Drivers are batshit crazy, and the Feed

OK what do I base this headline on? Sunday’s SUV rollover wreck with bicycle collateral damage? Several SWSS wrecks in the Feed? The driver that pulled out into my left hip with his passenger side headlight as he made a left turn and I rode past on the through street? Or all of the above? If you answered “all of the above” DING! you got it right. That collision I mentioned I was in was not serious (I didn’t even slow down much, much less get knocked off Blue) but it could have been with just a few more mm of moving forward on the part of the driver, and he knew it. He followed about 200 feet behind me all the way to the next stop light and left about 5 car lengths between us while we waited for the light. I have never seen a more sheepish looking driver in my life. So maybe they’re not all batshit crazy, but the problem is there are enough of them on the roads to make riding a bicycle like playing Russian Roulette. The difference is there are a lot more empty chambers when you play it with a bicycle…

Of course not all the crazy is on the part of the drivers, as this article proves. Grabbing a Tow Has Tragic Results For Young Cyclist The cyclist in this wreck was “skitching”, grabbing a tow off a vehicle not designed for such activity (there are such vehicles, they have grab handles that extend to the rear of the vehicle in such a way that it’s hard to lose balance and if you do you fall well clear of the vehicle). To avoid, well, DUH! More Spanish Springs boy suffers head injury trying to grab pickup from bicycle

Moving closer to WoaB World HQ in the beautiful suburbs of Hell. Cyclist Seriously Injured in Vehicle Accident Looking at the pictures this was obviously a right hook, as the cycle front wheel was hit from the left, and there is a big dent in the passenger-side rear fender of the truck, and the wreck scene was at a driveway entrance. I couldn’t read the brand on the bike, but that frame design looks very familiar from a high-end touring bike I saw a few years ago. Anyway, to avoid remember that every driveway is an intersection and use intersection protocols.

More on the “investigation” of a cyclist hit head on by a driver driving in the bike lane on the wrong side of the road in the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bicycle. Fort Myers cyclist’s parents losing patience with speed of crash investigation Eight months for a toxicology screening for a driver that has already had a DUI conviction? Are they just trying to wait until the heat blows over so they can quietly drop this case? This is one of the reasons why it’s so dangerous to ride a bike in FL, they are missing the third E, enforcement. Well actually they are missing all of them, education, engineering and enforcement. It’s just that in this article the Enforcement part of the triad is so glaringly missing.

A SWSS in NC. Teen bicyclist hurt south of Shelby The cyclist was hit head-on by a 75YO driver. I have such a driver in my family, and his SA is not always the best, even after his cataract surgery put in new lenses. And he tends to drift in and out of his lane…

More on a PA hit-and-run. Suspect in deadly hit-and-run surrenders This was the cyclist hit by a dark green Saturn last week, giving the driver ample time to sober up after the wreck. The cyclist was riding home after a late night shift at UPS…There may have been video of this wreck. More Police: Vehicle involved in deadly hit and run located and Driver Of Deadly Hit And Run Crash In Harrisburg Surrenders to Police also UPDATE(2): Driver turns himself in in deadly hit and run OK we now know that the driver had a suspended license, why it was suspended I don’t know yet. And there were several different colors for the Saturn in the wreck…

And final link from Enn Zed is to the trial of a man accused of causing a cyclist to fall in front of a moving vehicle by presenting the “door prize”. Witness predicted cyclist would be in accident – court Well, that link certainly has changed since I first did the filter. Now it’s a diatribe against the victim in the wreck…

And that’s all the links I have for you today. Now I have to go deliver the mortgage check, as well as the toxic recyclables. I have a bunch of defunct CFL bulbs, as well as SLA batteries that won’t take a charge, and there is a local place that just opened up a couple of months ago that accepts such things for recycling.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Dealing with a damaged Blue, and the Feed

Poor old Blue got knocked over in the bike rack at church yesterday and the front fender ended up smashed into the tire. It’s a simple thing to fix, there is just the one fender stay that is bent causing the fender to rub, but fixing it requires taking the whole front apart to get access to the damaged part. It isn’t like I could just grab the stay and pull it into position (I tried that) this will require use of a hammer and dolly to fix. As I have a great deal of things I have to do outside the house today I will have to forego the cosmetic repairs to concentrate on the functional repairs.

