A light Feed with many updates

Today I had a light Feed, not many motorcycle wrecks, no bull riders, and lots of updates to previous reports. You get a relatively happy blogger, yay!

Up first is another report on the protest at the L.A. City Hall that resulted in the LAPD Chief having a news conference stating he will make his employees actually enforce the laws they are supposed to be enforcing. Los Angeles Cyclists demand protection Amazing, LEO stating they will actually enforce the law. Hey, press release: I’m going to blog about bicycle issues.

And another SWSS injures a cyclist. Bicyclist hits tractor-trailer I have read this article several times and I cannot think of any scenario where a cyclist would be near a semi that was going straight instead of making a right turn and a cyclist would have hit the semi instead of the other way around. Regardless, when near semis or other large vehicles remember that unless you can see a mirror the driver can’t see you beside the truck.

A driver that hit a cyclist on the sidewalk is convicted of multiple counts in Eugene OR. Driver guilty in crash that injured Eugene cyclist Wow, that’s quite a laundry list of charges, you would have to be really stupid to do all those things and expect to get away with it. I mean really”assault, hit and run, reckless driving, driving while suspended and filing a false report that his car had been stolen” The last one just floors me, reporting the car stolen after he hit someone with it…

Another report on the Portland man accused of deliberately trying to kill a cyclist. Portland-area man accused of deliberately running down a bicyclist on U.S. 101 near Seaside This just really aggravates me, as I posted yesterday why did it take from the middle of January until the end of February to decide to arrest this guy on charges of attempted murder? The previous article had the wreck taking place in November, so now I’m also a little confused about when this wreck happened.

And another astounding case from the UK, a wreck that happened near the beginning of the week has the trial results by Friday (which showed up in the Saturday Feed). Trucker fined after cyclist badly hurt This was like a TV show in the speed of justice, almost no time elapsed by normal judicial standards between the wreck and the sentencing.

And that’s all I have today. Remember no posts on Sundays, but no worries as I just combine the Sunday Feed with what I get on Monday so you won’t miss anything.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

I know it’s late, but it’s still a Feed

Yeah, sorry about being so late tonight, but I had Real Life^tm that had to be dealt with first, including obligations to my church. You will live, which is more than I can say about some of the subjects of the Feed. So just count yourself lucky if the worst thing you have to face is not having my blog post ready to read when you think it should have been there.

Up first because I still can’t believe it. The LAPD will actually do the jobs they are paid to do. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck vows to better protect cyclists Stay with me here, even though 90% of this article was linked to yesterday, this one is slightly different and has more words. But the implication that until there was a protest in the rain that hitting a cyclist was OK but now that cyclists came and lined up at the microphone in front of people charged with regulating the budget of the LAPD, now they will enforce the law when someone does something illegal to a cyclist. The thing that makes this really annoying is that until this happened you couldhit a cyclist deliberately and nothing would come of it.

Another case of hit-and-run that became attempted murder. Man suspected of deliberate bicycle accident put in jail I mean, stop and think for a moment, had he deliberately rammed another motor vehicle, there would have been no question that it was an assault or attempted murder. But in this case the man was allowed to roam around freely for over 3 months before he was arrested. How many more people could he have killed or maimed in the interim? BTW this was another one of those kinds of wrecks that you might have been able to avoid by being Superman, with super hearing and super quick reflexes, but if you were Superman why would you be riding a bicycle? 😉

Here’s another one that makes you go “Hmmm…”Missoula man gets prison time for fleeing Reserve Street crash that killed cyclist He gets 3 years out of a 10 year prison sentence, not for killing the cyclist, that was just dandy. The sentence was for fleeing the scene. The implications again just floor me. The fact that the driver had pot in his blood at the time of his wreck and admitted being high, and had a previous wreck that killed a bystander, neither of which figured into the sentence, makes me slightly nauseous.

And this article is so full of omissions that I just can’t begin to name them all. Motorists and bicyclists – finding a happy median Yep only quoting the first part of the law and then ignoring the several paragraphs of exceptions that follow, and ignoring case law and substituting their own biases for facts in interpreting the parts they did put in…

That UK cyclist killed in a roundabout by a Lithuanian driving a white Mercedes semi has been named. Cyclist killed in crash with lorry named as Marc Dunk This was a terrible wreck, getting run over from behind by any kind of vehicle is every cyclist’s worst fear because these wrecks are so frequently fatal. BTW I didn’t find this out from any one article, UK media laws are very strict and I had to piece together bits of information from several articles on the same wreck to come to this conclusion. Unfortunately while I know how, I still don’t know the cyclist’s lane position yet so I can’t say if my standard hit-from-behind protocol would have helped. May the cyclist RIP.

More on the Julia Moore crash trial. Witness was first to speak to driver after fatal crash The more I read about Moore, the more disgusted of her I am. There was just no place for the cyclist to go to avoid this woman. Who expects a car to come through a red light after the cars have already started to go through in the other lane?

The father of a cyclist injured by a hit-and-run driver wonders how he got such a small fine. Dad calls for change to driving laws A £185 fine works out to be about $300US for a hit-and-run with injury. TANJ!

