Almost a day off

Yes the Feed was so quiet today as compared to the last few days it almost seemed like a day off. There were lots of articles about Lance’s collarbone and a couple of dead motorcyclists (thankfully with no pictures).

Opening up today’s post is the Arcata police blotter with two bike wrecks, one of which was covered here earlier. Injury, death in no-helmet bike crashes – UPDATED – April 29, 2009 OK the guy that hopped on the fixie without learning how to stop it first, he’s not very bright but will have the chance to learn. I mentioned the other guy last week when I said not to carry loose loads where they could get caught in the front wheel. Beyond that these were single vehicle wrecks where knowledge of your capabilities and your vehicle’s capabilities and where those two categories may not overlap is crucial to your survival. In aircraft terms that means knowing how not to get into situations where the vehicle can’t get you out safely. Bicycles have “coffin corners” in their envelopes of operation just like any other vehicle.

In CA we have another incident where the perp was in possession of the perfect murder weapon, one that would not have gotten them any prison time even if convicted, and instead they shoot the guiy on the bicycle. Bicyclist injured in drive-by shooting Hey gang-bangers! If the target is already on a bicycle save your ammo, no court will convict you if you use the car instead of the gun.

And others have noticed what I have noticed, FL is killing a lot of cyclists and not just lately. Bike riders beware: Study ranks Florida the deadliest Last I was able to count FL was averaging a fatal bicycle wreck per week for the first 3 months of this year, which would actually be a decrease in their fatality rate. TX is averaging 3 a month which still seems like a lot until you consider the differences in geography and population. TX is right about the national average in bicycle deaths per capita, but FL is running 3 times the national average.

And that’s all I have for you so far.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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OK I’m awake! Stop sending me articles about dead and injured cyclists

After yesterday’s huge Feed I had another large Feed this morning that had to be waded through and edited for content. Just so you know I don’t edit the web pages, I just choose which ones to link to. At least I don’t have more than 40 links that had to be viewed and either picked or discarded like yesterday. I can actually see a letter in the window labels in the System Tray. One letter per window with only lower case letters completely in view And that was after discarding more than half of the links because they only had a passing relation to bicycles, including a boxer that died from head trauma sustained in a fight who used to be famous for “getting on his bicycle” in the ring. Automated searches of online news reports is very thorough and also very stupid, which is why it requires a human being to make the actual judgment call of what to link in this blog. After all if it was easy then someone else would have been doing it sooner, right?

Up first in no particular order today is a report on a cyclist that tried to left hook a car. Bicyclist injured I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if you’re reading this you probably have a little bit of patience and would wait until oncoming traffic had cleared before making a left turn.

Another report on the Utah man sentenced to only 30 days in jail for assaulting cyclists with a deadly weapon. Kamas man gets 30 days in bicycle case I think I might have mistakenly reported the perp as being from Kansas instead of the UT town of Kamas in yesterday’s post so you can see I was already starting to get a little loopy from all the carnage and mayhem I had seen up to that point.

Another cyclist is hit in Chattanooga, found guilty of riding a bicycle. Chattanooga: Bicycle rider hit by car on Broad Street Right now I wouldn’t believe anything LEO in that city had to say, seriously. After that disgraceful incident where the cyclist was hit from behind and LEO refused to even write a ticket for failing to give 3 foot of clearance as per the law in TN, well Chattanooga PD could claim the sky is blue and the sun rises in the east and I wouldn’t believe them without additional expert witnesses brought in from outside the PD and photographic evidence. But assuming that the report in this case was factual, don’t drink and ride. You really need your wits about you to avoid all the people that turn their brains off when the get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

They found the big rig driver that hit the cyclist in LA and it turns out he did know he hit the cyclist, and also tried to hide the evidence. Truck driver arrested in hit-run fatality OK he’s lost his CDL for life for trying to cover up the wreck, when he would have been absolved of the wreck had he just remained on the scene. This is a clear case of DWS, driving while stupid. The roads will be safer when he is no longer driving a big rig on the highways.