To open the CARnage, because it’s in the same state and also because it’s weird, an SUV rolls over on a bicycle in Lubbock, killing 2 in the SUV and the cyclist. (Updated) Driver arrested, hospitalized after three die in pickup vs. bicycle crash near Texas Tech That was the original link Accident involving SUV and bicycle kills three and 3 die in accident involving SUV and bicycle from a more local to me source SUV-Bicycle Accident Near Texas Campus Leaves 3 Dead And from Faux News 3 Killed in Lubbock SUV-Bicycle Crash There were several other links that were basically just repeats of the AP story condensed from the Avalanche-Journal article, complete with the original headline. As it appears now the cyclist wasn’t even on the same street as the weapon vehicle, that’s how out of control the weapon vehicle was. The driver of the weapon vehicle is facing manslaughter charges if he ever leaves the hospital. As for avoiding a wreck like this as a cyclist, are you kidding me? This wreck started a half a block away on a different street than the cyclist was riding on. It would require preternatural SA, or psychic powers, to avoid being caught up in a wreck like this.

Moving on a cyclist is killed in VA. Bicyclist killed on U.S. 17 in Stafford Reading the comments we find the cyclist was fully lighted and reflectorized far in excess of legal minimums, but was blamed for the wreck because he was “riding in the travel lane” when he was hit from behind.

A little north of that a PA cyclist is killed on his way home from work by a hit-and-run driver. Harrisburg bicyclist killed in hit-and-run Hit from behind and left to die, and more than half the comments blamed the cyclist for being there to get hit.

A cyclist in OR is hit-from-behind in broad daylight. Cyclist struck by car, killed in Polk County I noticed that the usual “dark clothing” bit was not included so he cyclist was likely wearing a glow in the dark clown costume.

A cyclist is killed in the Great White North, but aside from that nothing more is known about by the public this wreck. Rider killed in Brantford Not even enough of a location to find it on Google Maps.

LifeStyle as a memorial ride is held in Baton Rouge for a cyclist killed and another cyclist critically injured by a drunk driver. Memorial bike ride for Nathan Crowson

And that’s all the links I have today, fortunately.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

I finally got that image I was looking for, Wreck-Free Sunday

Now I have to figure out how to get that image out of the library and into this post.

Incidentally, image © Winston Rowntree, 2012 http://www.viruscomics.com.

Now how the preparations are going for the Bike MS, I still haven’t been getting much in the way of long rides but I have been working on my climbing skills by riding in my 20 MPH gears all the time. This increases my low cadence power immensely, in fact it upped my average speed by over a full MPH to just under 13 for the church round trip. Apparently my endurance cadence is in the high 90 to low 100 RPM range but I make the most power under or around 70. Whodathunkit?

The other Bike MS preparations are in slow more at the moment as we have until April to get things really rocking and the $$ collected. Our web mistress is trying to get the code to install the button to send donations to a separate account in our PayPal account so that we can keep donations to Bike MS separate from donations to our church (hint: Do both). Our artists are still learning how to draw on jersey material, and we have some incredibly talented artists so I am expecting to have the best looking custom jersey at the event. I don’t know how long it will last after the event, but I will look good during the event.

In grandbaby news, the due date has been refined to September 6, 2012. The balance bike project is getting refined as the rake and head angle are being set to give a zero trail so the kid has quick handling to teach how to balance on 2 wheels. The tricycle is still in concept stage as I try to decide what kind of trike would be best for indoctrinating my grandchild into the recumbent lifestyle. A tadpole trike would be better at growing with the grandchild, but a delta would have significantly more “cool” factor as it would look more like other kids’ trikes. Not to mention that a rear-steer delta could “spin out” or “drift” by using the pendulum effect to break traction on the rear wheels. Now for adults that would be a problem, but for kids that would be a positive thing. It may have been more than 4 decades since I was a little kid, but I still remember that I wanted to do the handbrake 180 like the commercial for the original Marx Big Wheel. The trick for that was you needed to have really short legs to do that as the rear wheels had to be lightly loaded for that stunt to work, and by the time the Big Wheel came out my legs were already too long. To be brutally honest I was outside the size range for the Big Wheel by a standard deviation or more, as my butt would just fit on one if the backrest was completely removed. “Butt” for my grandkid I can make the trike to his or her specific size, or make it grow to fit the child so they can do bootlegger turns to their heart’s content. Actually for a rear-steer trike it would be a reverse 180 facing backwards. I could “grow” the trike by turning the seat around and moving the pedals forward from what had been the front wheel that is now the rear wheel, and the steering is now in the front instead of the rear, et voila what had been a front-drive rear-steer delta for a toddler is now a tadpole trike for a 4-6 YO. Good enough until I can make a mini-StratusXP clone that will grow through their tween years.