In South Africa where thousands of cyclists are preparing for the largest competitive cycling event in the world, discussion of why so many are getting killed or injured beforehand. Death on the roads My favorite line from the article: “[M]otorists bitch about cyclists riding abreast yet the cyclists who are killed are usually riding alone. ”

They finally named the cyclist found dead in a creek in Enn Zed. Woman killed in bike accident named See, this is why I say to have a form of ID that won’t fall out of your pocket in a wreck, why you should use the link in the bikejournal.com store to buy RoadID or just some dogtags from a local Army/Navy store.

This is another reason why I don’t think that changes are going to come soon. Cycling Safety Campaign On Hold The safety campaign got put on hold because they spent the money on something else instead. Saving lives is something they can do some other time.

Because so many of their bike lanes were built before standards were instated SF has many miles of bike lanes that place cyclists in the most dangerous place to be on the roads. Saving Life and Limb By Avoiding the Door Zone Good information in this article, read and remember what you read. You don’t want to fail the pop quiz, there won’t be any opportunity for a retest.

A benefit was held for the cyclist victim of a crash, who is now relearning how to walk. Benefit held for injured cyclist My injury wasn’t as severe as this lady’s, but here insurance is much better than mine and she’s getting much more rehab than I got. I say good for her, anyone hurt in a wreck deserves better treatment from their insurance than I got. If you’re in the area, drop a donation into the bucket for her, and don’t worry about me.

A recall notice on a cyclocross bike. Bicycles and framesets If you bought a 2010 Redline Conquest Pro bike or frameset, the carbon fork can separate from the aluminum steertube, leaving you with a faceplant situation if you’re lucky. This is similar to what happened to Hincapie in the Paris-Roubaix a few years back.

And people were racing my favorite kind of bicycle in Florida’s sunny climes last weekend. Recumbent bikes flash speed on velodrome Lots of fun was had, you should be there next year, you don’t need a recumbent, just a bike or trike and a helmet.

And that’s all I have tonight. Come back in the morning for more.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Updates will be later tonight

I was busy all day today and have something to do at church tonight. But don’t worry, you’ll still get the Feed. It just will be closer to Saturday than the usual Friday update.

PSA, Opus

A late Feed, and does Gigi need a Facebook page?

Sorry about being so late getting this one up, but that’s what happens when I visit the Lab Rat Keeper. No matter how fast the get to me and how quick they get me out the door and back on my way home, that facts of the matter dictate that I’m going to be on the bus at least 4 hours total, minimum. And that will only happen if I don’t have anything else I need to get done before I get home, otherwise I will also have that transportation time to get through as well.

Funny thing about the trip to the LRK, I’m in their charts as an athlete. >snork< If any of my gym teachers were to read this they would immediately go into paroxysms of laughter at the thought of the blobby soft kid they knew as any kind of athlete. I had momentary flashes of athletic brilliance but nothing that any of them would point to and say,"That kid is an athlete." The more likely comment would be something along the lines of, "That was lucky." My current level of fitness is entirely due to having a lifestyle that moves me around with my own power much of the time, not on any innate athleticism.

And last aside before I get to the Feed for today, should Gigi get a Facebook page? Are there enough Gigi fans out there to justify creating a page devoted to her slender frame and sensuous charms? Leave a comment yea or nay.

Up first, because it is utterly astounding, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says that his officers will actually uphold the law when people are attacked or injured in wrecks while riding their bicycles. In a first, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck vows to better protect cyclists, train officers on biker rights You mean that they will finally treat cyclists the way we already pay them to treat us? Hallelujah, and pass the ammunition, I still have to return fire while I’m getting shot at. But at least I know that there will be an LAPD cop eventually to take my statement, should I survive.

And lest you think that comment about getting shot at was in jest, ask these gentlemen. Gunman shoots men in the face That brings the total that I know about up to 4 in the last 12 months, all with some kind of air gun, and that does not include the cyclist shot in the helmet by the (now ex-) firefighter in South Carolina. The other 2 were drive-by shootings, this one appears to have been a sniper in ambush.

As to what brought about the LAPD Chief’s unprecedented statement, well I think these guys might have had something to do with it. Bicyclists plan ride in downtown L.A. to protest ‘unfair treatment’ This was in response to the wreck I reported about here yesterday that happened on 01/06/10, where an employee of the city and an elected official in a neighboring town was hit-and-run by someone with a car that cots more than my house, driver of which had no insurance, and no charges were filed against the driver for either of those 2 crimes. Yes, crimes, driving without insurance is a misdemeanor, and hit-and-run with injury is a felony. And the facts are bare and bald, both crimes were committed by this driver and yet nothing was done.

Another update on an old wreck in Portland OR, cycling Mecca of the US. Cyclist’s death ruled homicide Yeah the two (2) drunk drivers that hit him might have been the murder weapon, but someone else tried to kill him first… If you know anything about this murder please call the contact number in the article, 503-823-4357, or leave a tip at www.crimestoppersoforegon.com and go for that reward money. I mean who couldn’t use a quick grand, and you would be making the world a better place.

