Opening up with a strange request from the LA County DA’s office for cyclist input on the sentencing of TTTWLAMWAMD. You can use this link to get more information and a mailto link for the DA.

Clearing this one out of the queue early because of the heavy Flash content of the site is making my computer slower than I type and causing typos, a texting driver hits a cyclist and when they find him they also find thousands of dollars worth of drugs and other items. Police: Drug-Deal Text Lead To Crash The cyclist will pull through, but good luck on getting any compensation from the driver until after the prison sentence is completed…

Another bicycle wreck in AZ (are they sure they aren’t just FL without the beaches?) Woman killed in motorcycle-bike wreck identified From what I can find out about this one back-channel the cyclist was hearing impaired and went through a red light unable to hear the unmuffled motorcycle approaching. This was a case of not paying attention to surroundings, which in this case was fatal. Aside from not running red lights while you ride the best way to avoid a similar wreck is just to be alert, and don’t impair your hearing when you ride. for those reading that might be hearing-impaired, this means keeping that head moving and looking at more than just the road in front of you. This motorcycle was visible if the cyclist had just looked in that direction before entering the intersection.

And from one of my old stomping grounds in the far NW corner of WA, another Bike Ninja gets clobbered. Bellingham cyclist injured after slamming into side of truck Reflectors would not have helped in this wreck, the only thing that would have made this rider visible was lights. If you’re going to do the Bike Ninja thing, you have to behave as if you’re invisible. Or you could just buy lights and either keep them charged or keep spare batteries around for when the old ones die. I’m a big fan of big lights myself, click on the tag for the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm to find out how to make one for yourself. I’m still working on the companion headlight, that is both cheap, energy efficient and powerful without glaring into oncoming road users. I have the low beam “seen by” light, still trying to find a good high beam “see by” light.

Austin area cyclists are annoyed that when things got tight they got banned “for their safety” from a road near the city. Cyclists oppose new road ban in Manor Construction on the road made sharing impossible at the speed limit, so instead of lowering the speed limit to a level that was safe (legal in TX) they just banned bicycles.

Philadelphia thinks they can license bicycles. Bike riders may have to sign up First of all, city bicycle licenses have never worked, second what about people from outside the city that ride their bikes in the city, third how young are they going to go on the license?

Finally an article from Bob Mionske on the violations of the civil rights of cyclists when they get injured by drivers of motor vehicles. Traffic Injustice What can I add to that?

That’s all I have today, more as I get it.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Again today we have a Feed deprived of air. I dunno why, just is that way. So without further adieu…

The only new wreck was a kid that ran in front of a bicycle race in TX. Child injured during Bear Downs This is more a matter of poor crowd control at an event than traffic problems, but still, watch out for kids in the street when you ride in areas where such can be found.

Update on the man injured in UT when a closed race course wasn’t closed. Mesa cyclist recovers after nearly fatal accident in August I covered this wreck back when it happened when participants in a bike race were expecting a particularly dangerous part of the course to be closed to all traffic until the race passed found themselves mixed with 2 way traffic at high speeds on a narrow and twisty road. Some of the traffic that wasn’t supposed to even be there got upset that there were bicycles on “their” road and brake-checked the cyclists causing the wrecks. The man that was the subject of this article was the most seriously injured of the victims.

And speaking of brake-checking drivers, much of the Feed today was commentary on TTTWLAMWAMD and his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, 5 other felonies and a misdemeanor. Justice Served? was Bob Mionske’s take on the situation with Roy Exum: Rage Rides A Bicycle the opinion of an E TN newspaper, notice the blame in the headline is assigned to bicycles instead of the people driving the deadly WMDs used as transportation.

And what I hope will be the last thing I have to write about the sleeping deputy hitting 3 cyclists on the other side of the road head on at high speed last year. $800,000 for dad of bicyclist killed in crash Actually there’s one more suit to be settled as the surviving victim seeks damages for medical bills, loss of income, and pain and suffering.

An idiot attacks a cyclist for leaving the scene when the victim was removed. Tewkesbury dad attacked cyclist with wrench The cyclist left when the little girl was removed from the scene to a nearby house, the idiot with the tire iron showed up because he thought it had been a hit-and-run and tried to kill the cyclist. The cyclist in this case did leave his contact information and thought the pedestrian victim had been removed to her home, which is not a hit-and-run. Had this been a real hit-and-run the idiot with the tire iron would not have known where to find the cyclist. Logic is just lost on some people. Hopefully the girl’s mother has more native intelligence than her father, leaving some hope for her.

And the story that has been the rage in the UK cycling world for the week, 2^nd quarter 2009 KSI stats on cyclists made an alarming jump over the year. Cyclist deaths and injuries increase as more people take to the road and Sharp rise in UK cycling casualties I can’t say anything about the statistics except that KSI is not the same as deaths because it includes cyclists that survive their injuries. From what I understand the KSI was instituted because the rising standards of trauma care has resulted in many more victims surviving their wrecks than had been the case previously, skewing later numbers because timely medical care rather than severity of the wreck had become the determining factor in fatality rates. Now most of the victims of fatal wrecks either died at the scene or during transport, with very few dieing once they get to the hospital. The KSI statistic is people that would have died given mid-1950s state-of-the-art care, more or less.

