Hey Freddy Mercury, another one bites the dust

For all you young’uns out there, there was this group called Queen, that did a song about gang violence called “Another One Bites the Dust”. Freddy Mercury was the lead singer for the group and wrote most of the songs. Do a Google search for the video, it was pretty cool for the ’80s. So what does a Classic Rock hit from the ’80s have to do with people getting killed riding bicycles? Not much, but it got your attention didn’t it?

A cyclist with the CPSC reflectors still gets hit while riding at night. Baldwin County bicyclist killed by car Apparently AL LEO don’t regard killing a cyclist equipped with legal reflectors to be a big thing, as no charges or citations were issued, because he didn’t add more reflectors. BTW reflectors are pretty much useless unless you are directly in front of the car’s headlights, I prefer the Honkin’ Huge Taillight^tm made from this light and this battery on the back of my bike with this switch.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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One item in this morning’s Feed

I like Feeds like this morning. Only one item in the Feed and it was suitable for the blog. I was through in minutes instead of hours, and spared the usual litany of death destruction and dismemberment.

From where America’s day begins, is a report on a man that was not severely injured but is being kept in hospital for observation. 9:40 a.m. — Cyclist injured in Yigo accident Unfortynately the local LEO have not released any details about the wreck so I can’t tell you how to avoid it except to not ride a bike in Guam. But really Guam is so nice why not ride a bike? It’s not like the place is huge, there are counties in west TX that have more land area than the entire group of islands (Guam is not a single island). So aside from having to haul heavy loads there’s very little reason to drive a car in Guam. So, truck drivers get extra training, everyone else rides a bike, and Guam is way less dependent on oil imports. If they could figure out a way to make all their trucks electric powered from solar charging stations they could be energy independent. I need to re-do my essay on transportation in a post-petroleum economy soon, because things have changed a bit.

That’s everything this morning.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Late night Feed

Well there are lots of news outlets doing retrospects of 2008 which keep showing up in my Feed but that don’t have anything to do with bicycles, and some of them don’t have anything to do with anything in any of my search strings I use for the Feed reports.(?) So the Feed tonight was huge, but the signal to noise ratio was near zero, and took ages to filter through. When I started reading the reports it was well before midnight (0600 on the blog clock). Now my computer says it’s just after midnight. (yawn)

First up is a updated report on the Hemet CA crash where the rider was killed in a crosswalk by a drunk running the red light. Bicyclist killed in traffic collision by suspected drunk driver The article goes on at length about new technology about to be installed to catch red light runners and help prevent crashes caused by red light runners, and then goes on to say the technology probably wouldn’t have prevented this wreck because the driver was sooooo drunk. Regular readers from my blog in its earlier host know my opinion of drunk drivers that kill, but for you newbies, they should put drunk drivers that kill under the jail, and when (if) they dig their way out cut off their thumbs, and bury them again. Usually I’m a live and let live kinda guy, but drunk drivers, that kill people, just do something to me. I have been told that the guy that hit me was drunk, but I’ll never know for sure. The statute of limitations is up if he was drunk, but if he was sober then I still have another 12 years to catch him. How to avoid, well with the drunk running a red light that’s a problem, this may have been one that the only way to not be involved would be to not be there, which really isn’t an option, because that would mean not riding. I read in another report the cyclist may have been going home from work, which means he didn’t have a lot of choice about time of travel, either.

A report on traffic fatalities in DE reports that there were 5 more bicyclists killed in 2008 than in 2007, because there were 5 cyclists killed in ’08 and none in ’07. OHS shows slight increase in traffic fatalities in ’08 Interesting to note that of the 5 fatalities there were 4 SWSS, which was brought out in the article except they have no concept of the SWSS.

A retrospect on the Ghost Bike memorial movement in Philadelphia. Ghost Bikes memorialize dead cyclists The comments section is alternately sane people and bike haters. I don’t understand bike haters, I really don’t. The comments from Hulk are especially insensitive.

And the rest of the Feed was international in nature, as in from all over the world. Lots of cyclists getting killed over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

From Jolly Olde a driver is arrested for hit-and-run. Land Rover driver arrested over fatal collision with cyclist And that is the gist of the situation except for time, place, and color of vehicle, which are exhaustively covered by the article.

From Jamaica where everything is usually “no problem” they are having a problem with a hit-and-run driver. Cyclist killed One was killed and the other is still in the hospital, but there wasn’t enough information in the article to tell you hoe to avoid the same kind of wreck.

And finally there was a double hit-and-run that was shockingly like the Richmond CA hit-and-run a few days ago, only this time it was in the Philippines. Biker killed in double hit-and-run The only differences were the types of motor vehicles involved, and the second vehicle was coming from another direction not following the first vehicle as in the Richmond crash.

And that’s the whole bloody (literally and figuratively) mess. More later, and I don’t know if that’s a warning or a lament.

Billed @$.02, Opus