Again in CA, charges have been filed in the motor vehicle death of a cyclist. Charge filed in cyclist’s death and Charge filed in death of Grass Valley bicyclist Hey, it’s something. It ain’t perfect but at the very least the driver that killed this man will be inconvenienced for a while. I know that sounds terrible out of balance, but until attitudes are changed that’s the best we can hope for, that killers will be temporarily inconvenienced.

Another hit-and-run with no information about the car or driver involved. Witnesses sought in hit-and-run that injured bicyclist Again, if you know anything about this wreck that the police don’t call the police at the number in the article.

Sometimes you don’t need to be the cyclist to get hit by an SUV, you just need to be near the cyclist, to wit: Virginia Firefighters Struck by EMS SUV These guys were trying to treat an injured cyclist, when they got hit by their own supervisor! SUVs are a menace to all society and need to be banned from the roads ASAP 😉

This report from AZ sounds more like it was written in the UK. Vehicle hits bicyclist, seriously injuring her So, how badly was the cyclist hurt? Who owned the other vehicle involved, and did the driver stop to render aid? What were the lane positions of the vehicles involved, and what direction was the motor vehicle traveling at the time of impact? What kind of vehicle was the commercial vehicle, that’s kind of vague as it encompasses everything from a 4-door sedan used as a taxi to a massive tractor semi-trailer for oversized loads. The closest we get to answers are about the cyclist’s condition with leg and hip injuries. As a cyclist who had leg and hip injuries that were life-threatening because of the level of damage I know that this is an area with a great deal of fudge factor.

San Bernadino police think they have the vehicle that was used in the hit-and-run of a local cyclist and also in a vehicle burglary. Car seized in fatal hit-and-run investigation I hope this is the car from the hit-and-run, because if it isn’t that means there was more than one wreck and they still haven’t found the victim of this car yet.

While this wreck in the UK doesn’t have anything directly to do with a bicycle, it comes on the heels of a sentencing for a bicycle wreck with similar drivers. Fatal crash learner driver spared jail What people don’t realize about the two wrecks is the driver in this wreck killed someone in the same car as she was driving, who knew the person driving had not passed the license exam and was not insured, where the wreck that killed the cyclist the victim had no control over his fate and could not prevent the driver from killing him just by taking the keys back like the victim in the case at hand.

Still in the UK, truck drivers for a huge construction project in London will get additional training on sharing roads with cyclists, because of the extremely high proportion of cyclists (especially female cyclists). London Crossrail lorry drivers to be given cyclist awareness training The good part about this is that after the construction project is these drivers won’t unlearn what they are taught about not killing cyclists, which means that several thousand more drivers will know how to drive responsibly around cyclists.

Charges are laid against a driver for killing a cyclist in the UK, but still nothing on lane position of the car or the cyclist, Julia Moore accused of death dangerous driving after accident which killed Greg Dear What does come through is that the lights had been red long enough for the driver to come to a safe stop had she been driving at a speed that was close to the speed limit.

Final story from the UK is the world record holder for riding a bicycle around the world, and his very special bike. James Bowthorpe’s round-the-world bike Road-testing a new drivetrain from the cranks to the hub, and a complicated front hub/charging system for the electrics and electronics, this is a very special bicycle.

Scant information on the trial of a pair accused of obstructing justice in the death of a cyclist. Judge reserves verdict in McGee case Stuff like this goes on more than you would think.

Not that it’s really necessary but here’s another reason to buy RoadID from the BikeJournal.com store. Woman killed in bike accident identified I wear a pair of dog tags with my name, phone number, blood type and address every time I ride, just to be safe and because I don’t have the money for a RoadID tag or ankle band. You get yourself something so they can identify the body, or at least know whose name to put on the chart until you regain consciousness.

There’s a bicycle wreck in this report somewhere, I promise. Just don’t blink. ‘White-car gang’ roams free

Back in the US we have infrastructure reports and report cards. Breakfast links: Could be more walkable or bikeable There were a lot of links in that report…

A man rides around and around… the country, for a cause. Man biking across America for multiple sclerosis This is today’s WoaB support cyclist/cause. You see this guy, put some money in his bucket.

Cyclists in BC get some training in. Dawn patrol hits the hills Climb them hills, better you than me. Did I mention that I’m gravitationally challenged? Yep, all that reinforced concrete where most people have bones 😉 makes it very hard to climb hills, but easy to survive car wrecks. OK, not easy, let’s just say “possible” since I did.

That’s all I have for you tonight.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Massive multiples and updates, the Feed

Well you can see from the headline that there were a lot of updates and multiple reports on the same wrecks, also a lot of infrastructure related reports and stuff that will just make you see red.

Another update on the injured FL cyclist. Bicyclist recovers from injuries Latest reports have the driver as being possibly impaired by alcohol. The initial report from the wreck site has the driver driving too fast for conditions as the 162 feet of skid attests.

Another cyclist gets hit by a train in CA. Bicyclist hit by train in central Fresno Again, this is a completely preventable wreck. All you have to do is just keep your ears and eyes open and looking whenever you’re on a train track. Trains are big and noisy, all you have to do is pay attention and you will not be in a bike/train wreck.