And that’s all I have today. Reminder, no updates the next 2 Sundays as I will be otherwise engaged.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Yes I still feel like I did after getting hit with the truck (the scar line where the hardware was placed and removed in my hip hurts so bad that I can hardly walk). But I dragged myself to the computer to winnow the Feed and bring you the news about bicycles.

First up is a report I’m not going to provide a link to about a 23 YO pro cyclist that died of heart failure in his sleep after riding a stage of the Tour of Qatar. This just goes to show that when it’s your time… Rest in Peace.

A wreck that was covered by multiple media outlets in Seattle creates controversy in that the police report has strong disagreements with eyewitness accounts. Bicyclist killed in Ballard crash also Bicyclist killed in accident identified and this report Bike rider killed in Ballard and finally Vigil mourns bicyclist in fatal Ballard accident The guy was a molecular neurobiologist and both a regular bicycle commuter and a racer. The idea that he was making some kind of illegal pass of a car in the left turn lane is ludicrous. Read the comments sections for more information.

A rider waxes eloquent on the dangers of riding a bicycle even in the bicycle friendly area of Boulder CO. The Fear What brought this on was the death of a local celebrity who was more than 30 feet off the road surface picking up trash. If you can’t even stand near the road without getting killed…

A SoCal weekly has an article on the waste of human skin that went on a bender and ran over a cyclist. Weber admits to drinking binge before crash that killed cyclist What can I say? He was so drunk he can’t even remember being on the road that day, much less hitting the cyclist he’s accused of killing.

And a sad time for cyclists, Bob Mionske is quitting his column in VeloNews. Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske – Good night and good luck Good luck in the future to you, Bob. We will miss you.

And that’s all for today, I’m going back to bed.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Another Feed came in and it was loaded with updates and additional reports. You guys are lucky I checked my e-mail late.

First up from SoCal is an update on the Navy man that was hit from behind in the bike lane by a driver who wasn’t up to his “Ultimate driving machine”. RANCHO BERNARDO: Cyclist hit by car was retired Navy captain, avid athlete I agree with one of the comments from the comments section, why isn’t the perp in jail? If you had killed a cop on the side of the road you might have lived to make it to jail, why when a cyclist gets killed the killer doesn’t even get a perp walk or a night in jail? TANJ!

Another report on the memorial ride/walk in NYC. Cyclists read roll of fallen on a rolling memorial As I posted last time on this story pedestrians and cyclists are natural allies, don’t hit them, and if you do hit one please hang around long enough to see if they need medical assistance. Remember to watch extra carefully in crosswalks, too.

We had another Bob Mionske article come through the Feed, as well as a link so that I can send you there every week he posts a new article. This one is about right cross wrecks. Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske – Turning with a blind eye Right cross wrecks can be avoided by watching turn signals, but if the car or truck pulls up from behind or fails to signal before turning then the only thing you can do is be ready to bail.

And from Jolly Olde is an update on that wreck in Bristol. It turns out the victim wasn’t 17, but rather the 29 YO son of the former Lord Mayor of Bristol. Cyclist killed on Portway son of former Bristol Lord Mayor Yes, it was a bad wreck. And the deceased was well-liked. No different than any of a thousand wrecks in the UK every year. This one was just a bit more famous then usual.

And that’s all for tonight, I’m not going back to look for another Feed. Anything else can wait until morning.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Well, the Feeds have been much smaller the last few days, thank the deity of your choice (I’m going to thank Lady Ghisallo). But while there are fewer dead and injured cyclists so far this week, that doesn’t make the news any less tragic for the ones that were hurt or killed.

The list of the dead and wounded has been amended by this report. CHP asking for public’s help in finding hit-and-run driver Another hit-and-run, what can be done about this? Well as I have posted before, one thing we can do is to make the penalty for leaving a wreck as bad as the worst possible penalty for staying. As it stands now all you have to do to avoid DUI or intoxication manslaughter charges is to leave the wreck site and stay away long enough to sober up, thereby destroying the evidence needed to prove DUI or intoxication manslaughter. I say raise the minimum sentence for hit-and-run to the minimum sentence for intoxication manslaughter, or even the maximum sentence for IM. Make the worst you can get staying at the wreck less costly than running, and people will stop running, because all you have to prove to convict on hit-and-run is the hitting part, and the running part. In legal terms you would have to prove they were driving the car that hit the victim(s), and then you would have to prove they didn’t stay at the scene of the wreck, given the limitations of the laws of physics. Obviously you are not going to prosecute someone that hits a pedestrian on a road with a 60 or 70 MPH speed limit, but stops within a quarter mile, but someone that stops a half mile away from a wreck on a 30 MPH speed limit street was probably trying to hide. I’m not a lawyer, I don’t even play one on TV, and I have never slept in any Holiday Inn Express, so I’m going to suggest this to the lawyers as a broad plan and let them sort out the details.

And speaking of lawyers sorting out the details, that’s exactly what Bob Mionske is doing in this installment of Legally Speaking. Legally Speaking with Bob Mionske – The real daily distraction We need to get this guy speaking to legislatures and police groups, when he’s talking to us it’s just preaching to the choir. Bob, if you read this you need to speak with groups that can make changes, not just groups of bicyclists.

And that’s all I have this morning. Keep an ocular organ pointed in this direction for further updates as they reach me.

Billed@$.02, Opus