Another cyclist hit in the bike lane, plus more stuff that will make you mad (crazy) and other stuff that will make you mad (angry)

I hate finding out that another cyclist was hit in the bike lane, and I hate having to post about it in my blog, but if people don’t know about it how can change be made? If you don’t know that drivers are killing cyclists where cars and trucks should not be, how can you do anything about it? And what can I do about it except tell you about the carnage?

Getting to that story first, a woman drives into the bike lane and kills a cyclist. Names released in cyclist-vs-car crash and Woman accused of felony hit and run “Authorities said Murphy was following bicycle safety laws and was wearing a helmet as he rode northbound on Jamboree Road along the easterly curb. Izquieta hit him and didn’t stop to help him, police said.” and “Izquieta had made an “unsafe turning maneuver” before hitting Murphy” Now it appears that “unsafe turning maneuver” was driving in the bike lane. The cyclist’s bicycle was dragged over 300 feet according to one report, so there’s no way the driver could not have known they hit something. Mr. Murphy was riding with a group of cyclists when he was hit, so it was probably just chance that he was the one hit instead of someone else. For you to avoid this kind of wreck, use the hit-from-behind protocol I mentioned a couple of months ago in this post .

No bicycles involved in this one, it’s just a demonstration of why I think that large vehicles need to have special permits to be on the roads with much higher standards of licensing. SUV slams into building in Mechanicsburg The SUV in this case had barely 100 feet to reach a speed that almost took out a concrete block building, and would have killed someone had they been inside the blast radius of the debris that sprayed from the wall at impact, or been crushed by the shelving unit that was knocked from the wall.

The rest of the wrecks were outside North America.

From the charges filed it appears that someone drove a bus over a cyclist, literally in this case as the bus had to be lifted off the cyclist. Birmingham city centre bus crash: Cyclist named This makes this report unusual for a UK wreck report, in that the mode of the wreck can be inferred from the report. Using my incredible powers of deduction I can hazard the statement that the cyclist was waiting at the stop light and the bus turned left over him, causing him to be trapped under the bus. Check back in 6-18 months when the court case is concluded and the real story is released, if that ever makes the news.

From Enn Zed comes a story of an injured cyclist whose ID went elsewhere in the wreck. Police Seek To Identify Injured Cyclist If the description of the cyclist, his kit and his bike ring a bell ring up the LEO contact mentioned in the article and let them know who you think it might be. The Witch on a Bicycle says it’s your civic duty.

More lawyer talk about the change in injury severity and type as more commuters go by bike. Can Cars and Bikes Co-Exist?

Infrastructure for pedestrians gets slammed because it’s ugly?! Safety vs. eyesore? Signs at Oceanfront draw complaints

Get a bike fit as a first step in fixing painful cycling. Enjoy the Ride Or you could just get a recumbent.

Aaaannnd, that’s a wrap.

Billed @$.02, Opus

From 2 days’ Feeds with mostly motorcycle wrecks

Well I just went through 2 days’ worth of the Feed, and most of it was motorcycle wrecks. While I feel really bad about people getting hurt and/or killed whatever way they manage to do it, motorcycles are not on the menu here at Witch on a Bicycle. So for 2 days we have exactly 108 links of bicycle-related things. Two of the links turned out to no longer connect to bicycle-related reports.

Up first because it’s the only USA link is a display of just how stupid the guy that proposed the registration of bicycles in Philadelphia really is, in his own words. The Bike Debate: It’s really all about safety Nowhere in that rambling waste of paper (originally posted in the print edition of the news) did he justify registration as a means of actually generating a safety function, the closest he did come was the statement “By requiring that every bike be registered, whether with the Police Department or the Parking Authority, it would create a point of contact to educate all bikers. But nowhere does he state how this education will take place, who will fund or how, or anything else. Also missing are practical points on just how the registration will be mounted and displayed so that people can see it and report it to the police given that bicycle design for the last 100 years or so has made no provision for such, unlike motor vehicle design which is required to have mounts for a standardized license plate.