More on the cyclist killed in Ontario Canada last week. Cyclist’s trip to store on icy roads ends in death and Cyclist killed in Niagara Falls and also Niagara Falls cyclist killed on Dorchester Road This was a “Special Needs” adult living with his parents going to the store to pick up something to drink, root beer, and because he had impaired judgment (whether that was spacial judgment or other types of judgment is not material to the incident) and conditions were bad he rolled or slid in front of a car that didn’t have the time/distance to avoid him. This was one of the few times I can say that this was truly an accident, as in something that could not have been prevented except by not being there to get hit, and I don’t know how something like this could have been prevented without violating the human rights and dignity of the person who was killed. How do you decide when you can’t allow someone to be on the street? I know there are many driving cars that have no business behind the wheel, but how do you deny someone what is a basic human right to travel without a guard? Too many questions that require too much decision based on the specific individual. In other words this is not something that you can apply a blanket solution to, like denying a drivers license to someone convicted of using a car as a deadly weapon. This requires nuance and judgment, not something government is renowned for.

An update on a wreck covered here last summer, these things take a very long time to process through the criminal justice system (see the previous paragraph about nuance and judgment). Driver facing charge in death of Justin Plamondon I said when this happened that it looked suspicious, and time has proved me right.

Another report on the driver that ran a cyclist over from behind in the UK getting jail time for the killing. Jail for motorist who killed cyclist Rhys-Evans I’m glad to see some justice done, but you get more time in jail for killing a dog than you do for running over a cyclist.

Another report on a cyclist hit in a roundabout. Man arrested after cyclist seriously hurt At least in the UK drivers that might leave the country to escape prosecution are jailed after a wreck. Of course there they have many more places to run in a much smaller radius of travel than here in the US.

This pooch is a danger to everyone, but especially cyclists. Swansea fairground boss’s dog tried to savage baby hours after biting cyclist Bad dogs are one of the most difficult hazards facing cyclists because of their unpredictability, and because you can’t tell which is a bad dog that will bite you, a bad dog that will bite your bike because it thinks the bike is hurting you, and the bad dog that just barks at anything that moves and sounds like s/he is one of the previous two groups. They all look and sound exactly the same until someone or something gets bitten.

As cars get safer for those inside, they become more fatal for those outside of them. Safety warning issued as bicycle deaths double To summarise, while overall numbers of wrecks went down, cyclist and pedestrian injuries went up and cyclist deaths more than doubled, from 27 to 55, and some are blaming the increase in death and injury on the fact that cars are almost tanks now, while fragile humans are pretty much the same because of the slower pace of evolution.

Anti-cyclist terrorism is getting widespread in South Africa as thousands prepare for the Pick and Pay Tour. Men beat up Tour cyclist I don’t know what else you can call that except a terrorist act. The victim was singled out because he was riding a bicycle and training for the upcoming event. He was beaten with weapons to within an inch of his life, while epithets were shouted at him by his assailants.

An intersection that locals have been saying is a death trap waiting to happen, happened in Oz. Death site upgrade calls ignored for 3 years This is the problem with governments, when things need to be done quickly they take years, and when things don’t need to be done at all they get done in weeks if not days. This is one of those cases where things needed to get done quickly and still are not done, and people have died from the delay.

Another infrastructure report on the enormous decrease in fatalities that has resulted from removing semi-trucks from city centers and reducing the speed limits to 30km/hr (18 MPH). City driving At the new speed limit the rate of death from motor vehicle impact on an unprotected body (cyclist or pedestrian) is under 5% per incident, and the speed makes avoiding the incident much more likely, which combine to reduce both the number of fatal wrecks and the number of total wrecks.

A man rides the road to nowhere in memory of his stepson. Spin for life: Stepfather cycles to keep memory of his stepson alive If you can be of support to this man the Witch on a Bicycle strongly recommends your support.

A NYC blogger points out the large number of bikes on the roads, in 1896. Bike Riders Crowding Bedford Avenue! (In 1896)

And a subject near to my heart as I do research and development on assisted cycling. Electric two-wheeler sales set to double motorcycle market This is a good time to be an early adopter, as choices will never be better. If you have the mechanical and electrical knowledge to be your own warranty it won’t matter as much if there are Toyota-like glitches in your electronics.

And that’s all I have for you today. Tomorrow’s update will be late as I have to go visit the Lab Rat Keeper in the morning to get more meds.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

A dreary day, and the same from the Feed

It’s 37 F outside, and damp and cloudy. Perfect weather for writing blog posts. The Feed is equally dreary today with reports on multiple attempted homicide, assaults with deadly weapons, and just general infrastructure issues both legal and physical. I exaggerate slightly, I’m pretty sure there weren’t any actual attempted homicides

Up first because it’s closest is this wreck with multiple reports in Austin. Cyclist run over by 18-wheeler Cyclist hit by 18-wheeler on 620 in Williamson County and this later report Bicyclist critically injured in morning wreck What is know at this point is that the cyclist was in the inside lane waiting at a red light and somehow ended up under the rear wheels of a big rig hauling gravel. Since the cyclist ended up so far from her starting point on the left side of the lane to the left side of the lane on he right there is some belief that a gust of wind blew the cyclist hard right just as the light changed, otherwise the cause of the wreck is unknown.

