Massive Feed with much discontent

Lots of stuff in the Feed today, with boucoups of reports on aftermaths of wrecks and some notes of frustration at LEO who don’t enforce the laws. Well we have a metric buttload of reports and articles to get to so let’s get to it.

Another report on the hand-cyclist that died from a seizure while riding cross-country to promote acceptance of a new flag to honor dead soldiers. Marseilles-bound disabled vet dies on cross-country bike ride For those of you not keeping up this was a Gulf War I vet who suffered a brain injury during the war, rehabilitated himself somewhat and was going to ride his hand cycle from Norman OK to DC by way of FL and then loop back through the Midwest including a stop in Iowa (where this report originated).

From my colleague in DC comes a reasoned report on something I tried to make clear in my own column about bicycle helmets. 7 reasons there’s more to bicycle safety than helmets My article can be found here. Bicycle helmets, threat or menace? I’m big on wearing helmets, but I want people to know the facts when they wear one.

A MN student learns a painful lesson. 13-year-old cyclist struck, escapes serious injury near school Yes he learned you have to pay attention on the roads or drivers barely in control of WMDs will take you out without even meaning to .

Another report from IA has an angry blogger wondering what it takes to get drivers that hit cyclists ticketed? GPS shows where cyclist was hit; no charges filed against driver Yes that is outrageous when the driver admits to breaking the laws and causing injury because of it and doesn’t even get a ticket. We had a similar situation here in TX last year when a young driver was blinded by the rising sun and killed a cyclist who was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing and there were no charges filed.

And when you think that things can’t get any worse, you read reports like this one. Deputies looking for suspects in hit-and-run It reminds me of the El Tour de Tucson hit-and-run, where the driver got out and inspected his car for damage and then reportedly said “That sucks” to the cyclists laying in pain on the road and got back in his car and left. In this case I don’t know if there were any words exchanged, but they did get out of the car and then leave the scene. Of the 9 levels of Hell they are going to get level 12, 3 times more horrible than Dante could imagine.

And in the final outcome department, a cyclist wins a lawsuit for $1.25 Million dollars. Cyclist settles lawsuit for $1.25M Trying to be fair cost this cyclist almost a half million dollars, but if he got what he wanted then all’s good.

From Jolly Olde a cyclist falls and gets injured. Cyclist injured in road accident And now you know as much as I do about this one.

A cyclist makes abrupt contact with a logging truck Cyclist and motorcyclist seriously injured And even though this was from Oz rather than the UK, at this point nothing more is known, at least on the Web.

Also from Oz is another hue and cry for requireling cyclists to be licensed. Queensland bike lobby group wants cyclists to be licensed Again, a stupid idea is brought up by a car-head group.

And that’s all we have for this morning, as if this wasn’t enough. I have a church function to attend tonight, so there may not be a post this evening.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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Controversy and disgust

Wow! Things are really heated up in PDX. Almost half the Feed was reports on the parents of Tracey Sparling filing suit over her death in 2007, and most of the rest was dead motorcyclists. Lots of dead motorcyclists, including one that the report claimed swerved head on into a minivan… Not a great way to spend your day.

Getting to that lawsuit first we have multiple reports from several outlets. Family of cyclist files lawsuit in her death and Family of cyclist hit by cement truck sues company also Family of cyclist killed by cement truck is suing for $2 million For those of you who haven’t been following this one, Tracey was pulled up next to the truck at an intersection, not known who got there first, also not known was if the truck was signaling or if Tracey was in a position that she could see the signal if it was in fact in operation. What is known is that the cement truck was driven over Tracey and crushed her to death. The frustrating part came afterwards as LEO in Portland refused to file any charges against the driver for violating OR law by crossing the bike lane without yielding right of way to Tracey. Eventually they were able to file the charges themselves using a little-known Oregon law and get a conviction against the driver, but were unable to get anything against the truck owner for having a defective vehicle on the road until now with the civil suit.

Another hit-and-run in FL. FHP seeks hit-and-run driver Yep, they’re still mowing them down in FL and leaving the scene, low-life scum. I have a strong antipathy towards hit-and-run drivers.

From India comes a blotter report on a killed cyclist hit from behind by a semi. Cops nab swindler Apparently the man in the lede on this report was the Bernard Madoff of India. Unfortunately there wasn’t much said about the cyclist and his wife.

And finally a report from Enn Zed about a mountin biker that ran into a parked car. Cyclist killed in Dunedin crash named Umm, yeah. Don’t run into parked vehicles. I don’t know if this one was parked in the trail or not or what the sightlines were, but if the cyclist hit a parked car and died with a helmet on he must have been doing quite a clip when he hit that parked truck.

Billed @$.02, Opus