And now I need to veg out with some comics and a cuppa, before I have to help with evening services tonight.

PSA, opus

Surrounded by crazy, and the Feed

We have a person that rents a room from us here at WoaB World HQ in the suburbs of Hell, who is a little strange. She has “issues” to put it mildly. I have this habit of keeping my projects out where I can pick them up and work on them as I get inspired, which she hates. So she “tidies” my stuff up, which I hate because then I can’t find where she puts parts and tools I have left out (left out on purpose). Well recently she went beyond her best. She had been putting my stuff into boxes until there was no more stuff to put in boxes, so now she’s putting the boxes… in bigger boxes. After she did that she rearranged the plates in the cabinet, according to her ideas of how plates should be stacked.

Up first is a bike hit by a train with fortunately only property damage, not a fatality. Man hurt after bike hit by train in Industry I don’t know if the crossing signals were working properly or if the cyclist ignored the gates, but missing a similar wreck is simple. Remember Stop. Look, and Listen from way back in the what was it, the ’60s? Trains are very easy to avoid if first you only cross the tracks, don’t ride on them or beside them, second never go under or around the grossing gates, and third stay away from the tracks when there is a train coming.

More on the AL death of a teen cyclist. Columbia High School students, faculty mourning 15-year-old student killed riding his bike home from school We now know that the cyclist was riding salmon for some reason. But that still doesn’t explain being hit from the right side, unless the cyclist was trying to move to the side of the road that would be right if the road was 2-way, or trying to get in position to get on the correct side of the road at the next cut-through. Anyway, this could be avoided had the cyclist been on the correct side of the road. Infrastructure changes that could help would be a bicycle cut-through of the median near bicycle parking at the school to remove the temptation to ride salmon to save a few feet of riding in the wrong direction.

A MO wreck in a parking lot highlights the chaos in such places. Wednesday accident The article seems to indicate that the driver failed to maintain a proper lookout when he hit the cyclist as the end of the article admonishes drivers to be aware of bicycles at dusk and in other low-light conditions. Other than that I can’t tell you what you could do as a cyclist to avoid parking lot wrecks, as most places are surrounded by seas of mostly-empty parking required by zoning. If you want to ride a bike to do things, you have to ride through parking lots with the cars even if you rode on the sidewalk to get there.

From Oz what should be the final word on a terrible bicycle wreck. Seven years’ jail for man whose ‘despicable’ act ruined Heather’s life This was the driver that made the U-turn to hit the cyclist, which he claimed was not an intentional act (hitting the cyclist, not the U-turn, he made the U-turn on purpose). Police couldn’t prove the wreck was intentional, but he was convicted of being criminally negligent, and now he will spend at least the next 5 1/2 years in jail. Anyway, hit-from-behind wreck, using the protocols might have averted the wreck.

From Enn Zed, a driver that pulled out in front of a cyclist giving no time to react has to pay for medical expenses and a new bike. Injuries to rider cost driver $1500 The unusual thing about this wreck was the witness that said the cyclist had the green light when the driver pulled in front of her, otherwise it probably would have been another “cyclist runs a red light” wreck.

LifeStyle in Baton Rouge as cyclists protest the hit-and-run fatality of a cyclist by a drunk driver. Critical Mass ride honors lost cyclist, injured survivor makes first sign of recovery While I’m gratified to read about the continued recovery of the injured cyclist, that still doesn’t make up for the deceased one.

Legal Infrastructure! in PA. Pennsylvania Bicycle Accident Lawyer Urges Adoption of ‘Safe Passing’ Law for Cyclists’ Safety Yes, hold the people with the WMD accountable for controlling them and not hitting other people that don’t use WMD to travel.

And that’s all the links I have today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

I just made a massive change in my browser, and the Feed

One of the features of my OS is they use an open-source browser that gets frequent updates as security holes are found and corrected, or as non-standard web sites cause the browser to break. Up until today I was on a custom-for-the-OS version of Firefox3.6. This afternoon I’m running FF9.0.1 for Ubuntu, with a new spell-check and a bunch of other features I still haven’t figured out yet. I haven’t quite got the handle on things yet so this might take a bit longer than usual to write.

One of the big stories in the Feed today was the 65YO cyclist that shot two of the three teenagers who were assaulting him. As this was not a wreck but an assault by pedestrians on the cyclist I won’t be linking any more articles about this, but I thought I would let you know about it.