And an unexplainable failure to prosecute a person driving a car that cost more than the appraised value of my house with hit-and-run and failure to have insurance in L.A. CA. City and County Refuse to Pass Charges Againt Cayene Driver Who Hit Ed Magos and Ran As one commenter noted the car should have been impounded when LEO discovered the failure to insure violation, at the very least. The fact that the victim was an elected city official makes this slightly understandable as now they can say that no favoritism was extended because of political “clout”, as hit-and-run wrecks against cyclists were rarely prosecuted unless serious injury or death were inflicted upon the victim or the driver was know to be drunk at the time of the wreck.

An update on the FL man who was injured in a wreck last week. Condition of Cape Coral crash victim improves I’m glad to read the guy is doing better, full recovery is still unknown at this point.

A commentary on the proposed bike safety legislation pending in Iowa. Guest column: Legislation will help promote bicycle safety Ordinarily I don’t advise reading the comments, but since this is an article about legislation that will be facing a vote at some point, knowing what the people are thinking about this is handy. Just hold your nose while you read, and wash the screen after you finish.

A speed sting in Carlisle PA nets 29 victims, some of whom deserved a jail cell rather than a ticket.Police cite 29 in Carlisle speed detail Monday I would like to know why they didn’t haul anyone to jail for that 55 in a 25 ticket.

From up in the Great White North comes a report on assault with a deadly weapon that makes even less sense than my wreck in 2001. Man charged in cyclist assault If I’m reading this article correctly the man came off a main road into a parking lot to hit the cyclist who was just riding through and not doing any kind of tricks or anything. This was undoubtedly a clear case of assault with a deadly. Not casting stones here, but why was a man that was living in a group home for the mentally challenged allowed to have a driver’s license?

Another wreck in Canadia where a cyclist is hit coming out of his driveway. Man cycles to death in storm There was some question about how in control of the bike the cyclist was and whether he actually intended to ride out at that moment or was just trying to stay upright on the bike as it took off down the driveway (since I have no idea of the slope of the driveway I can’t comment on this hypothesis).

In the UK a cyclist has a “collision”. Cyclist suffers head injuries in Braywick Road crash Typical UK report with a twist, normally when there is a head injury the helmet status of the cyclist is mentioned. Who hit whom is never mentioned, and also neither is lane position or vehicle speed for both vehicles. I think there is a tag that explains my feelings on media laws in the UK 😛

This wreck article is the closest I have ever seen to actually giving useful information in a UK bicycle wreck article. Cyclist killed in lorry collision in Kent If I read the article correctly the truck was making an unsafe pass and either sucked the cyclist under his wheels or just plain hit the cyclist.

Justice of a sort for the cyclist killed riding a time trial race last year in the UK. Woman jailed for cyclist’s death in Cambridgeshire According to the article she wasn’t paying attention to what was in the road in front of her and just ran the cyclist over from behind.

A college professor is killed in London earlier this month. Queer theory professor killed in cycle accident Still nothing about the wreck, so be careful out there.

A South African cyclist will have to become proficient at one-legged pedaling if he wishes to continue cycling. Hit-and-run victim loses leg Not trying to be flippant, just making the observation. I hope they find the low-life that hit him and punish appropriately.

A drunk driver starts a pinball wreck that kills one person and injured several more including a cyclist. After party, driver kills one on the road I think my antipathy towards drunk drivers is well documented in this blog.

Cyclists in Enn Zed call for stiffer penalties for wrecks that cause significant injury to victims. Cyclist calls for tougher penalty Seriously, $1000NZ per victim (694.8 U.S. dollars) for a wreck that crippled at least one man and ended the career of another is ridiculous. Penalties must match the seriousness of the wrecks or else there will be no deterrent to bad driving.

Pedestrian infrastructure was severely neglected after the recent snows in the DC area, with snowplows dumping huge amounts of snow from streets to the sidewalks, resulting in snowbanks taller than a normal human of nearly concrete hard packed snow, obliterating the work of property owners and renters who shoveled snow by hand to clear a path to walk. Prince George’s must ensure pedestrian and rider safety Many cyclists and transit users were left unable to get to work because where they had to be was buried under mountains of snow…

The family of an AZ cyclist will get money from a discontinued line of sunglasses that was made for the cyclist. Purchase of sunglasses helps local family Witch on a Bicycle blog strongly suggests you buy a pair of these if you need sunglasses.

That’s all I have for you from the frozen tundra of North Texas. I’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

The sorry state of education on the Web, and the Feed

After reading some very hateful comments that went with some of the articles I read in the Feed (many of which articles had nothing to do with bicycles, but I had to read them to make sure of that) I have come to the conclusion that people in English-speaking countries have failed abysmally in teaching spelling and grammar, and that the people with the worst language skills are the ones that post the most hateful diatribes against (insert minority group in article). Seriously, there seems to be an inverse relationship between animosity and writing skills, with the most hateful posts being barely comprehensible because of spelling and grammatical errors. I wonder if there is something psychological in this, people who are poorly educated hating people who are better educated or who they perceive as being better educated. Or maybe those who did not benefit from education because of poor educational process or inability to absorb the information as presented (often those are the same) know they got a raw deal and are just angry at anyone that does better than they do. Whatever, I’m not a sociologist, I’m a bike blogger. I leave the study of hate filled diatribes from people functioning below an 8th grade literacy level to those that do that for a living, I’m here to prevent wrecks and count the victims.