More proof that lawyers have their morals and ethics removed in law school. Michael Bryant joins prestigious Toronto law firm For those with short memories, Bryant is the sewer scum that ran over a cyclist in the street and when the cyclist got up to discuss the matter used his car as a deadly weapon to smash the cyclist against trees, light poles, and a mailbox that was bolted to the sidewalk, all caught on several surveillance cameras from the initial hit through the final ride on the sidewalk against traffic. If you have need for legal advice I suggest never using the Ogilvy Renault law firm while you are in Ontario.

All I can say on this is the cyclist was either comatose while riding, or the sound of the ambulance siren echoing off nearby buildings gave the cyclist a false impression as to the location of the vehicle. Cyclist seriously injured in collision with ambulance Seriously, when you hear a siren for any emergency vehicle, don’t go until you know the vehicle is not in your area. I have been in urban areas when an emergency vehicle siren was in use and could not tell which direction the vehicle was coming from, and this happened both on foot and in a car (yes, I used to own and drive a car, look at my bio page). Since the consequences can be so dire, a little extra caution is in order. After all it isn’t just you that can be hurt, it’s also the person the emergency vehicle was dispatched for who could suffer as a result of the delay caused by your wreck.

And in jurisprudence news from Jolly Olde, a person that killed a cyclist (who was also a LEO) is charged with multiple offenses in the case. Charges over cyclist death of Jim Fleming on Amersham Road I don’t like for any cyclist to get hit, but I know that when a LEO is hit the driver is more likely to get hit with the hammer of Justice than if a mere citizen is hit.

And to show that anti-bike crazies are not just limited to our shores, London weighs in. Cyclists targeted as Westminster Council goes after ‘lycra louts’

Lots of news from Enn Zed as a stupid driver pleads guilty to hitting 4 cyclists after running a stop sign. Woman pleads guilty after injuring cyclists and Safety Message Repeated As Motorist Admits Injuring Cyclists and Share The Road I only hope that the driver gets a punishment commensurate with the seriousness of the assault with a deadly weapon.

Back into the fray, the Feed

Yes, so soon after doing a 2 part post yesterday/early this morning, I’m back at it again. I must be crazy. At least there weren’t as many wrecks this time.

Up first is the first of 2 wrecks in TX, this one in Waco. Minivan Strikes Bicycle On Busy Waco Street; Rider Seriously Hurt They went to press with this so soon after the wreck that the article reads like a UK wreck story with the lack of information.

Down the I-35 a bit further is this report from Austin. Cyclist injured in campus collision Again nothing on the actual wreck because of deadlines, but plenty of snark in the comments.

What appears to be another bike ninja gets hit from behind. Marshfield man seriously injured in bike-truck accident Seriously people, lights and reflectors aren’t that heavy or expensive and the greatly increase your visibility at night and low light conditions. Just remember that reflectors only work when cars are shining headlights on them.

They are having some difficulty with gas-assisted bikes in CA, as their regs are much more restrictive than other states. Officers upping enforcement on illegal gas-powered bicycles The interesting thing about the wreck reported in the article was entirely independent of the legal operation of the struck vehicle and entirely caused by the driver not watching what was on the road in front of him. As a driver went by one bicyclist, he became distracted, wondering what he had just seen. He then made a left turn and hit the other bicyclist. How is that the fault of the second cyclist? But still, follow the laws about registration and safety equipment.

Another wreck in the UK. Cyclist injured in crash

They are having real problems with construction vehicles in China with bicycles being their favorite victims. Death toll in truck accidents rises to 13 Too many wrecks to tell you about in that article, but in every wreck the truck was at fault and the cyclist died.

Infrastructure analysis from Green And Save News. The Not-So Open Road

And laws don’t mean a thing without LEO that will enforce them. A Troubling Story of SFPD Bias Against Bicycle Riders If you can’t trust the LEO that is investigating your wreck, what good are laws?

And that’s all I have today, remember no post tomorrow because of church and other obligations.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Bicycle zombies take over the news, people still getting killed by cars, the Feed

Yes, “zombies” are all the rage now, and have spread from the UK to the US. In the meantime cars are still killing people at a rate of nearly 110 people a day in the US, and nobody is saying anything about that (except me and a few other bicycle fanatics). I feel a rant coming on, and I don’t think it is going to be pretty.