Up first is a teenager hit mid-block in AL. Teenage Bicyclist Killed in Accident The odd thing is the pavement markings indicate the cyclist was hit in the inside lane of a divided highway, but the bike shows signs of being hit from the right, like he was crossing the road or someone drove at him deliberately as they passed.

A CA rider is at fault for being hit from behind because he wasn’t wearing a glow-in-the-dark clown costume. Man riding his bike at night hit by car, injured Obviously having more reflective material helps drivers see you, but I’m getting sick and tired of drivers driving faster than they can see to stop and then blaming the cyclist for what was the driver’s fault.

A wreck murder in NJ. New Brunswick Man Killed in Hit-and-Run Wednesday Have I mentioned lately how much I hate hit-and-run drivers? How about hit-and-run drivers that cross into the oncoming lane to hit a cyclist head on? There was no way to avoid this wreck short of riding somewhere else, this was either a driver so drunk they couldn’t stay on the road, or a deliberate attempt to kill a cyclist. More Driver sought in fatal hit and run in New Jersey and Driver Sought In New Brunswick Hit-And-Run Fatality another one Driver wanted in deadly NJ hit & run also Family Man Headed Home From Work Dies In Hit And Run not done yet Search For Hit-And-Run Driver Who Fatally Mowed Down Bicyclist Last one Authorities search for driver who fled after fatally striking bicyclist in New Brunswick

A pedestrian walks in front of a cyclist on a MUP crossing a bridge, pedestrian ends up in the road. Pedestrian Critically Injured In Clark Memorial Bridge Crash I don’t know how you can avoid a wreck like this as the MUP was clearly sub-standard, and barely qualified as a sidewalk.

Left cross in NC . Truck hits ASU cycling president No way to avoid this except to be aware that every driveway is an intersection and use intersection protocols.

A cyclist is killed JRA in the Great White North. Cyclist killed in crash and Brantford cyclist, 60, killed in crash Not much in this one other than the cyclist was not at fault. I couldn’t tell you the mode of the wreck, cyclist’s direction of travel, or anything about the location from the articles linked.

Pedestrians colliding with cyclists is a minor theme today as we have another one in the UK. Rider falls foul of pedestrian walking in cycle lane The cyclist tried to pass the pedestrian who wouldn’t get back on his side of the MUP.

Another cyclist in the UK has a wreck dodging a pedestrian in the street. Cyclist badly injured after freak crash This goes to show that when it comes to crashes, it’s much better for the pedestrian if the other traffic is a cyclist rather than a motor vehicle.

LifeStyle about the Baton Rouge cyclist killed by a drunk driver. Memorial held for cyclist killed in crash “The Baton Rouge Police Department reported the man accused of hitting Crowson, Joseph Branch, had a blood-alcohol level of .307” That is very close to the level of death by alcohol poisoning for non-alcoholics.

And a LifeStyle link from closer to home here at WoaB World HQ in the suburbs of Hell. In memory of Megan: 300 cyclists compete in race Megan was a local racer that was killed training for her college racing team back east, in the same general area as the left-cross wreck mentioned a few paragraphs back.

And that are all the links I have for you today. Now I have to go grocery shopping with Blue.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

I saw something funny and I can’t figure out how to share it

While perusing my de-stress system (I read about 40 web comics a day after I filter and post the Feed) I got a link to a comic that was a different riff on the current subject of the comic I was reading the comments for (that subject being cop vs sphinx). There were two panels in that comic I wanted to share with you, that were standing somewhat alone on the right-hand side of the page. I’m going to try to pull those from the rest of the comic to post here, but in case I can’t, here’s the link to the whole page third anniversary comic

I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff off my hard drive to enable my system to run updates and fix security holes in my OS, and I think I might have dumped my image manipulation program during the purge, but if I can find it I’ll post those 2 panels to a specific blog post all by its lonesome.

PSA, Opus

Still drying out, and the Feed

We are still trying to get soaked wearables dried out here in the suburbs of Hell where we had another day of downpours during the morning commute. We are getting lots of runoff which is good for the local lakes and reservoirs, but we need to get deep soil moisture back for this drought to truly be over.

On a different note the battery pack I was building for my new tail light has a bad cell that will have to be replaced. No biggee except it’s in the middle of the pack and will require un-gluing it from its neighbors as well as unsoldering the interconnects, then replacing all of that when the new cell is installed. In case you were wondering when I did the last burn test of the pack I was checking cell voltages as well as pack voltage and that cell went consistently bad first, dropping to essentially zero volts 3 hours into the first burn test, and under safe minimum levels 1.5 hours into the second burn test, for what should have been a 12 hour burn test to safe minimum voltages. This is where the OCD comes in handy, had I not been so obsessive about details I would have been out on the road when the pack failed instead of watching volt meters at the dining room table. The world needs people like me, I’m just not sure it needs so many people like me.