There were a number of wrecks that sought and deserved first in line status, but unfortunately only one can be first. This is that one. Bicyclist critically injured in collision with car and Bicyclist critically injured in Cape Coral crash and Bicyclist hospitalized with life threatening injuries after collision OK from the top this seems to be a SWSS or SWCC wreck, the car slid over 160 feet prior to hitting the cyclist and still was going fast enough to inflict life-threatening injury, none of the articles state which lane the cyclist was in when he was hit, just that he “suddenly” decided to head east from the outside lane of the southbound side of the street, and was hit on the left side and bounced off the windshield. Alcohol may have been involved, police said. excessive speed most definitely was involved (160 foot skid and still fast enough to almost kill someone) but nobody mentions that, at least not explicitly. Also not mentioned was who was drinking, the cyclist or the driver that hit him. At this point all I can say is the cyclist was on a road that was not very bicycle friendly. It might have been the only road that could get him to his destination, but it is very apparent that motor vehicle traffic was going too fast in the area of the wreck. Other than that I can’t post anything the cyclist could have done with certainty that it could have prevented the wreck.

More on the cyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver in San Berdoo. Teen on Bike Struck, Killed by Hit-and-Run Driver and also Driver kills bicyclist in San Bernardino What is most frustrating about this wreck is had the driver just stopped the kids on the bike would have been at fault and the driver would have been at most slapped on the wrist for driving too fast for conditions, but under CA law since he didn’t stop he (she?) is facing felony charges. If you live in the area and see a vehicle with heavy front end and windshield damage you would want to use the contact numbers listed in he articles to contact LEO and turn the (phrase so vile that even WordPress.com TOS won’t let me use it) in.

And a nurse fails to read the warning enclosure with her prescription sleep aid and kills a cyclist trying to get home in bad weather. RN who killed cyclist high on drugs This one really burns me too, as medical professionals should know to read and heed the warnings in the enclosure that comes with prescriptions, and even I know from TV ads that you shouldn’t drive or operate heavy equipment while taking Ambien^tm. This is a clear case of someone that should have known better doing something really stupid and someone (else) paying the price for it. I don’t know what you can do about people like this… who kill not maliciously but carelessly.

A 15 YO in Carlisle PA misjudges traffic and gets hit. Carlisle bicyclist, 15, flown to Hershey after crash Friday At least the driver was going at a speed that is almost 100% non-lethal when he hit the boy, but from the sparse description the cyclist and the driver might have turned into the same street at almost the same time, with the cyclist’s slower acceleration causing him to get hit by the quicker car, and that neither may have been able to see the other prior to the collision. Or I could be miles off in my interpretation of the article.

More information on a hit-and-run from last week in WI. Madison man charged in hit-and-run that leaves cyclist dead Alcohol may have been involved, they say. I say give him a choice between a firing squad or being beaten to death by a mob of angry cyclists with frame pumps and steel toed shoes.

Amid all the wreck reports from CA comes this plea for sanity from a cyclist and father to the drivers who even if they don’t cause a wreck inflict almost all the physical harm. Brian Hamilton: Common sense, respect for riders will aid safety Again, the comments are inane, and disrespectful of cyclists’ right to the roads. Motor vehicles are the hazard, why not ban them from “dangerous” roads instead of banning bicycles as many suggested?

From Montreal up there in the Great White North, an encouraging report that car use has declined for the first time in 40 years. Montreal should make it easier to not drive I agree that giving tickets to pedestrians going from the train to catch the bus or vice versa because poor planning put the two on opposite sides of a street is adding insult to injury, there should be a protected crossing there.

In the UK a village that apparently has idiots for city government has reached a agreement with a local cycling club that sometimes has cyclists racing at speed of up to 5 MPH less than the local speed limit through the village. Leicestershire village and cyclists reach deal on safety That’s right 30 MPH speed limit and bikes were clocked at 25 in the village riding one at a time as part of a time trial course, not running red lights or stop signs because there were none on the route chosen for the course, and it’s the bikes that are the safety issue, not the pedestrians that walk out into the street without looking. Sometimes you just have to wonder…

Another round of “Blame the Victim” with construction haulers handing out the blame this time in the UK. CEMEX supports latest Metropolitan Police cyclist safety event “Oh, we can’t see you when we turn across the lane we have forced you to be in by law, so don’t try to actually use the lane you are forced to be in when we are there.” How about this instead: hit a cyclist who was in the legally designated place for a cyclist to be (far right in the US, far left in the UK) and the driver of the vehicle that hits the cyclist is at fault. There’s no sense in putting cyclists way over where you can’t see them and then complaining about not being able to see cyclists, also no sense in placing cyclists along side turning vehicles and then blaming the cyclists for being where the law requires them to be, just because they are where you want to turn. To cyclists, until the law matches reality and physics, watch carefully when a truck (or lorry for those in the UK) pulls along side of you, and don’t pull up past the back of a stopped truck. The drivers can’t see you and you don’t weigh enough for the driver to feel if he hits you.

