on. “A preliminary investigation indicated that alcohol was not a contributing factor in the accident.” Well, if he crossed the centerline and hit a cyclist head on while sober, he should face homicide charges. And I’m sorry about all these non-avoidable wrecks today, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I should probably make some snarky comment about the cyclist’s helmet not preventing the wreck, but I’m just not in the mood today, too many are dead and injured from drivers behaving stupidly.
And somebody in a pickup truck did something to a (presumably) female on a bicycle in CA near Palm Springs, but that is as much as the paper will tell us. Bicyclist injured in collision From the torrents of information you would think this was a UK report. The only reason I think it might be a female cyclist was the pronouns used to describe her injuries.
A SWSS or SWCC wreck in NE. Bicyclist dies after collision with pickup in Neb. Another wreck where the media pussyfoots around the story. “Hastings Police Sgt. Paul Weber says 26-year-old Kelly Bishop was struck after he rode his bicycle in front of the truck at an intersection Saturday evening.” And that tells us what, exactly? If the truck collided with the bike the bike would have to be in front of the truck somehow, the cyclist could have been going in the same direction in the same lane and the driver hit him from behind, or the cyclist could have been crossing the road (to get to the chicken) and the driver hit him, or any number of things. Just a note, the acronym that Chip Seal invented when this blog was being posted over on MySpace (SWSS) is now gone international, I saw it in a UK bike blog mentioned as a “derisive” term. A few more posts in a few more other blogs and it will be viral…
A cyclist gets clipped in Upstate NY. Photo: Bicyclist injured when hit by truck in Medina That black thing to the far right of the picture appears to be a hat, it is a wonder that the cyclist only got a broken ankle from this wreck. The bike is scrap. The up close picture looks like a Salvidor Dali painting with bicycle parts replacing the famous clocks draped across the landscape. The only thing missing are the dead trees. as for what happened, your guess is as good as mine, the report says the driver didn’t see anyone in the crosswalk before proceeding but looked back after passing through and the cyclist and his bike were laying in the crosswalk he had just been through. I’m betting the only that saved the cyclist was the low speed at which the truck was going when it hit him.
A Newfie rides into a truck? Cyclist death investigation raises questions Apparently the cyclist rode into a parked truck. What makes this an issue is Newfies are like the Polacks of Canada, and this is just too much like a Newfie joke (Texans may substitute Aggie for Polack). Nobody wants to be the punch line of a real-life Polack, Aggie, or Newfie joke, and some in the community are requesting another investigation. It has been a long time since I lived in Argentia, but I still remember hearing Newfie jokes.
Another wreck in East Canadia. Cyclist killed after being hit by bus in East Pubnico, N.S. All I really know about this wreck was the cyclist was killed by a bur while riding on the shoulder of the road. No mention of which direction the cyclist was riding when hit, why the bus was driving on the shoulder, or anything else that might help me tell you how to avoid this wreck should you find yourself on the shoulder of a road in Nova Scotia with a bus bearing down on you.
A UK boxer is stupid behind the wheel of a very expensive car. Amir Khan questioned by police after cyclist injured Again it’s a UK media story so there are strict limits about what they can say, but this is what the Michael Jackson story would have looked like in the UK press.
Two articles on the practice of riding a bicycle with alcohol in your blood. Beers and bikes: do they really mix? and the follow up article More on how we might handle bars and bicycling… The consensus seems to be that (booze and cars = always bad) because of the nature of cars to insulate you from knowing how drunk you are and in the amount of damage you can do to other people with a car, and (booze and bicycles = sometimes bad) but nowhere as near as bad as cars because bikes are self limiting about the amount of BAC you can have and still be able to ride, and also because you are much more likely to injure yourself riding drunk than to injure someone else.
And in NJ they are trying something old, teaching kids how to ride bicycles in the street. Bike program teaches kids how to ride Laws, signaling, lane position, all the things you have to do to stay alive. Sometimes Joisy completely rebuts the jokes…
More later, maybe.
Billed @$.02, Opus