Up first is a new technology invented to protect us from hazards created by another new technology, the cell phone. This little box will prevent your kid from texting and crashing I foresee a day when technology like this will be required for all new cars with all new cell phones required to function in concert with it. The only place you will be able to text or take calls while in motion in a vehicle will be public transit. You will have the choice of staying connected or with using a car, which I think is a perfectly rational place to be.

Recall news has some replacement handlebars being recalled because they can break in use. Bicycle Handlebars Recalled by Euro Asia Imports; Handlebars Can Break Resulting in Loss of Control and Fall Hazard Yeah, get those replaced. Instructions for getting a replacement are supposedly in a link in the article. I didn’t check that link as none of my bikes are equipped with the recalled handlebars. I do know their link to the picture of the recalled item is broken.

A common theme of the Feed today is cyclist-involved shootings. One teen killed, another wounded in shooting along Schuylkill River trail At this point all I know is the cyclist was in a confrontation with 3 teenage boys and 2 of the boys were shot. Who had the gun, if any of them, is known only to LEO as I compose this post. From what I know about civilian shootings any of the people could have had the gun including one of the boys that was shot. More Man, 65, Kills Teen Robber That Knocks Him Off Bicycle The armed bike in the picture with the article is obviously only transporting the weapon, not having it ready for use. Had it been intended for quick use the weapon would have been positioned so that it could be mounted to the shoulder without having to dismount from the bicycle.

Continuing on that same track we have a man being charged in the shooting of a cyclist. Trial nearing for man accused of killing Watsonville teen in 2005 Sheesh! Coming up on 7 years after the crime here. The shooter running for 4 years and then getting caught breaking the law in another state had a bit to do with that, but they still could have started the trial any time in the last 3 years.

Now we find that both cyclists hit by a DUI driver in Baton Rouge were employed by TV stations, just not the same ones. Mother of injured cyclist staying strong The dead cyclist was employed by the ABC affiliate, the surviving cyclist is employed by the NBC affiliate. The DUI driver will be an unpaid employee of the state shortly…

More on the Lefèvre wreck in NYC, as we discover that the Brooklyn DA’s office has an investigating unit for investigating vehicular crimes not submitted by the NYPD for prosecution. Now why would they have someone to do that? Brooklyn DA Reviewing Deadly Cyclist Hit-and-Run After NYPD Investigation Criticized Why indeed?

Another report on the driver that ran over a 6YO cyclist riding on the sidewalk in the Great White North. Driver charged in young cyclist’s death I know this looks exactly like the link from yesterday, but this is from a different media outlet.

Another Canuckistan wreck, this one an apparent hit-from-behind. Regina cyclist killed in collision At this point the released details are sparse but both vehicles travelling in the same direction is a good indication that this was a hit-from-behind, use the protocols to avoid a similar wreck.

A Ghost Bike stands silent guard over an intersection that has just gotten a Barnes Dance pedestrian crossing. At ‘Ghost Bike’ crossing, pedestrians will be able to stop traffic 4 ways And yeah, I don’t know what a bicycle fatality has to do with improving pedestrian facilities either, but I’m glad some good has come from it.

Infrastructure! in SC. Charleston cyclists want access to bridge Well it’s either let them use the bridge that’s already there, or pay to build a new bridge, or force drivers from a different bridge for sole bike/ped use.

And that’s all the links I had today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Someone left the faucet running outside, and the Feed

The skies opened up over the night and caused Mrs. the Poet to have to return home and change to dry clothing after getting soaked through trying to get to her bus stop this morning, then ask her boss for a ride to work. Under normal conditions her wind jacket is water-resistant enough to keep her dry and comfortable in the rain until she gets on the bus, but this morning was like stepping under a “shower” that consisted of several garden hoses spraying the same spot at once, only it was everywhere. We had flooded streets and flash floods this morning until the rain finally stopped. The thing that struck me as unusual was early yesterday evening this was a gentle rain that looked to soak into the ground and bring back some of the depleted aquifers in the area. Then it turned into torrents, which is totally backwards to how things work here in TX most of the time. Our usual is buckets of rain in a few minutes followed by a couple hours of steady rain, not several hours of steady rain followed by an hour of torrents accompanied by buckets.