South Africa is warning both drivers and cyclists to be aware and obey the law as the world’s biggest bike race approaches. Warning: obey rules of road Several cyclists are killed or injured every year as the Pick and Pay Cycle Tour approaches and cyclists ramp up their training, and drunk drivers ramp up their binges before winter sets in on the southern half of the world. I would prefer that my readers not be in either group.

Much of the rest of the Feed is lifestyle and wrecks from New Zealand, but you have to look closely to find the bike wreck in this article. Teens among five dead on roads There it is down there at the bottom paragraph, about the cyclist that lost control and crashed in a creek, whose body wasn’t found for a while and identified even later…

While motorcycles were crashing right, left, and center during a sanctioned race through city streets, an 11 YO riding a bicycle is also a victim. Young cyclist injured when hit by car There was another article about the wrecks in the motorcycle race, but sanctioned racing motorcycles under controlled conditions have little to nothing to do with bicycle wrecks. You have to find and read about that on your own. There was not enough information on this wreck to tell how to avoid a similar one, sorry. The investigation was not complete at the time the story was published.

An old guy (from looking at the picture they ran with the article) pontificates on cyclists breaking the law in Enn Zed. Rules for the Tour de Tamaki The author claims drivers are recording video of cyclists breaking the law and attempts to claim he’s not part of the cyclist haters:”Nor is this part of a driver feud with cyclists.” Then why even mention it?

An AZ cyclist succumbs to disease rather than a car wreck. Nothing compared to riding his bike

LEO ride to remember those who have gone before. Local deputies cycle in memory of fallen comrades (with photos) Go LEO go! These are the guys that will be on “our side” when a wreck happens instead of automatically assuming the cyclist was at fault.

A novel idea for supporting cyclists injured in collisions with motor vehicles, the Tour de Ed. Registration is open for Tour de Ed on Saturday in Chico The Witch on a Bicycle strongly supports you taking this ride…

And that’s it for today, keep looking here for more news about wrecks and bicycle lifestyle, plus other transportation issues.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

A quick post while the bread rises

I found and posted a “lost” post just a few minutes ago, and I have a small Feed to bring you while I’m waiting for the first loaf of bread to rise for delivery tomorrow. BTW I love baking bread when I get $5 a loaf and clear $1.25 after supplies and delivery expenses. I’ll love it even more when I start getting the same quality flour and yeast from a commercial supplier and start clearing $3.75 a loaf. That works out to almost $6.50 an hour, working for myself… I need a job that pays better 🙂

Up first is multiple reports on a hit-and-run outside Sacramento involving 2 vehicles besides the bicycle. Sacramento CHP looking for driver who killed bicyclist and CHP Seeks Driver After Fatal Hit-And-Run The really frustrating thing about this besides the SWCC aspect, is the hit-and-run driver is going to claim that his impact wasn’t the one that killed the cyclist, it was the Hyundai that ended up on top of the cyclist that killed him, conveniently ignoring the fact that if the cyclist hadn’t been hit the first time he wouldn’t have been hit the second time and that leaving the scene of a wreck even if you didn’t cause it is still a crime. As for how to avoid, there wasn’t enough information on the cyclist’s speed and direction prior to the first impact to make a suggestion.

More news on the increase in bike/car wrecks in the Reno NV area, Are Area Bicycle-Car Accidents on the Rise? More fear-mongering from the media. Now considering the subject matter and focus of this blog some might find that statement hypocritical but I know that cycling is inherently safe, it’s the cars that are the problem, what with averaging 40K deaths a year from motor vehicles on the roads just in the US, and the US being one of the safest countries in the world as far as motor vehicle deaths are concerned. Look at the number of pedestrians killed each year by motor vehicles, and then the number killed by bicycles. The differences are staggering. I’ll let you do the work of looking up the numbers because it’s good practice for doing search strings…And BTW as I said in yesterday’s post on this subject we cyclists need to clean up our act in the Reno area, no running red lights or riding drunk, and parents need to teach their kids how to ride safely and not just how not to fall over when the parent lets go of the seat.

An ironic article to follow the previous one is a report that while car/bicycle wrecks are up in the Bay area of NoCal, the number of new cyclists far outstrips the increased number of wrecks as a percentage. Urban Bicycling: Is It Becoming Safer? This is a known phenomena called the “Safety in Numbers Effect” and has been documented in every case where the numbers of cyclists have changed drastically either up or down. Wrecks increase at a slower rate then the change in ridership when there are more riders, and don’t decrease as fast as a loss in ridership when losing riders.

This report on the victim of a violent hit-and-run against a group of cyclists in the bike lane (!) hit a little too close to home for your brain-damaged blogger. After the crash Mine wasn’t as bad as the guy in the article, but I still have problems with my speech on occasion, and it isn’t all caused by increasing age. I’m still interested in finding out the status of the court case against the person of low moral character that went off the road to hit 5 people in a bike lane and left the scene, are they upgrading the charges to attempted mass murder or terrorism yet?

From the UK a report that sounds eerily like an event that happened locally last year. Cyclist hit in ‘drive-by’ shooting You might remember this also happening to ChipSeal last year, and also to an Austin cyclist a couple of months after that.

From Enn Zed comes a report on the sentencing of a driver that hit a group of cyclists and left one permanently crippled. Crash driver’s sentence appals hurt cyclist Seems like we just saw this a couple of articles up the blog. In the Auckland District Court, Judge Eddie Paul said he was legally bound to sentence at the lower end as there were no aggravating features, such as speed or alcohol. How about the fact that she almost killed 4 people and caused permanent injury and loss of income to at least one and maybe 2 of the victims? Is that not an “aggravating feature”? >sigh<

That's all I have for you today, I will be very busy Sunday so the next post will be Monday dark and drearily late 😛

Billed @$0.02, Opus

No word on the driver of the SUV that rolled over

I’m still upset over the wreck I saw last week, as I can’t find out if the driver survived the traumatic amputation of his left arm, yet. You would think a wreck that required a CareFlight evac would have at least merited a paragraph in the local paper, but it looks otherwise.

On other fronts I’m still talking to members of the Garland City Council on the basics of bicycle infrastructure. We aren’t even up to the point of a 101 class yet, for most of the council we are at the “This is a bicycle” stage of informing them about the subject, many can’t believe that adults use bicycles as transportation. Part of the problem is bicycle infrastructure is under Parks and Recreation… [sigh]

PSA, Opus

I have a “new” computer, and you get the Feed

I’m back with a new computer and a temporary OS, so slight changes in article format are to be expected for a few days until I get data from my old HD over to the new computer and the new OS installed (I’m going to Ubuntu). To update on what has been going down since the last post, I still have no information on the guy that lost his arm rolling the Explorer over in front of me, I’m being investigated by a psychic agency to see if there is something that is actually attracting people to behave like idiots around me, with possible military applications (if you can get the enemy to act like he’s lost his mind, than half your battle is already won), and I missed a BPAC meeting at the NCTCOG because I didn’t have access to my e-mail. I also missed 256 reports from the Feed that you will never get to read here 😛

Up first in the Feed is a report on the driver that went off the road back in August and ran a cyclist over from behind on a straight stretch of highway in east TN back in August of last year Man indicted in elderly bicyclist’s death I hope I coded that right 🙂 This one is pretty straight-forward, the cyclist was away from the road surface on the shoulder and the driver was exceeding the speed limit and not driving on the road. The problem that may come is jury members that think the cyclist got what he deserved for riding in the roads with cars on his little toy instead of following the laws as they are written and recognizing the cyclist had a right to be where he was riding and the law required the driver to miss the cyclist by a minimum of 3 feet, and that driving on the shoulder is prohibited to motor vehicles except under very limited conditions.

The motorcycle rider that was drunk when he lost control of his vehicle and sent it sailing into the head of a cyclist fixing a flat tire on a section of bike path near the highway may be incompetent to stand trial because of his own injuries from the wreck. Motorcyclist Found Incompetent for Fatal DWI Trial While I want the slimeball to get a fair trial I’m also confronted by the fact that getting injured in a wreck that kills someone should not be a “Get out of Jail free” card for killing someone. My suggestion is to keep him in a minimum security hospital ward and treat his injuries until he is competent to stand trial for his protection as well as the protection of the rest of the world from further acts of drunken (or brain-damaged) stupidity or ignorance. That way he is protected from the outside world, and we are protected from him should he be faking. Oh yeah and they should have already put up a guardrail on that stretch of highway, this was the third cyclist killed or injured by a motor vehicle while using the bike path.

Still in NY, a cyclist was injured by a driver not paying attention to the road and violating his right of way. Cyclist injured in crash Not much to help you with on this wreck, the driver pulled directly into the cyclist from a side road. No reaction time, no avoidance maneuvers possible.

Things have been getting bad for Reno area cyclists as drivers are still not getting the message that bicycles are there, they’re legal, and you have to avoid hitting them just like you would any other vehicle on the road. Wednesday Cyclist Crashes Could Be Setback For Local Bike Community We as cyclists are not helping our cause any by also ignoring the rules of the road in the Reno area, education on both sides is required, not riding through a red light while rolling drunk would be a good start, and teaching kids the rules of the roads before letting them on bikes would be another big step. Revoking everyone’s driver’s license and retesting them would be the only sure way of getting the message out to the drivers that are already out there, and would be about as popular as passing gas in church.

Miami officials removed the memorial to a cyclist killed by a drunk celebrity after only 2 weeks. Christophe Le Canne’s Ghost Bike Removed, Cyclists Upset The quote from transportation officials that the memorial represented a hazard to pedestrians is specious. I have no doubts they actually said that it’s just a rather dubious reason to remove the memorial.

From the UK a funeral for a cyclist that was killed during my unwilling absence from the blog. Funeral today for tragic cyclist Since this is a UK wreck I really don’t have access to the information required to tell you the best way to avoid this kind of wreck.

From the Emerald Isle via the BBC is a report on the finding of a driver that killed an Irish champion road racer on a training ride guilty. Man guilty over cyclist death Apparently the driver was passing another car and ran head on into the cyclist, then left the scene. He won’t be doing that again…

And that’s all I have today, more tomorrow. I would like to say that I feel good about being back in the saddle again as it were, now if only the subject matter wasn’t so grim.

Billed@$0.02, Opus