Up first is another report on the waste of human skin that had 20 beers before going out and driving into 2 cyclists, killing one. Driver who downed 20 beers, killed cyclist gets 25-40 years in prison This is the guy that in a previously linked report the victim’s mother gave him a Bible and said he was going to heaven. I hope she’s wrong about that, because if there was ever a guy that deserved to suffer, this is the guy. Interesting that the previous reports said the disgusting piece of filth got 45 years determinate sentence, but this report has him as serving 25-40. I wonder who’s right.

In other court news the driver that dragged a cyclist 860 feet under her car while the man was screaming and beating on the car (that part was new information), is facing undisclosed criminal charges in the case. Driver of car that dragged bicyclist in Natick to face criminal charge The complaint was filed Nov. 25 in Framingham District Court against Lorraine Peterson, 61, of 359 Berlin Road, though police redacted the specific charge. Apparently public records are not public for certain people.

More on the wreck that killed the driver while only slightly injuring the cyclist he hit. Vehicle crashes kill 4, injure 5 Not a good day to have been driving a car, or riding a bicycle for that matter. If I’m reading the report right the vehicle hit the cyclist on the north side of the street and then crossed the road to hit a tree on the south side of the street. That ain’t normal. Hitting a cyclist isn’t what I would call “normal” but the circumstances of the wreck speak to me of a person who was dieing before they hit the cyclist, and the tree just finished the job. This sounds like a stroke or heart attack in progress when he left the road the first time and grazed the cyclist and then tried to stay on the road and pulled left on the wheel, then died. I know that’s an awful lot to pull from a tiny report…

Another hit-and-run in LA CA. Cyclist struck in West Hollywood hit-and-run Not much to go on in this report, but it appears to be a typical right hook wreck, good that the cyclist survived.

In Scotland a cyclist has a run in with a bus and survives. Cyclist in serious condition after accident with bus and from the Beeb Cyclist injured in bus accident It’s good to know that you won’t get hurt driving a bus into a woman riding a bicycle [/sarcasm]. For those who live on my side of the pond, it appears the woman was trying to turn across traffic when she got hit. They drive on the wrong side of the roads in Scotland so you have to turn right to cross traffic, not left.

Someone driving a silver Mercedes is going to have a rough time of it when he gets caught. Cyclist seriously injured in hit-and-run As per usual in UK wreck reports I can’t say anything about how to avoid a similar wreck, other then to always be alert, this cyclist being able to say make and color may very well result in the miscreant being brought to justice.

And what seems obvious as the nose on your face is debated in the UK. Cyclists are not a menace, Spectator debate decides In the end the argument was mass times velocity, would you rather get hit by 200 pounds going 20 MPH, or 4000 pounds going 35 and up? In the overall scheme of things it was like getting hit in a rugby game versus getting hit by an artillery shell. Every once in a while someone will die in a rugby game, but not often, but get hit by a car and you stand a good chance of dying or being permanently injured.

A cyclist is injured in a left hook wreck in Oz. Cyclist injured after collision with car I noticed the cyclist got a few licks in on the car as he was hit, tearing off the passenger side mirror and crumpling the hood a bit and only sustaining minor injuries in the process. As they say “Good on ya!” for returning fire in the face of the enemy

Still trying to figure out if the guy that hit a cyclist in South Africa was just stupid or culpable. Cops hunt for evidence in cyclist death Hit from behind in the cycle lane, and there’s a question of culpability? Did these guys get their training from AZ LEO?

And the “bicycle zombies” meme makes its way to these shores. ‘iPod zombies’ blamed for UK road deaths Note that in this article from the people that actually make the iPod, using one on any vehicle that one is in control of is not a good idea. Bicycles because you might get hit by a car you didn’t hear, cars because they distract you from your environment, and you already have way too many distractions while driving a car anyway.

