I see dead people on bicycles, The Feed

What can I say about things that works better than the headline (“I see dead people on bicycles” for those reading this on BikeJournal). Even those that don’t die immediately will frequently suffer such serious complications as a result of the wreck that their lives are changed forever, which essentially means the wrecks killed their former lives. This must stop. This will stop. There must be just compensation for those injured by motor vehicles, even in hit-and-run wrecks. Since we can’t prevent wrecks, and LEO are frequently unable or unwilling to prosecute the people that cause the most damage in a wreck (motor vehicle drivers) even when fault is readily apparent, I offer up this proposal:

There should be a Federal Tax on all vehicle registrations and license renewals that will go towards a pool from which those injured in hit-and-run wrecks might draw from as if they had been hit by an at-fault driver with full insurance coverage, to go towards medical bills, rehabilitation, loss of income, and vehicle replacement. Once it can be proved that the victim suffered financial loss or injuries requiring medical attention as a result of a hit-and-run wreck they will have access to the pool funds to recover their financial losses and to pay for medical treatments that will result in their full recovery. Should there be any permanent impairment a payment will be made on either a continuing basis or a lump sum, or a combination of the two as required, to compensate for the losses suffered as a result of the permanent impairment. Should the person who initiated the hit-and-run wreck (the “runner”) be caught he or she will be responsible for the recompense to the pool of all payments made to the victim, plus a fee for processing the claim. Should the “runner” be financially unable to make restitution immediately a payment schedule will be established. In the event the “runner” files for bankruptcy this claim may not be dismissed, and must be paid in full regardless of the amount of time required to pay it off. Should the “runner” die the claim will have priority immediately after taxes and before heirs. The pool administrators have the authority to establish investigating arms to find the “runners” with no statute of limitations for recovering money owed the pool for payments made to victims of that “runner”.

Under this proposal, you can run, but you’ll just die broke. 😉

An activist cycling to her day job gets hit, and killed, by a hit-and-run driver. Yale grad Sylvia Bingham killed on her way to work in Cleveland Not even riding for protest or any other political reason than it saved her money she could use to help people. She was hit by a semi-tractor, the driver of which was unaware he had hit anything. Ten thousand pound empty weight vehicles are like that, mass tends to insulate you from the environment.

A city attorney in Topeka KS finds himself on the wrong end of a fall on a bike trail. Topeka City Attorney Injured in Bike Accident OK this is where being a lawyer skews your logic: he fell from his bike and injured his neck, an area completely unprotected by a bicycle helmet, so he tells everyone to wear a helmet when they ride a bike. I think he might have hit his head a little harder than they thought. And the station manager for the parent of the web site also had a wreck and injured his arm, while wearing a helmet. Helmets! 😛

A very disturbing report from CO. Injured Fort Collins cyclist’s condition to determine charges in accident One of the people in the comments section asked the question “Is this saying that if a motorist is clearly at fault and hits a bicyclist, and that bicyclist is only sort of hurt the motorist won’t be cited?!? I certainly hope that isn’t the case. This article raises a lot of questions.” Yes, that’s my fear in this case as well, that if the cyclist survives (mostly) intact there won’t be any repercussions to the driver that drove in front of him from a stop sign where the cyclist had the through lane. This quote bothered me also”Motorists beware, bicyclists are the single most common hazard you will encounter on the road.” We are not a hazard to motorists, if anything motorists are a hazard to us and every other living thing on the planet.

And a popular WA teacher is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Vancouver bicyclist struck, killed Another hit-and-run on a cyclist, something seriously needs to be done about these. The wreck was in the freaking bike lane, this was an act of terrorism, not an “accident”. There was no reason for the motor vehicle to be where the wreck happened, it was not a part of the roads to which he was legally allowed to be driving a motor vehicle. As to how to avoid, standard hit-from-behind protocol applies here.

A wreck in Indianapolis eventually takes a life. Bicycle training crash kills attorney This is the “Catch-22” of our sport, it’s deadly dangerous to ride in a peloton without experience but the only way to get experience is to ride in deadly dangerous pelotons. And I finally got a search string that led me to the origin of the word peloton : “The peloton (from French, literally meaning little ball or platoon“.

More detail about the wreck linked to here yesterday, from Ireland’s emerald isle. Rush-hour horror after cyclist falls under lorry Still nothing about any maneuvers that may have caused the wreck, but at this point we know how bad a wreck it was. There was no way to survive this wreck short of the miracle that did not happen.

A writer in a CA college newspaper complains about the non-motorized traffic on the campus. Editorial: Campus riders show little regard for safety Dude, they are acting exactly the way they would in a car, or walking for that matter. In this case it isn’t the mode of transportation, it’s the person. You have a bunch of young people, many of whom are oblivious to anyone’s needs other than themselves, raised in a “Me first!” society. You stick them into a situation that requires cooperation and thinking about the needs of others before the needs of themselves and of course they are going to act like jerks.

And someone has come to the realization that bicycle commuting is the closest thing most people will come to being in the X-Games. Tucson bicycle dangers and UA bike safety campaign Some places are just like that, and commuting is a dangerous thing to do.

That’s all I have today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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