A mountain biker gets injured out in the woods and rescuers have a heck of a time finding him even though he can’t move and is wearing a personal locater beacon. Injured mountain biker rescued from Henry Coe Park OK this is a bad one, the rider was wearing proper protective gear and crashed a little more than 2 miles from the trailhead, had a radio beacon to help people find him, had a buddy to take care of him until trained help arrived, did all the right things and it still took rescuers hours to find them. Sometimes terrain is just too much for your experience level, or for anybody’s experience level.

Another car left hooks a cyclist, cyclist ticketed. Car-bike accident sends boy to hospital I’m not 100% up on all 50 states’ cycling laws, so I can’t say they shouldn’t have ticketed the cyclist. In TX they shouldn’t have, but that wasn’t in TX…

CO appears to be passing a passing law to protect cyclists. Meyer: Bicyclists closer to being protected Hopefully the law will be better enforced in CO than it is in TN.

And in the vein of laws not being enforced we have this report. Hit a cyclist? No problem! What would be a $400 ticket when nobody was there to be hit was no problem when a cyclist is hit and injured (cyclists are almost always injured when hit by motor vehicles, I should have a macro for that 🙂 ). Once again LEO is disregarding the reason for the no right turn sign at that intersection in the first place. Would it kill them to write a ticket, would it kill us if they don’t? Well so far nobody has died there yet, but given enough time and lax enforcement somebody will die.

And yet another incident where laws were not enforced at the expense of and for cyclists/ SUV + Bicycle Incident Leaves All Parties Not-Guilty Yep the driver ran over bicycles parked in front of his vehicle and left the scene and no charges were filed in spite of the fact that there were people on those bicycles and he was trying to injure them with his vehicle. Assault with a deadly with intent and because he has a car and they were on bicycles he gets a pass. TANJ!

And in some good news someone has invented a scooter for amputees that rides much like a bike and allows more range of motion and better exercise for the patient. The GlideCycle: First Production Run Next Month This is more a scooter with a suspension harness than a bicycle, but having gone through painful rehab when I had both legs to work with anything that makes getting exercise easier for the physically challenged is great in my book, or in this case, blog. The foot hanging backwards on the harness is a little creepy though, you would think they could have found a better place or a better way to store the prosthetic limb during the rehab session. And what happens if there’s a wreck, or the rider just falls down? How does a person with only one leg and strapped into a harness stand the bike back up? Obviously this is not intended for solo rehab but for riding in a group with people that can help in case of incident. I can just see the first one of these that gets hit by an SUV… The first 9 figure personal injury lawsuit…

And I’m done for today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Another huge Feed, with lots of dead cyclists

The Feed was huge when I got home from the lab rat keeper’s office, with signal to noise exceeding 1 (more bicycle stories than all the others) and a large number of multiple reports on single wrecks. It was terrible.

Closest to home, geographically, is this monster from Houston where a cyclist apparently ran a red light. Bicyclist hit, killed by oncoming car and Bicyclist struck and killed in NW Harris County also Bicyclist struck, killed on 249 OK, don’t run red lights unless the light is busted. Busted = light won’t change. What you do in that case is treat the busted red light like a 2 way stop and wait until traffic clears in the crossing road before proceeding. According to witnesses not in the car the cyclist ran the red light without even slowing.

Two wrecks in UT near Hill AFB. Cyclists survive two auto-bike accidents One was a left cross hit-and-run, and the other was an apparent red-light runner on a bicycle. C’mon people, red means stop. Just because you already know the light isn’t going to change for your vehicle doesn’t mean you don’t have to stop and wait for traffic to clear on the crossing street. As for the hit-and-run driver, fire up the cement mixer and dig a really deep hole.

While we are in UT they actually put a driver that assaulted a cyclist (and maybe more that he wasn’t caught at) in jail. Driver who swerved at bicyclists will serve jail time The sentence is way inappropriate to the crime, only 30 days, but any jail is better than letting him walk.