An opinion about the ruckus over the recent pedestrian deaths by bicycle in the City of Brotherly Love. Road Rage at Philly Newspapers Why are Ronnie and Stu whipping up fear when cars and trucks pose a bigger threat? Because they don’t like bicycles in their streets, and making then out to be a danger to pedestrians arouses fears that they can use to get them legislated away from their city…

On the same subject but from a different direction. Registering bicycles will not prevent any accidents If there was just some way we could easily identify cars so that when the hit someone and drive off the owner could be brought to justice… and pedestrians they just wander around like they own the place, we need some way of identifying pedestrians too…

I hope NY has a better time of it than TX when they pass their 3 foot passing law. NYS Assemblymember to Introduce Safe Passage Law for Cyclists This is desperately needed legal infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.

And SF finally gets to build bicycle infrastructure again. Eyes On the Street: SF Gets Its First New Bike Lane in Three Years The paint was barely dry before people started using the new bike lane, who had been trying to ride vehicularly but because of driver attitudes were not having a good go of it.

And that’s all I have today, but there will be a rant later, I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to phrase it yet.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Bicycle zombies and even scarier things, The Feed

Yes, the UK has been overrun with bicycle zombies wearing iPods, the horrors! In the US there were so many wrecks in one city in one day that the guy getting hit riding a bicycle didn’t even get a full sentence, much less his own article. and even scarier things than that, if you can imagine.

Getting to the really scary stuff first comes 2 reports on the sentencing of a man that was caught driving drunk 5 times, killing a person on a bicycle the last time. Mother of 19-year-old killed by drunk driver offers driver Bible and place in heaven and Man convicted of fifth drunken driving offense, killing bicylist unable to answer judge’s question: How to stop repeat drunken-driving offenders? I can answer the judge’s question for the brain-dead drunk: Take away their cars and crush them (cars or drunks either one). If you remove access to cars you prevent drunk driving, if getting caught driving drunk means you lose your car, well that ain’t gonna happen twice. Also require a valid driver’s license to purchase a car to prevent wealthy drunks from going out and buying a cheap car to replace their crushed one. This bozo earned the “waste of human skin” tag for this post.

The city of Chicago had so many wrecks that hitting a cyclist didn’t even merit a full sentence in an article in the paper. 6 dead, more injured in holiday weekend crashes I feel sorry for the guy that got hit, near death experience and didn’t even get his name in the paper. From the level of detail in the article about this one I can tell you that one vehicle was definitely a bicycle, if the guy had just been walking they would not have called him a cyclist. But to be fair to the paper when there are 6 people killed in separate wrecks in one day and one wreck requires 5 ambulances to transport the victims, one guy getting hit riding a bike is just a blip on the radar.

A cyclist in NoCal is hit by a passing pickup truck yesterday. Injured Hwy 49 Bike Rider Identified What struck me was the ages of the participants, the 70 YO driver failed to safely pass the 50 YO cyclist with the full length of his vehicle and hit him with the trailer. Another interesting thing was the driver was from AZ, a place known for drivers that don’t think bicycles belong on the roads. As for avoiding a similar wreck, unless you’re Superman or the Flash with superhuman levels of reaction time it ain’t gonna happen. The initial pass was at a safe distance, but the driver started pulling over before the full length of the vehicle and the trailer had cleared the cyclist. Even knowing the vehicle was there you would have to be watching it and ready to bail to an escape route or off the bike when the vehicle started getting too close. This is one of those cases where to be safe everybody has to be playing the game to ensure cyclists’ safety. This is another example of scarier things than bicycle zombies.

Another example of why I don’t ride off-road trails. Cyclist airlifted out of Crystal Cove The cyclist was less than a mile from an elementary school when he had his wreck, but they had to use a helicopter to get him out because the only other ways in were bike or foot. When I’m less than a mile from a school I want to be where an ambulance can get to me without VTOL capability. Heck I want that no matter how far I am from a school.