Up first because of proximity to WoaB HQ in the suburbs of Hell is a story of a hit-and-run where an important piece of the vehicle was left behind. License Plate Found After Deadly Texas Hit-And-Run Leads To Arrest and Bicyclist killed in hit & run in northwest Harris County The second link tells how LEO found the driver passed out in a stairwell with the keys to the van under his body, and that the driver got violent with police when they tried to arrest him. Given that it wasn’t his vehicle he was driving when he killed the cyclist I would say that handcuffing the driver to the steering wheel while the van was recycled would be a bit of an imposition on the actual vehicle owner, but then he showed poor judgement in lending it to a drunk. Maybe a short sentence as accessory to murder would improve his judgement. More Bicyclist killed in Cypress-area hit-and-run Ooh! the driver has a boo-boo on his head! another link Lost license plate leads to suspect in traffic death also License plate leads to suspect, Houston-area death From the other links we find that this was a hit-from-behind wreck of a cyclist that was taking the lane to be visible, and that the cyclist was knocked to the left into the median. this information tells me that the driver might have been in a rage at the cyclist in front of him, when combined with his violence at being arrested. So there is a very good possibility that a savvy prosecutor could present capital murder charges especially if the suspect had a previous DUI making this DUI a felony. Under TX law a death that occurs during the commission of a felony may be prosecuted as a death penalty case even if the death is an accident. If the driver had a previous DUI then he is in serious caca now.

Moving a bit closer is a single link to a hit-and-run wreck in Austin. Cyclist killed in overnight hit-and-run crash Hit-from-behind wreck by a pickup truck in TX, the only thing missing is a recording of the driver telling the front-seat passenger to “Hold my beer” to complete the scenario as a perfect stereotypical Texas bicycle death. To avoid mount a claymore mine to a 1″ thick steel plate with a shock-sensitive detonator facing to the rear. It won’t prevent the wreck but it will do as much damage to the truck as the truck does to you and prevent the -and-run of the hit-and-run. The 1″ plate will prevent additional injury from the back-blast of the claymore mine and redirect as much of the explosive force into the weapon vehicle as possible. And I’m only half-serious on this. More that showed up as I as composing this post Cyclist killed by hit and run driver identified Also Community Briefing: Cyclist killed in hit-and-run; Pflugerville council looks at land deals

More on the survivor of a Baton Rouge DUI hit-and-run reported here earlier. Long road to recovery for injured cyclist And if you read the copyright statement on the bottom of the article you find the station that posted this was just down the very street that this wreck happened on.

Moving west to AZ a cyclist is killed running a red light according to the only surviving witness, the driver that killed him. Mesa bicyclist struck, killed Saturday evening Since the only other witness to the wreck is dead, all we really know is there was a cyclist on a custom bicycle in the intersection at the same time as a car was driving through. Use intersection protocols to avoid a similar wreck.

More on the GA cyclist killed by a police vehicle. Cyclist killed in collision with Savannah-Chatham police van identified Well after being hit by the police vehicle the bike no longer had any lights or reflectors attached, what it was equipped with prior to the wreck with 2 trained forensics investigators inside the weapon vehicle is entirely a different question. It is known that descriptions of what he was wearing differed sharply between the official account and from those that knew the victim, to wit the “dull orange” jacket in the police version is a hunter’s blaze orange vest from those that knew the victim. Also the friends of the victim claim there were reflectors on the back of the bike prior to the wreck that police claim were not there after the wreck. And I smell fish in Denmark. (literary aside there, from “Hamlet”)

More on the botched investigation by NYPD of the Lefevre hit-and-run last year. Dead cyclist’s family says trucker should be charged We now know the cyclist was proceeding to the right of the truck as it faded left without signalling that the driver was planning a right turn, and that they were going through a green light, And that the truck hit the cyclist twice from behind, once with the passenger side bumper and a second time with the driver side front tire while dragging the bicycle under the truck.

Moving to the Great White North, a driver that ran a 6YO cyclist over on a sidewalk after running a stop sign is facing criminal charges. Driver charged in young cyclist’s death If convicted the driver could face a severe slap on the wrist for his offenses.

Still in the GWN a cyclist uses his body to smash a van windshield. Cyclist injured in downtown collision Not much on the wreck aside from the fact that the windshield was smashed and the cyclist “injured” his leg.

Infrastructure! news from the suburbs of Hell. Study: Dallas commuters among nation’s least likely to bike, walk to work and Dallas commuters hate to walk or bike to work, study suggests Yay, we beat OKC and Ft. Worth! Except both of them have more bike lanes than Dallas (or Garland for that matter), which isn’t hard to do when 20 feet of bike lane would beat both cities’ combined bike lane mileage.