Another report on that NoCal hit-and-run with the abandoned El Camino. Bicyclist in ‘grave condition’ after hit-and-run in Anaheim Same as before, when they catch this guy fire up the backhoe and the cement mixer, and maybe throw in a couple rabid wolverines and rattlesnakes for ditching the Elkie.

Another right hook gets another cyclist. Cyclist injured on Monday in collision with car Gotta watch out for right hooks, but sometimes you just don’t have time to react.

Don’t ride the wrong way on a one way street. Cyclist killed in collision with pickup truck This guy failed to be predictable by riding with traffic. Don’t you be unpredictable.

A SWCC wreck. Bicyclist critically injured after being hit by car Not enough information to actually say what happened, LEO are still investigating.

Another IA cyclist is assaulted on the road. Bike club offers reward for information on cycle crash This is another one of those that is very hard to avoid. When someone in a motor vehicle wants to hurt you on your bike dodging is going to be your only defense.

A brief respite from the death and destruction. Pedal power How to commute by bicycle in 47,000 easy steps.

Another report on the hit-and-run of a cyclist in LA CA. Bike rider killed Yeah, pretty much the same as the other 10 reports we have had since it happened. Just shoot the guy and protect the rest of us, not really but I’m getting tired and frustrated at the number of hit-and-runs.

A rider near Memphis is hit from behind. In brief: Fayette County bicycle rider struck, killed Yeah, this one is going to be swept under the rug, just like the wreck in Chattanooga. It doesn’t matter that the rider wasn’t even on the road when he was killed, it will be his fault somehow. As for how you can avoid it, this rider was already off the road and using the only available escape route…

Another respite. Heartbeats: Bike Ride for Amy breast-cancer fundraiser returns Opus says if you’re in the area do it.

Lawsuit #1. Family of Seattle cyclist killed by dump truck settles lawsuit The dumptruck driver right hooked the cyclist in the bike lane. The rider died.

Lawsuit #2. Man involved in crash that killed cyclist sues truck driver This was the overloaded truck with bad brakes, and the guy that sued was hit by the defective truck and pinballed into the bike, killing the rider.

A kid on a moped gets killed in CT. Moped accident kills boy in E.H. Why have articles about mopeds in a bicycle blog? Similar profile, speed, and weight, and they get killed the same as us on bicycles.

Last respite in the US part of the Feed. Holy something Apparently the author has never seen a pedal assisted land yacht. This was the very first product produced by the RANS company that built my Stratus and Gigi, the bike on the left in the header picture of this blog. Did I mention I love my recumbents, both the store bought and the home made? I have lost count of the home made ones, they seldom stay long, but the Stratus and Gigi have been around for a fairly long time now.

Helmet laws may kill more people than they save. Bicycle helmet laws could do more harm than good Apparently more people will die from not getting the health benefits of cycling than will die from head injury from riding bare-headed. Actually when you consider the 12.5 MPH design speed for bicycle helmets, not that many head injuries would be prevented.

A UK report with more meat than usual. Pendle cyclist killed in road collision From the report it appears the motor vehicle violated the right of way of the cyclist in the roundabout. Of course working from such limited data makes it more than likely that I have the situation interpreted wrong, but that is what it looks like at the moment

Almost done now, I can actually see letters in the window labels in the tool bar on the bottom of the screen. Here’s another UK article. Cyclist who died after a crash at West Stoke ‘lived life to the full’ This was kind of a memorial article, nothing about the actual wreck except “name, rank, and serial number” of the colliding vehicles.

European respite from dead and injured cyclists. The bicycle diaries: tracing Europe’s torrid history Cute story about the Japanese cyclist.

A multiple report story from Oz. Qld cyclist killed in hit-and-run andCrank up the cement mixer again, we got us another hit-and-run driver…

And final story is another cyclist killed by a bus driver in Manila PI. Bicycle rider sideswiped by bus dies I don’t know what it is about 3rd world countries and bus drivers hitting cyclists, but PI is not as bad about it as say India.

