Serendipity, and the Feed

I almost never put a link in the first paragraph of these posts because I think that my readers should be eased in to the bloodbath I experience while creating these posts with a little humor or a slice of my life devoid of anything worse than “first world problems”. But as I was perusing my regular news items (you know, things that aren’t bicycle or motorcycle wrecks) I found this link to a TED talk. WATCH: The Crash That Couldn’t Break Me He was physically crippled and left a hemiplegic (paralyzed on one side of his body) where I lost my abilities as a public speaker and as a rapid problem solver (I can still solve problems that have to do with things in 3 dimensions, I just lack the ability to communicate what I know). But both our lives were changed in an instant by motor vehicle operators.

Tomorrow is the twelfth anniversary of the day I died, literally and figuratively. Literally because, according to people who claim to have been there, I had no pulse or respiration for about 2 minutes after my body came to rest after being hit with a pickup truck at between 45 and 65 MPH (with 60 MPH being the speed they give the highest probability for). The survival rate for 45 MPH impacts on unprotected human body is something between 10 and 5%, the survival rate for an impact at 65 MPH is zero to six significant digits, 60 MPH is zero to about 4 significant digits. I am a statistical anomaly, by all rights I should be a distant memory from over a decade ago. Figuratively because the damage I endured from the wreck left me a new person, with different abilities and strengths that what I was before. The problem is the new person would have been just fine had the old one never existed, but everyone was expecting the old one because we looked almost identical, the new me has a few more scars than the old me and a limp but otherwise you couldn’t tell the two of us apart, physically. But we are completely different people, the old me was a confident public speaker who actually made a meager living as a spoken word poet with a vocabulary of over 300,000 words. The new me has a bad stammer under stress and has about 3000 words available at any one time The old me was a talented singer with 3 octaves of powerful range and another of much less power that I could use with amplification. The new me can sometimes carry a tune, but has no control over what key that tune will be in. I could have had a fine life had I been born the way I am now because I would have made different choices and trained differently and been able to find work doing what I could do, but to go from the old me to the new me left me unable to find work or otherwise meaningful existence until I started this blog in 2006 on another hosting service. Now my meaning in life is poured out onto these pages (nearly) every day.

Up in OK there is only a vague understanding of the law by LEO, which is scary and sad. Bicycle riders hospitalized after separate crashes Both wrecks involved cyclists on through streets with the signal getting hit by a right turning vehicle, which should have been an automatic ticket for the drivers, but except for the one who was driving on an expired and/or suspended license nothing happened to either driver. I’m not even sure the driver with the suspended license was given a ticket for hitting the through cyclist. What needs to be done immediately is getting those LEO up to speed on what constitutes a violation of right-of-way before a cyclist gets killed from failure to yield right-of-way by someone driving a motor vehicle. Then build the physical infrastructure that keeps cyclists physically safe where laws are not enough.

A CA cyclist bunny-hopped a median and went into traffic? Really? Cyclist In Critical Condition After Darting In Front of Truck Well I can personally say stranger things have happened…

Still in CA an update on the SF cyclist killed by a box truck. SFPD Chief Apologizes For Behavior Of Cyclist-Shaming Sergeant The important part of the story is SFPD reviewed the video they initially said did not exist and discovered the truck driver was at fault and possibly criminally so. Whodathunkit? I’m waiting to see the video to either confirm or deny rumors that the truck driver was behind the cyclist and just turned into her at speed from the inside lane.

Speaking of CA wreck video, here’s one of a cyclist getting hit-and-run. Caught On Camera: Teen Injured In Hit and Run Accident Only this wasn’t an “accident” as the cyclist was clearly in front of the driver when the lanes swapped and the bike lane went to the left of the right-turn lane. CA law requires motor vehicle to yield to cyclists in front of them during this transition.

Another update on the cyclist killed by a minivan driver in CA. Cyclist Dies From Injuries in Tuesday Crash Still nothing official on the mode of the wreck as it could have been a right hook (at speed as the cyclist went across an exit-ramp-like turn lane) or a straight hit-from-behind…

And not done yet with the CA wrecks. San Leandro: 66-year-old bicyclist struck and killed on Marina Boulevard Another SWCC wreck, so going out on a limb here and stating the intersection protocols might have helped if this was a cyclist really crossing the road. Otherwise infrastructure to prevent. The interesting thing about this wreck is there was nothing about a driver involved mentioned in the report, or if the “vehicle” involved remained at the scene.

A NV cyclist is right-hooked by a judge. Bicyclist dies in crash involving Douglas judge Right hook means intersection protocols to avoid and infrastructure to prevent. Judge means the cyclist will never see actual “justice” in this case.

Another wreck from the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike for 9 years running. Cyclist injured in A1A crash Nothing on the mode but at least this wreck they did acknowledge that cars have drivers. Infrastructure to prevent, as there are supposed to be bike lanes on A1A as a result of federal funding of the last makeover of the road but what got put in was woefully inadequate for the situation.

NYC is not the only place in NY where “no criminality suspected” is the rule rather than the exception when cyclists or pedestrians are injured. Police: 2 bicyclists injured in crashes One a right hook and the other the mode was not given. Infrastructure to prevent including LEO getting a (curse word, deleted) clue that cars kill when people violate the laws.

A PA cyclist is hit in what is either a right cross or a right hook. Bicyclist injured in Scranton wreck Not enough information given, just that the driver turned right and hit the cyclist, for me to tell you how to avoid or to mitigate the damages from this wreck, but getting the infrastructure right would prevent it.

Update on that bike wreck where America’s Day Begins. Bicycle rider dies two days after crash with SUV Nothing new on the wreck, just that the victim died without regaining consciousness.

Video of a right hook from Russia. Car and bike accident in Russia! NEW Clearly the cyclist was at fault for being in front of the driver [/sarcasm]

And those are all the links that gave me fits, except the endless stream of Russian YouTube videos of cyclists getting hit, and some killed. One in particular was quite nauseating as a cyclist was killed in a pinball wreck and the security camera footage showed the greasy stain from where the cyclist was smashed against a stone wall of a bridge abutment 40 feet or so from the impact site. You’re better off not seeing that.

Billed @€0.02, Opus