I have been mentioning bicycle zombies all during this post, and now I shall deliver. Sunday Times and Daily Mail blame ‘iPod zombie cyclists’ for rise in deaths OMGWTF ZOMBIES!! Yeah, as this article points out the other guys are conflating 2 things without correlation, an increase in quarterly bike wrecks with injury statistics and people wearing headphones and earbuds. There were no statistics on how many cyclists were using music players in wrecks, so there was no way to correlate their use to increased numbers of wrecks. This is a common logical fallacy and even when statistics are taken for two things, unless there is also a statistic for those 2 things happening at the same time you can’t draw conclusions especially about causality. For instance the Australian study that showed when bike helmets were made mandatory head injury went down, failed to make correlations with did people with head injury have a helmet or not. Using other data from the same study you could also say that wearing a helmet reduced broken legs because that number also went down, because the helmet law didn’t reduce head injury it reduced the number of people riding bicycles drastically, which indirectly reduced the number of people with head injuries. Beware of people quoting statistics at you without stating their sources or any other data that might refute their conclusions.

And an article about a SD LEO honoring one of their own by making a bike ride. ‘Tour De Force’ Donates To Mechels Family I have my disagreements with LEO about interpretation and enforcement of the laws, but when it all comes down to it at the end of the day they are on the business end of preventing chaos from breaking out.

And that’s all I have today, more later if anything big breaks.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Another ginormous Feed, but not much to show for it

I had an enormous Feed to filter today, but not many articles about bicycles in it. What I did have was massive numbers of articles on people named Rider getting killed or injured by various means. It was really absurd after a while, all these articles about people with either the first or last name “Rider” getting killed or injured, most by some interaction with a motor vehicle but a couple of them were just weird, like the guy that broke his ankle kicking field goals I think at some park, but it might have been a Jr. High athletic field.

Up first because something had to be is an update on the cyclist killed in Yuma AZ while riding in the bike lane. No charges filed yet in cyclist’s death Apparently in AZ you can kill cyclists with impunity as long as you are not drunk or taking drugs, as that is the holdup on filing charges in this case. It doesn’t matter if you are driving in the bike lane when you hit a cyclist from behind as long as you are not chemically impaired when you do it. Neither does it matter if you cross the centerline to hit a cyclist head on, so long as you are not chemically impaired, and you are passing another vehicle without crossing a double yellow line. TANJ! What you can do as a cyclist in the same situation, try to angle your body so that you go through the windshield and take out the driver, because that will be the only retribution you get in AZ.

A spate of cyclists getting killed in the downstate NY area. Teenage Long Island bicyclist killed in collision; third common case in six weeks Looking through the wrecks in question there is a common thread that the light was green for the motor vehicle when the cyclist was hit, but when there was more than one witness the witness states the cyclist waited for a green light in their direction before proceeding. This sounds like a case of when the signal control detects a cyclist the light period is not long enough to get all the way across from a dead stop, so that by the time the cyclist gets to the far traffic lane the light has been green a few seconds already. You can imagine what happens next as motor vehicles see the green light but not the cyclist still in the intersection. I’m not sure what you can do to avoid a similar situation, as quick lights at night are all too common all over the US, there is one just down the street from me. It only picks up that I’m there about 1/3 of the time, and by the time I get to the far lane of the 5 in that intersection the light has already cycled through to green in the other direction.

This is one of those “don’t read the comments” articles as there were calls to kill all cyclists on the roads “made for cars”. Critical Mass cyclists to ride in honor of teen killed in accident The cyclist was hit from behind by a speeding driver and had all the lights and reflectors, and yet some bozo says there should be a bike curfew. I have a better suggestion, how about a car curfew to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of drunks and psychopaths? Bicycles, pedestrians, and emergency vehicles only between 11 PM and 5 AM. Does that make more sense than a bike curfew?

Another report on the CARnage in Toronto this week caused by bad weather and worse drivers. Four men seriously injured in four separate collisions Again they (the paper) blame the guy hit from behind by the van because he wasn’t wearing a helmet, what’s the deal here? Why not blame the guy that was driving too fast for conditions, like the police charged the driver.