And I’m tired, this has gone on way too long, more in the morning.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Rainy day post

I had been planning on taking a bike ride today to get free lunch and post this this afternoon, but the predicted scattered thunderstorms did not materialize and instead we got a steady rain for at least 4 hours with occasional thunder. I don’t have fenders made for this bike yet, and I prefer not to ride when there is lightning in the area, so my butt is parked at home in front of the computer, reading about bike wrecks and coming up with a post about same. Then I’m going to cook some beans with a ham bone. Had the weather cooperated I would be doing this post as the beans were cooking.

Up first is a memorial ride for the former Navy SEAL who was killed in VA. Beach cyclists rally to mourn loss, push for safer roads Yes, the comments section is a waste of bandwidth, with far too many people substituting opinion for facts, and the few times facts are included in the argument they are discarded because they don’t agree with a subsequent commenter’s opinion. There was also a Ghost Bike installed near the site of the wreck.

A cyclist is killed in LA by a large truck. Larose cyclist killed in hit-and-run Unless the truck driver was able to see the cyclist, he may not have known he even hit anything. I have friends who are or used to be long haul truckers and they say that they can run over small cars with their trailers and not know unless someone tells them. I’m sure hitting a cyclist with anything other than the front bumper would have similar non-consequences for a big rig. I used to drive local delivery and when fully loaded even the smaller trucks used for local delivery you can hit something quite large and no know it, not that I ever did. I actually lost that job because I was too careful to avoid hitting things. They kinda wanted me to drive faster and get there sooner… Anyway, as a cyclist you need to give big rigs a wide berth and never ride to the right of one in the same lane when approaching an intersection lest you be right hooked. Truck drivers don’t want to hit you as it can cost them their jobs even if they are not at fault, but most of the time they can’t see what’s right in front of them or especially what is to their right until it gets a certain distance behind the cab. Remember if you can’t see the driver in the mirrors, the driver can’t see you, and will probably proceed as if you were not there.

A newspaper columnist tries to tell cyclists how to be safe on the roads. Nine tips for safe bicycling Mostly a good article except for putting helmets first on the list. Helmets are your last line of defense after everything else has failed.

Voices of dissent are raised when Tucson bans bicycle from another park for extreme sports. Bikers at odds with Tucson skate park I can see where this is a problem, when riders are killed or injured doing stunts on the street or in other public spaces, but get arrested when they try to use the parks, where it is saf(er). Makes no sense to me unless they just want to see kids getting killed.

In the UK another memorial ride for fallen cyclist Derek Witt on the occasion of what would have been his 51st birthday. Hampshire riders remember cyclist Derek Witt on his birthday The wreck this ride commemorates was before the time this blog was transferred to WordPress, but it was a bad one with several cyclists hit and injured, some permanently crippled, and Derek Witt was killed. As of this report there still hasn’t been any final report issued.

Also from Jolly Olde is a shunt with minor injury between a bike and car. Cyclist injured in road traffic collision (Fishponds) From the few details released it appears that this was a left hook wreck, the UK equivalent of the US right hook. Not much you can do except leave yourself an escape route and be ready to use it. Also keep your head on a swivel as you approach and enter intersections. Intersections are the major location and cause for fatal bike wrecks.

A more typical UK report has nothing besides there was a cyclist killed on a road. Two boys die in Leeds crash; cyclist killed in Keighley accident This is the more typical UK report, nothing on the wreck except location and some of the participants and a description of their vehicles.

And that’s all for today. Maybe more later if I get it.

Billed @$.02, Opus

A tiny Feed

We had a very small Feed today with only 5 reports and only 3 of those concerned bicycles (well there was the one about the snowboarder that used to ride jumps on his BMX bike).

Another report on the 5 YO that was hit by a “parked” SUV. Child, 5, injured after SUV carrying toddler rolls down driveway As I said before, this would have been hard to avoid for an adult, a 5YO kid just didn’t have a chance. Get well quick.

Another hit-and-run in SoCal. Bicyclist Gravely Injured In Anaheim Hit-And-Run The car might have been stolen as 1969 Elkies are somewhat scarce and even if you had hit someone you wouldn’t just abandon one. The driver in this case should get the standard “under the jail” treatment reserved for hit-and-run drivers, but should get something else for abandoning a classic car like a 1969 El Camino.