And that’s all the links I could find today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Still trying to get the taste of W TX out of my mouth, and the Feed

In case that headline confuses you, we had a dust storm blow through the suburbs of Hell this past Sunday, and I was out riding to evening services in it. While the gritty taste in my mouth is gone the dust that I inhaled through my nose has not yet migrated out (I give it another day or 2 before the normal cleaning mechanisms of my body get rid of all of it), making the taste of West Texas dust an overlay on everything I eat or drink. And yes it really was that dusty a ride on Sunday evening. And yes my nose is really that sensitive to tiny amounts of chemicals.

We only have two of our wreck links from North America today. Yes, there are only 2 of them as I begin this part of the post. First is another link to the lame-brain who was riding salmon and ninja on an Interstate highway at night. Bicyclist Killed Traveling on I-5 Steve A called me on my analysis of this wreck in the comments yesterday, and I should have made clear that while most of my anger at this wreck was directed at the numb-nuts who was riding ninja on a freeway, I was still not happy with the fact that the Interstate system has put up walls all over the country that sometimes require walking or riding 20 miles just to get across a road, legally. (Common sign in western US states: “Next exit 25 miles“).

Moving to NC is a trial of a driver accused of being DUI when he hit and killed 2 cyclists. Venue change denied in bike riders’ deaths The county is going to have to pay extra because this guy ran over and killed 2 highly respected and well-known members of the community and hope that the people they find are both fair and intelligent, and have no access to local media. Considering that “local” in this case extended state-wide and a little beyond, I think their jobs are cut out for them. If I was the prosecutor in this case I would only allow people that answered “yes” to this question: “Do bicycle riders have a right to ride on the road?” to be on the jury. If anyone thinks that bicycle riders don’t have a right to the road then they might think that the drunk driver was justified in hitting them, regardless of what the law says…

In Oz a “footy” player has a single-vehicle wreck and does in a few of his ribs against a tree. Ron Barassi cracks ribs after crashing bike into a tree in Sandringham Old guy, but still athletic, just not as sturdy as he used to be after a lifetime of running into other people. Also trees are a bit “firmer” than people.

Infrastructure! news from NJ by way of the UK. Essex County Not Liable in Cyclist Death Apparently in NJ you use the infrastructure at your own risk, the government is not responsible if bad design or maintenance causes your death or serious injury… TANJ!

And that’s all the links I have today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Bean day, and a weird Feed

Today is Bean day at my house. This is the day when Mrs. the Poet goes to clean the church and gets home late so she doesn’t have time to cook dinner, so I make dinner instead. There is a dish that I really like that takes so long to cook that if I want it I have to make it, a Cajun-style 3 (sometimes 4) bean and rice meal. To give an idea of how long this takes to cook, the last step is adding the brown rice to the pot 2 hours before the intended serving time, and sometimes we have to delay dinner because the rice isn’t fully cooked yet. Because of the way beans cook and because we have one member of the household that doesn’t like rice in her beans I have to get them mostly done before adding spices which gets done 20-30 minutes before adding the rice. So for a dinner that is due to hit the table at 1800 I start preparations about 1030 by warming 10 cups of water in a microwave for 15 minutes while I add the beans to a crock pot that is warming up. Doing this takes an hour out of the cooking time as I used to have to wait for the pot to get hot and bring the water to a simmer after adding cold water to the pot with the beans. It is really an easy dish to prepare if you’re going to be in the house all day long to stir the beans every so often. I’m the only person that works at home in our house so because I like this dish and I have to be at home all day anyway I get to cook it. I used to try to cook it on the stove, which was a real hoot trying to adjust the heat input between the 1 and 2 setting on the dial, and there’s no way in the world to cook this on my camp stove.

Up first because of a freaky coincidence is a report on a DUI hitting 2 cyclists in Baton Rouge. Cyclist dies after being hit by alleged drunk driver and A Cyclist is killed Saturday night while riding down Perkins Road and Friends mourn bicyclist killed; call for safety and Cyclist dies after being hit by alleged drunk driver Now here is the freaky coincidence, Goodbye, Batman… That blog post was on my dashboard as I was preparing to compose this post, and I clicked on it because… I don’t know, I’m a bit of a comic book geek and I know people that think of their comic book obsession as like an addiction? I think that blog post and those news articles are about the same person. Anyway hit-from-behind but the driver hit 2 cyclists, meaning there was not enough room on the road for that drunk and any bicycles and him not hit one. The usual rant about drunk drivers should be handcuffed to the steering wheel as their cars get run through the shredder and recycled, only this one should be pumped full of Red Bull and Monster Energy first so he’s alert when he takes his last drive.