A wreck involving a UK citizen that happened in South America. Driver at fault in crash that killed cyclist, say police At least they decided that as the case was out of UK jurisdiction the media laws that bound the paper did not apply in this case as there was no jury to contaminate prior to the trial that won’t be anywhere near the island of Jersey. But still they won’t even say what kind of wreck it was… Have I mentioned recently that I hate UK media laws (as can be seen by the fact I have a tag for it in my tag cloud)?

More on the female cyclist killed in London this week. Talented fashion student is 12th London cyclist killed this year So many female cyclists getting killed, all out of proportion to their numbers, what is the deal here?

Good news for cyclists and pedestrians in Austria. Cyclist and pedestrian death tolls down Whatever they are doing in Austria is what we need to be doing in Garland, as our cyclist death toll is way out of proportion to the number of cyclists… The entire country of Austria has only killed 36 cyclists this year, a 35% drop over the same period the year prior.

And finally, a good story about a cyclist injured in a pileup crash in a pack of cyclists. Jackson cyclist bounces back after injury I say from experience that facial injuries are a bear even when there isn’t massive amounts of pain involved.

And that’s all I have today. remember no post Sunday as I need some time away from the blog to remain sane.

Billed @$.02, Opus

This just in, driver hits cyclist and dies, cyclist not seriously injured

Just in from CA, a driver hit a cyclist then a tree and died from the injuries at the scene. Driver Dies After Colliding with Bike The cyclist sustained minor injuries.

OK that raises the drivers killed by cyclists world wide total to 3.5, giving the tree half credit on the kill, and the US total is 1.5. The ratio is still 700 : 1.5, with almost all the drivers killed also killing the cyclists except for the guy that hit the tree. Either we need to figure out how to kill these homicidal drivers without having deceased cyclists go through the windshield (the “normal” way for a cyclist to kill a driver) or we need to figure out how to prevent drivers from killing cyclists. I vote for the latter, less dead people is always better than killing people that killed other people.

PSA Opus

More examples of craptacular stupidity, the Feed

I had a huge Feed to filter today, and almost nothing to show for it. In order to get as many actual wreck articles as possible the search parameters are a bit on the coarse side using NI (Natural Intelligence) to do the final selections, and today I got all kinds of garbage, including a sale at Canadian Tire on bicycles, a guy in a bicycle company with prostate cancer, people in Taiwan riding bicycles, and the last Buell motorcycle leaving the production line. Those were at least related to 2 wheel vehicles, but wait, there’s more! I also had articles on life cycles of animals, and consumer products, and climate cycles! To say your friendly neighborhood blogger is a little frazzled is not an overstatement. I will be so glad to finish work and read a few web comics today…

Up first because something has to be, and it’s close, is this report on the assault on a cyclist in Austin, who was shot with a pellet gun from a car. Police: Man charged with assault for shooting cyclist with pellet gun If you’re going to read the comments please post to Time4Change that he is not welcome to drive his car in Garland as he has not paid any Garland taxes to use our roads. Thanks in advance.

A crime of either great malice or great stupidity in MA. Cyclist in Natick dragging alive, condition unknown I can’t believe, refuse to believe, that someone could hit a cyclist, and then drive down the road for almost a quarter of a mile with the cyclist and his bicycle wedged under the car, turn a corner at an intersection, and not know there was something under the car. This person needs to never drive a car or operate a motor vehicle again ever in her life or get sent to prison if she does. And every time she does. If she acted out of malice, well then it’s assault with a deadly. If she didn’t know she was dragging a bicycle and its screaming rider under her car then she is just too stupid to safely operate a motor vehicle. Either way, she’s gotta go by something other than a motor vehicle. EDIT: I was checking the link and now they have posted a second picture of the wreck scene showing the drag marks where the driver made a right turn with the cyclist stuck under the car. You have to click the thumbnail to view the picture in detail.

Apparently the only thing this driver stopped for was to make sure she had hit the cyclists. 2 bicyclists injured in hit-run accident I couldn’t make up stuff like this, I don’t have that depraved of a mind. The driver stopped and asked if the cyclists were OK and when they said no then she left. This was at the very least assault with a deadly (in the bike lane), if not attempted murder. If they ever catch her at the very least she needs to be permanently banned from ever owning a motor vehicle ever again and also driving, or if caught she needs to be charged with illegal possession of a weapon. To avoid this kind of wreck I suggest a Desert Eagle, M1911, or similar large caliber handgun prominently displayed in ready grasp, and practice off-hand and weak-hand shooting to get as many rounds on-target as possible. The .45 ACP round was invented back in the 1920s to penetrate car bodies after it was found that the low-powered .38 rounds in use by police were stopped by the doors of Ford cars. There is a sabot round that will penetrate engine blocks and truck wheels, but I don’t know of a legal handgun that can fire it.

A cyclist is severely injured in SF CA. Cyclist Injured in Crash on the Wiggle The cyclist sustained multiple fractures. At this point it isn’t known who violated the right of way, just that someone did.

A bike is hit in Evanston IL. Police investigating bicycle accident Even though they don’t know anything about the wreck yet, the reporter managed to blame the cyclist for “weaving in and out of traffic”. >sigh<

More on Philadelphia politicos losing their minds about bicycles. Rise in Bicycle Accidents in Philadelphia is leading to more Bike Laws Really, over-react much in the city of brotherly love? They managed to find 3 pedestrian collisions with bicycles this year, and they pitch a bloody fit over it while ignoring the pedestrians killed weekly by cars and trucks. TANJ!

A reporter calls his outlet to task for failure to report a major bicycle event in their own back yard. GAUVIN: Media overlook Last Gasp charity bike ride, thus, human interest tales This might be why local newspapers are not faring well in these economic times.

And that’s all the bicycle news that ain’t racing for the day.

Billed @$.02, Opus

I can hardly lift my arms, but here’s the Feed

Well, I pruned some more today, on the live oak out back. I don’t have much upper body strength or endurance any more, so I lopped a few branches off with the pruner and had to call it quits. Then I filtered the Feed and now here I am to post the reports and make comments.

Another SWSS/SWCC wreck in the Pelican State (Louisiana). Cyclist killed at 171 and La. 394 and Bicycle rider killed near DeRidder I find the description of the wreck highly suspect. Especially the part where he was going east on 394 and then turned around to go east on 394…

What sounds like a left cross wreck in CA. Cyclist killed in traffic accident identified CA has the same laws about turning vehicles as TX that requires turning traffic to yield to traffic that is not turning, whether that traffic is oncoming traffic on the same street or road or traffic on the street or road that is being turned on. Hopefully there will be at least a ticket filed against the driver that killed the cyclist.

Another report on the DC cyclist killed by a cop cruiser. Md. cyclist who was killed by police cruiser identified Yeah, anyone that believes the cop was going under the speed limit, I have some oceanfront property in El Paso I would like to sell. I’m not saying the cyclist wasn’t at fault, just saying the likelihood of the cop driving under the speed limit is so low as to be invisible. The fact that they made the statement thus renders all of their other statements suspect. The grain of salt required is about the size of a semi-trailer.

Another report on the kid killed in DE. Teen cyclist killed on 273 ID’d Again the rider was thrown into a car that was in front of both vehicles. This indicates to me that traffic was stopped and the kid did not run the red light like the cops say.

More on the NY state cyclist that was hit by a transit bus. Cops: Greenburgh cyclist was riding alongside bus; bikers invited to ride at funeral The cyclist appears to have been doing exactly what he should have, I still don’t know why LEO haven’t charged the bus driver with running down the cyclist. NY law requires the passing vehicle to pass safely, which means far enough away that you don’t scare the other operator to death. That didn’t happen this time. So why no ticket or charges?

A TX lawyer thinks that Gov. Goodhair’s veto of the Vulnerable Road Users Bill (SB488) may have contributed to the driver that killed 2 people on a tandem bicycle not getting any kind of ticket or charge. Texas Governor Perry Vetoes Safe Passing Bill: Cyclist Deaths The Result? I just want to know what the Helotes LEOs were thinking when they decided that the guy in the truck did nothing illegal when he killed the 2 cyclists.

A case in Scotland that just floored me as the police report wasn’t allowed to be read into evidence. Scottish jury finds case against driver who killed cyclist ‘not proven’ Of course it wasn’t proven, the judge threw out the most important evidence against the driver. Again, what was he thinking?

Again I had to pick myself up off the floor when I read about a multiple repeat drunk driver was facing in the way of charges in Enn Zed. Drink-drive charge ‘appallingly inadequate’ “Downer, who has two previous drink driving convictions, could face a maximum of five years behind bars.” Five years for drunk driving that killed somebody, that’s just a travesty.

And a trio of people that train together for bicycle riding suffered similar wrecks. Cyclist tells of horror crash The man was killed while the wife was recovering from a previous crash, and the personal trainer was in a coma for 5 weeks from the wreck that killed the man… What a mess.

The 2010 Tour of the Battenkill will have a stage dedicated to Veterans. 2010 Tour of the Battenkill Announces Ride to Benefit Injured Veterans If you can do this next year Witch on a Bicycle says do it.

And that’s all for tonight.

Billed @$.02, Opus

After last night I need a lighter day

Fortunately the Feed was smaller today, as after yesterday’s “Deep into the Night” marathon blog posting session I just don’t have the energy for filtering a large Feed.

I only have one new report of a bike wreck. Bicyclist killed in Woodstock collision The mode of this wreck was the cyclist riding on the sidewalk coming the “wrong way” was killed by a driver not paying attention to anything coming from his right as he crossed the sidewalk. Plenty of blame to go around, but I reserve the most blame for the driver that killed the cyclist while both were on the sidewalk. I just wonder if LEO are going to actually use the law that says cars must yield to traffic on a sidewalk when they cross one while getting to the road, or if they are going to blame the cyclist for being there to get hit.

And an update on a report linked here yesterday, they identified the 13 YO cyclist killed in DE. Cyclist, 13, killed in crash identified Interestingly enough now that we have more details on this wreck the physics don’t add up with the rest of the report. The victim was thrown into the back of another vehicle that was in front of the wreck, which indicates that the vehicle was close to the wreck and that the vehicle that struck the cyclist was moving at a greater rate of speed. Why would even a 13 YO go between vehicles that close together if the light wasn’t in his favor? Things just aren’t making sense in this wreck, something smells.

From Jolly Olde another hit-and-run. Man injured in hit and run Interestingly enough there wasn’t anything about the cyclist actually getting hit. “A car turned into Craddock Road in front of him, causing him to fall off his bike.” Now did the man fall off his bike because the bike or his person were grazed by the car or just because he had to stop suddenly and lost his balance?

First of our infrastructure articles is from SF CA. The Bad Motorist Column Never mentioned in the article was the number of drivers that exceed the speed limit even when that limit is too high for conditions, but then this is an Entertainment column, not a traffic safety column for this paper.

More on infrastructure, which dominated the Feed this morning. Queens Boulevard Bike Lane Not Happening, Despite Demand Interesting that in spite of the number of cyclists that use Queens Boulevard and the increasing number killed there, because it wasn’t placed on a document made years ago as a part of the master bike plan NYCDOT won’t even consider adding a bike lane there. Traffic has changed, but the traffic plan hasn’t and bureaucrats must stay with the plan no matter how much things have changed in the real world.

More on infrastructure and users of same from Newton KS. METZLER: Nice fall weather calls for outdoor safety Interesting how bike riders are admonished to be careful, but drivers who are the ones that can actually kill people that are just out to enjoy the nice weather are rightfully placed with the greatest amount of responsibility.

More infrastructure reports on the increasing toll wrought on pedestrians in spite of a falling share in trip mode in the worst areas for pedestrian fatalities. Report: American Cities Dangerous for Pedestrians and Cyclists This was predicted decades ago, design streets without considering pedestrians and pedestrians will get killed, because there is no way to prevent people from using their feet to get around when things get tight.

And another newspaper weighs in on TTTWLAMWAMD Cyclists and motorists on collision course You might remember the first time this article was posted in the LA Times, but as the paper proves by running it for their readers it still is applicable to current events.

And that’s all I have today.

Billed @$.02, Opus