Another CA cyclist is killed in a freak accident. Arcata bicyclist dies in solo accident This is a good time to remind my readers to properly secure all loads. It might also be a good idea to not mount loose loads in front of the handlebars. Ignore the comments section, most of them seem to think riding a bicycle makes you a drug addict, or homeless person, or both.

And that’s all for today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Wow! What a huge Feed

It took more than 3 hours to wade through the Feed to decide what to put in the post for today and what order to put it in. There were a lot of reports on several wrecks, a few singles, and a few opinion articles.

The Big Story is a Dutch tourist that was hit on a National Bicycle Route in the US (yes, there are some designated National Bicycle Routes in existence in the US). Bicyclist killed on Natchez Trace Parkway and Bicyclist killed on Natchez Trace Parkway still more Cyclist killed on Natchez Trace also internationally Dutch bicyclist killed on US road The reports are almost identical in wording, and don’t give any details about the wreck. Last time I was on the Trace they had frequent signs about bicycles on the roads, the maps all mention that this is a designated National Bicycle Route, so there is no reason the un-named driver should have not known that there were bicycles present. But without more information on this wreck I can’t tell you how to avoid a similar wreck.

It doesn’t matter that you’re a Navy SEAL with hair trigger reflexes when you are facing a WMD on the roads. Bicyclist killed in Va. Beach had survived ’08 crash He was hit from behind but there are still people trying to blame the cyclist for being there to be hit. The comments section is something to avoid if you are allergic to stupidity.

A driver ignores the school zone in front of an elementary school and hits a kid riding a bicycle. Bicyclist hurt in accident School zones are a place of peril for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. But the only ones truly at risk are the ones not surrounded by tons of steel and plastic. Remember that when you drive around a school.

This is a real hard wreck to avoid, as the car did not have a driver behind the wheel. Parked truck rolls down driveway, critically injures boy on bike in Will County If the truck hit the kid then the truck was not parked. I just don’t see how a 5YO could have done anything to avoid this wreck.

An opinion piece on cyclists’ rights in KS. Bicyclists’ rights Yeah, the comments section is pretty worthless, again.

And the city of Laramie tries to figure out what to do about an annual tradition of the Tour de Laramie bicycle pub crawl. Tour de done? I think they should count their blessings that the crawl is being done by bicycles rather than by cars. Imagine that many inebriated drivers hitting the roads at one time going from bar to bar.

From the frozen steppes of Canuckistan comes a report on a fatal wreck for a cyclist. Cyclist killed on Highway 1 For those not familiar Highway 1 is what most of us know as the Trans-Canada Highway and is the only east-west route through much of the country. It is roughly equivalent to an Interstate in the US for much of its length, but also at times becomes 2 lanes with wide shoulders. As for the wreck it is obvious that the cyclist was hit from behind, but beyond that I can’t say what happened. It appeared the shoulder was cut off by the jersey barrier on the right forcing the cyclist into the traffic lane with the high speed cars and trucks, so the cyclist may have been in a situation without an escape route.

Another legally required incomplete report from the UK. Teen cyclist is injured at blackspot junction What is known is there is some defect in the engineering of the intersection that causes cars and bicycles to come in conflict (I know what it is but you will have to read the article).

And another cyclist is injured in India. Cyclist injured in accident involving Blueline bus They have to do something about these bus drivers that treat the roads like their own private speedways.

And that’s all I have today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Delayed April Fool’s joke

Did you ever lose something on your computer?

Did you ever lose something where you knew the folder it was in, and still couldn’t find it?

Yes I know I should have fewer things in my favorited folders so I can find things when I want them.

Anyway, here’s what I was saving for 04/01 this year.

Portland OR is constantly looking for ways to enhance safety for cyclists, by making the bike lane more visible and encouraging cyclists to be more visible. City may expand “Blue Bike Lanes”
to include “Blue Bikers” Smurfing the cyclists makes drivers more aware of bike lanes and cyclists on the roads.

The ironic thing about this article is the Feds told Portland to change the bike lane color from blue to green about 2 years ago.

PSA, Opus

Two days’ tiny Feeds makes for one decent sized post

I was doing some research for my job at examiner.com/dallas yesterday and when I looked at the Feed for yesterday there was only a couple of reports in the Feed report, so I decided to work on something else yesterday evening, something that might eventually make me some money. Today’s Feed was also rather small… maybe this is a trend of drivers not hitting people that are riding bicycles, because some of the reports were about riders wrecking because of road defects.

A cyclist that was involved in a “pinball” wreck manages to walk away (crawl away?) from the wreck after they pull a truck off of him. Bicyclist counts his blessing after being pinned under truck “Pinball” wrecks are when the cyclist is involved in a secondary impact with a vehicle that is out of control after being hit by another vehicle, and as such are completely unavoidable. As a cyclist you have no way of predicting where the second car will end up after having its direction changed by the impact with the first vehicle, which may not have even been visible to the cyclist.

Another report on the hit-and-run in LA’s Echo park. Bicyclist Killed, Man Living In Panorama City Is Arrested Yeah, just put that guy under the jail and throw a couple of tons of concrete on top of him, and maybe a couple dozen rabid wolverines too. I hate drunk drivers, I hate hit-and-run drivers, and I think drunk hit-and-run drivers should be eligible for the death penalty.

An IN rider isn’t feeling so good after a hit-and-run. Bicyclist injured in hit-run accident This is another case of a secondary wreck after the first wreck. From other reports I know that this cyclist had a single vehicle wreck and was on the pavement with a car stopped behind him, and a third vehicle came around the stopped car and hit the cyclist lying in the road. The thing about this wreck is had the third vehicle stopped then there would have been minimal consequences for the driver, but now it’s a felony…

The rider killed mountain biking may have been on an animal trail rather than an actual bike trail because of faulty signage. Cyclist may have been on unofficial park trail Not much I can say about this one.

The SF Streetsblog has an article on bike laws and morals. Moralism vs. Utopianism–of Red Lights, Helmets, Bike Lanes and… There is much in this article that I agree with and not much that I disagree with, including the bit about helmets.

Moving away from the US we have another UK cyclist injured when not being able to avoid or stop before hitting a bad pothole. Pothole crash leaves cyclist badly injured Apparently this cyclist had her escape route cut off by a car pulling alongside her and was forced into the pothole. This was unlike the other cyclist that hit a pothole hidden under a puddle, this cyclist saw the pothole and was forced into it by traffic after it became too late to stop.

A 11 YO gets squished on a bicycle in the UK. Child Cyclist Injured In Midlands Road Collision Not much to go on in this story, typical UK media.

And in this report we find that a cyclist hit back in October was riding his bike while intoxicated. Death crash cyclist ‘was over the limit’ Don’t drink and ride, there are too many people trying to kill you to reduce your SA like that. At a BAC .231% I don’t know how he even managed to keep the bike upright long enough to get from the pub to the highway.

And that’s everything for today, I have stuff to do this evening so no late report tonight.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Late again, and a pretty big Feed

Today’s Feed was pretty big, with a very high signal to noise ratio, so we have lots of reports for you. There was only one dead motorcyclist but no pictures (yay! for no pictures of the dead motorcyclist).

Starting out closest to home was this report on the funeral for the cyclist that was crushed by an overturned fire truck in Houston. Cyclist killed in fire truck accident laid to rest RIP

Why you should never ride a bike on and off a sidewalk. Cyclist injured in accident Not much to say here except stay on the roads and ride like a vehicle.

And they got another cyclist in SLC. Springtime is crash time Apparently warm weather causes drivers to lose their minds in Utah, and cyclists pay the price. All of the cyclists hit in the recent spate of wrecks were in legal lane placement and direction, as were the pedestrians.

Speaking of Salt Lake, here is another report on the red light runner that killed a cyclist Monday. Bicyclist Hit And Killed Note from the description of the wreck that the cyclist was almost all the way across the street when the pickup truck ran the red light.

Another report on the 2 cyclists killed in WI early this week and late last week. Cyclist killed in Green Bay Yeah, I covered these wrecks already, but it’s good to get a reminder to not ride on the sidewalk, or ride into the street unexpectedly..

A memorial for a cyclist killed last year in Chicago. Family Remembers Killed Bicyclist After more than 2000 reports since last year I have no idea how this cyclist died, but the standard admonishments always apply: Head on a swivel especially at intersections, watch your six when between intersections, and always leave yourself an escape route. You’re actually pretty safe between intersections, which are the real death traps.

Update on that story from last week on the cyclist that hit a pothole under a puddle. Cyclist injured by pothole seeks compensation That is one nasty looking x-ray. Watch out for hidden hazards when you ride…

A cyclist is killed because of a damaged wing (fender) mirror. Cyclist killed by driver for damaging wing mirror, court told Even if a driver deserves it, don’t damage the car. Wait until he turns his head then shoot him. 🙂 Seriously, drivers will already kill you just for existing, why throw gasoline on the fire?

And from Oz comes a story about not turning in front of a moving car. Cyclist injured in Banora Pt bingle This could have been prevented by just waiting until the car gets by. A little patience people. We ask it of drivers, we should practice it ourselves.

That’s the whole mess, and that’s all for tonight. And why was I so late? I was out riding the bus and the train to get to the bike shop to get an OEM seat pad for Gigi (on the left in the header picture), plus stopping by my Congresscritter to speak about bicycle infrastructure. And what did you do today?

Billed @$.02, Opus

Dead cyclists, and a big mess, with updates

We had dead cyclists, we had injured cyclists, and we had a big mess, some of the reports are updates, and at least one of the drivers involved was a total waste of human skin.

Getting to the dead cyclist in the big mess first, a cyclist crossing in the crosswalk with the green light was killed by a red light runner in a F250. Cyclist dies after truck runs red light and hits him and Bicyclist injured in traffic accident dies Interesting that LEO are not releasing the name of the waste of human skin that killed the cyclist, given the lynch mob forming online in the comments sections of both articles.

In an update of a story reported on here earlier, a MA teenager is charged in the injury (life-threatening injuries) of a VT man. Teen charged in crash with cyclist She was playing with her GPS looking for a place to eat when she hit the man, and her boyfriend was a passenger in the car. What a “maroon” to quote a certain Bunny. Make the passenger use the GPS to find a place to eat so the driver can pay attention to the road and not hit something or somebody.

Another waste of skin in a Honda severely injures a cyclist and then leaves the scene. Cyclist hurt in hit-and-run crash Tan Honda driver beware, people are looking for you with pitchforks and torches. And probably big hammers and crowbars, too.

And another cyclist is hit by a car and they blame his “dark clothing”. Bicyclist injured in pre-dawn accident Interesting that one of the comments was that the cyclist always wore a reflective vest or jacket but the official report makes specific mention that he had no reflective gear on. Did the driver remove and discard the reflective gear, or was that someone else?

And another victim of DWS (Driving While Stupid). Bicyclist, 12, injured after driver is blinded by sun I admit I have almost gone through an intersection where the sun was behind the traffic control and I couldn’t tell if it was red or green, but I was also looking both ways and stopped when there was a car coming. This guy could have used his hand to shade his eyes and check for traffic crossing the intersection. There is really no excuse for this kind of wreck, it is pure impatience and “me, me, me” greed that causes this. Take her vehicle and sell it to pay for treating the little girl’s injuries.

And finally another report on the hit-and-run against 2 cyclists in San Jose CA. Promising Cyclist Injured by Hit and Run Driver Silver late model BMW with a broken passenger side mirror, shouldn’t be too hard to find, even in San Jose. I didn’t know from earlier reports that there were 2 cyclists hit with only one seriously injured.

And that’s the whole mess for today. I have things to do and won’t be able to do a late report.

Billed @$.02, Opus