In the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike, another victim of hit-and-run. Dade City bicyclist hurt in hit and run Another FL hit-and-run with nothing that could identify the make or model of the weapon vehicle in the debris from the wreck. All they have for sure is a light green paint job, which may be changed at any time in the future…

Moving a bit north from FL a GA cyclist is killed by cops. Cyclist dies after collision with Savannah-Chatham police vehicle The fact that nothing was said about the cyclist not having lights or reflective clothing indicates to me that the cyclist had done everything in his power to make himself visible on the bike and got hit anyway by a driver not paying attention to the roads. Since the mode of wreck wasn’t given I can’t say what you could have done to avoid a similar wreck except not ride a bike in Savannah GA. More VIDEO: Garden City cyclist dies in collision with Metro police van and Bicyclist dies after collision with police forensics van near Savannah also SCMPD forensics vehicle hits bicyclist I finally got a picture I could see rather than videos and that bike was hit from behind. I couldn’t see reflectors or lights but if there was a light it would have been turned off after the wreck and there was no lightsource directed at the bike from the camera so any reflectors would not have been visible, The reflective trim on the firefighters’ gear was not reflecting much so a bike reflector that was not pointed directly at the camera would not have been very visible at all.

A CA single vehicle wreck that was on the property of a skate park, as I read the link before putting it here it wasn’t stated if the kid was riding in the park itself or just on the property. Boy injured at skate park, airlifted to hospital Since the mode of wreck wasn’t given, just the injury, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this might have been mitigated with a helmet.

Also from CA is a cyclist shot by LEO for refusing to stop. LA deputies shoot man after foot chase If the cops try to pull you over while you’re riding your bike, pull over and stop. And for gawd’s sake don’t pull up your pants…

Moving a bit up the coast to OR a transient cyclist trying to get across a freeway is hit and killed. Bicyclist Killed Crossing I-5 Identified I consider this as much an infrastructure failure as I do a stupid act on the part of the cyclist. We have created walls across the landscape that are impassable without access to a motor vehicle that grants the ability to go 10 miles out of your way to get across this highway. Now I don’t know if this was a 10 mile or 1 mile detour or if there was a crossing point nearby that the cyclist didn’t know about because it required local knowledge, but I’m still placing partial blame on a hazard created by the high speed highway with limited access to cross it. And a lot of blame on the cyclist who was trying to cross it by riding salmon. Another link Cyclist killed crossing Interstate 5 near Cottage Grove

A semi-legal ICE-assist bike is hit in Oz with near-fatal results. Quick CPR gives man his chance Nothing about the wreck except that it happened at a “dangerous” intersection, so the best I can give you is intersection protocols to avoid.

Infrastructure! news from Chicago. Women drive, walk and ride the El, but what about bikes? The answer is that using a bicycle for transportation in the US is something very similar to an extreme sport, requiring extensive safety equipment and special gear just to survive a trip across town. Extreme sports are an almost male-exclusive territory.

Legal infrastructure in PA. New bill could make drivers give bicycles 4-foot berth This would be an improvement over the 3-foot laws many states have passed, but I’m concerned about the provision “as long as they don’t interfere with traffic” as that could be interpreted as the cyclist was “interfering” with traffic just by being there, as in the Reed Bates case in Ennis TX .

A call not to hate in Enn Zed followed by three comments that are all about hating cyclists. Time to move beyond bickering over bikes

Apparently drivers in Oz are “confused” by separated bike lanes. Safer cycling flagged

And final link is to a shocking revelation in the NYPD investigation of a hit-and-run fatality of cyclist Mathieu Lefevre. Trucker Struck Mathieu Lefevre With Driver’s Side Tire Before Leaving Scene That’s right, NYPD had video of the wreck showing the driver’s side front tire running over the cyclist before the driver left the scene. Not only that but that was the second time the truck hit him, the first being with the passenger side front bumper that caused the cyclist to go to the pavement, then he was run over by the driver’s side tire. But in this link NYPD File On Slain Cyclist Contains Photos Of Family, None Of Crash Scene we find that NYPD was more concerned over the activity of the victim’s family than actually doing something about the guy that drove the weapon vehicle…

And that’s all the links I have today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus