A slow news day for the Feed, and happy Death Day to me

Well, fortunately for my sanity it was a slow news day for bicycle wrecks in the US and elsewhere. Unfortunately for my sanity just because there weren’t many wrecks didn’t mean there weren’t any stupid people making inane and non-factual comments about the few that did happen.

Leading the way with inane and non-factual comments was this report on 2 separate incidents in GA. Bicyclists injured in two crashes Both wrecks were right hooks of cyclists legally using the bike lanes, and according to the report as I read it both cyclists used intersection protocols to avoid getting killed. Unfortunately they were still injured in the wrecks, but turning with the wreck reduced the severity of their injuries. I can’t take any credit for their actions as I don’t think they read my blog. As for how stupid the comments were, the very first one blamed the cyclists because they didn’t have license plates or insurance. Yeah, don’t read the comments.

An update on a wreck that happened while I was on the temp job. Injured cyclist still in Mission Hospital in Asheville This wreck sounds… implausible. The cyclist went down by himself and suffered massive head and internal trauma? Without the “assistance” of another vehicle? And had all that head trauma while wearing a helmet? The injuries sound more like a motorcycle wreck than a bicycle wreck. Speaking of that head trauma, those injuries are exactly why I wear a full-face helmet when I ride. Getting my face sewn back on once was one too many times, thankyewverramuch.

When they upgrade your condition from “dead at scene” to “alive but in grim condition”, you know it’s a bad wreck in MN. Crashes in NE Minneapolis kill 1, seriously injure another The cyclist was hit by a drunk driver in an intersection, no word on if either of them had violated a traffic control. The driver is in jail awaiting a preliminary hearing at the time I read the article, but is probably out on bond by now. I have no help on how to not get hit by drunks at 1445 on a Sunday. (2:45 PM for my USAian readers). The reports I get from my LEO contacts are that the driver of the minivan couldn’t leave the scene because the damage to the van was too severe to drive it away. To other LEO reading this post, if you know something about a wreck in your local paper that isn’t being published, send me the link through WordPress with what you know about the wreck, and I will maintain your anonymity about the wreck with “contacts in the LEO community” credit. Oh and insert typical rant about drunk drivers and crushing their vehicles in this space.

In the UK a brief note on a bike wreck. NEWS In Brief: CYCLIST Injured In Crash… A driver has been charged in the wreck.

And the pilot of Bicycle One (the POTUS), has decided to wear a helmet while riding, stop the presses. Bike helmets: Not just for presidents anymore Now I’m not going to say everyone should wear a helmet because the POTUS did, nor because I do. As has been pointed out earlier in this post, helmets are not very protective in a wreck, and above 20 MPH generally just protect against scalp lacerations. But, a helmet and a pair of gloves are the only PPE we get as cyclists. My gloves have a Kevlar reinforced palm to help make sure they protect my skin in a wreck, my helmet is a full-face with a fiberglass shell that slides on concrete and asphalt instead of digging in and causing rotational injury to the neck or brain. And I still get hurt when I fall off the bike and hit something that isn’t covered by my PPE (that would be about 85% of my body that is unprotected).

And that’s all the news that gives me fits on this August 31, 2010. Nine years ago at 0115, someone tried to kill me because I was riding a bicycle on the street. The fact that you can read this is evidence enough that they didn’t succeed. If you are so inclined, please lift a glass sometime today in honor of that.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

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More on the Peletonia death, Darcy Allen Shepard, and Life

Well, it was an interesting weekend here at WoaB HQ in the suburbs of Hell. I’m planning a Death Day party for both the internets and local, tomorrow will be 9 years since I “died”. Also taking care of the mundane things around the house, lawn, plumbing, that sort of “stuff”. I’m in the process of converting kitty litter buckets into devices which can carry groceries from the market for Blue Bike, trying to get Blue to develop some kind of personality (I’m not trying to get another Gigi, but something would be nice, even wet cardboard has more personality than Blue at the moment) and building another lighting system, this time based on Altoids tins as the battery box and mount for the LEDs for the taillight, and the 9 LED flashlight being sold by Harbor Freight as the headlight, with a single switch to control both ends of the lighting system, like I had with Gigi but lower voltage and less weight. I also have to improve the mounting for the rear fender, the system that came with the fender didn’t work with Blue and will have to be re-engineered to be more rigid. Nothing against the way the fender was mounted originally, it would have worked fine for a bike that wasn’t Crank Forward like Blue or Gigi, but on Blue one of the mounts broke.

Up first are multiple reports on the Peltonia death. Fallen cyclist honored and Riders Help Say Goodbye To Woman Killed During Pelotonia and finally Family, bicyclists bid farewell to fallen Pelotonia rider At this point my contacts in LEO tell me there was nothing wrong with the brakes of the truck that hit the cyclist, in spite of the “my brakes failed” from the driver of the truck. The driver ignored the commands from a LEO directing traffic at the intersection, and hit the cyclist (and her bike) after “blowing” stop command from the LEO. As far as I’m concerned the lightest charge they can file would be manslaughter, but murder would be more likely as the death resulted from the deliberate act to ignore the command of the LEO to stop at the intersection.

Also with multiple reports are updates on the reward in the hit-and-run homicide of an OKC cyclist. Reward Offered In Cyclist’s Death and Cycling community offers reward for information about Edmond bicyclist’s death The PD involved with the investigation has determined that the death was a homicide and is investigating accordingly.

An update on the wreck that killed a 14YO cyclist in AK. Fairbanks driver charged in death of teen cyclist The guy ran a red light and hit 3 kids sending 2 to hospital where one died, and they can’t even charge him with a real crime? “District Attorney Mike Gray says 55-year-old Fred Karella is charged with manslaughter and first-degree assault.” The kids were waiting at the intersection for the green light and had made it almost a full lane into the intersection when hit, which means the light for the truck had been red for several seconds at least, and that was the best they could charge him with? TANJ!

A year after Michael Bryant murdered Darcy Allen Shepard, a memorial is held for the cyclist. Memorial for man who died after grabbing Bryant’s car Yes, that was a very poorly written article. More One year later, cyclist killed in confrontation remembered

And that’s all the news that gives me fits this Monday.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Once again, riding a bicycle on the street is not against the law except in Ennis County, TX

While I was away from the internets the last 2 weeks they finally got around to trying Reed Bates in front of what was supposed to be a real judge in a real court. That didn’t happen, it was another tale from the tomes of Captain Kangaroo, DJP.

PM Summers had this report of the story.Reed Bates found Guilty of ‘Reckless Driving’

SteveA (a friend of this blog) has his eyewitness report here. People Versus Bates

The judge agreed that the act of riding in the center of the lane makes a cyclist more visible and safer, the prosecutor agreed that the action was entirely legal, and then they found Reed guilty of reckless driving. Let me re-iterate that:THE JUDGE AND THE PROSECUTOR AGREED THAT WHAT REED WAS DOING WAS SAFER AND ENTIRELY WITHIN THE LAW AND THEN FOUND HIM GUILTY OF RECKLESS DRIVING! Or yes you were following the written laws, but you broke the unwritten laws.

So at this point I will not be riding my bicycle ever again in Ennis County, neither will I spend a single cent within their borders so that their sales taxes will never benefit by my presence. They will never prosper, nor shall they know happiness, nor pleasures of the flesh. Their relationships shall fail, their vines wither. their crops crumble to dust. Unless and until this farce of a judgement is reversed, and Reed is given both an apology and returned the money fined and lost by their actions this curse shall remain in effect forever and henceforth. I place this curse on everyone that voted for the judge in the last election, and for the DA who hired the prosecutor, who still remains in the county after the judgement. So mote it be.

PSA, Opus

Back to work, from work, or something

OK I’m back from my temp job where I had to live on-site. I made a few bucks which will get plowed back into the bike to make it better. I think I did pretty good, after replacing the locks and that door and building the bar on the door that wouldn’t latch the place is pretty secure physically, and the owner has done other things to upgrade the security as well. But this is not a blog about building security, this is a blog about bicycle safety. It’s time to make you safe.

I don’t know how safe this will make you, but there was a wreck on the Peletonia ride for cancer research in OH last weekend. PELOTONIA RIDER STRUCK, KILLED IN HOCKING COUNTY The driver in question claims his brakes failed which is why he ignored the LEO telling him to stop. However apparently the coroner has other information. Prosecutor reviewing death of Pelotonia rider

Another driver with impaired vision kills another cyclist. Cyclist killed at rural intersection in Brown County It also appears the cyclist may have run a stop sign, so there is plenty of blame that can be placed on him. To avoid stop at stop signs especially when going from 2 lane country road across a minor highway.

The mode of wreck in this CA crash is unknown, but what is known is that whether or not the rider was wearing a helmet was moot. Teen cyclist killed in crash with driver “He had suffered massive head, face and body injuries. Fire personnel pronounced him deceased at the scene. He was not wearing a helmet, police said.” Yeah, it sounds like he would have been equally dead just a bit less uglified had he been wearing a helmet. Until more is released about this wreck I can’t actually tell you how to avoid aside from advising to be extra vigilant in intersections.

Another bike ninja forgets the cardinal rule of bike ninjas: ride like you’re invisible because you almost are invisible. Bicyclist dead after Polk deputy runs over him at night and Polk deputy strikes, kills bicyclist also Mountain biker dies after late night crash with Polk County Deputy and Cyclist Killed In Collision With Deputy in Winter Haven and finally Bicyclist hit, killed by Sheriff’s Office cruiser

A MT hit-and-run turns out to be a DUI, with arrest. Missoula woman charged in DUI crash that injured Pattee Canyon bicyclist “When Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Chad Dever arrived, Germann told him she was hit by a green Subaru.” This is why it is so important to try to see the vehicle that hits you and at least get a make and model, or color. This lead directly to the driver being found and arrested. Note the alcohol levels of the driver at the scene and later at the jail: 0.16 and 0.12 %BAC with .08 being legally drunk in most states, some are thinking about moving that to .05% as a majority of the population shows significant impairment at that level, not everybody, but most. For those that aren’t by the time they do show impairment they would be so far past the legal limits that conviction would be a lock.

A Detroit MI cyclist was injured by a hit-and-run driver. Bicyclist Injured in Hit & Run Accident in Dexter Township If you see a 1999 or 2000 Ford Excursion or large pickup in the Detroit area missing the passenger side mirror be sure to report it to LEO and have the driver arrested for attempted murder.

A CA town has a run of car/bicycle “intersections”. Two cyclists injured by cars in two days In both the wrecks the cause of the wreck was violating the right of way of the cyclist in an intersection, the first by running a red light, the second by making a left turn into the path of the cyclist. It wasn’t stated in the article if the second cyclist was hit by the motor vehicle or just cut it off so that the cyclist was unable to avoid the motor vehicle. To avoid the second wreck use intersection protocols for left cross, to avoid the first use your amazing powers of ESP to not be where the crazy woman runs the red light.

More on the driver that hit a cyclist from behind and killed him in WI. Fine paid in Netke case; result disappoints cyclist’s widow Yep, the driver had to cough up $114 in fines plus court costs, that will show him he needs to not kill cyclists…

A bike/car wreck in OKC has been taken over by the homicide squad and a reward posted. Reward offered for information about death of a bicycle rider in Oklahoma City The transfer of the case to the homicide squad is old news, the reward is new.

Speaking of that wreck, a legislator from the area is promoting a new law that would make wrecks like that a criminal act regardless of intention. Lawmaker eyes new bicycle law The proposed law would be modelled on the CO law requiring 3 feet of clearance when passing a cyclist and result in a fine of $500 if the cyclist is struck and injured.

And that’s all the news that gives me fits, Saturday edition.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Going off the air for a bit

I just got news that one of my friends’ house was broken into today and all her keys were taken along with some tools and her A/C. She doesn’t feel safe by herself in her house until the locks have been changed so I’m going to stand guard duty for a few days over at her house, this means I’m going to be without Internet access until I return, so no Feed, no e-mail, and definitely no blogging.

PSA, Opus

A really bad weekend to be riding a bicycle

Judging from the Feed it has been a very bad weekend to be riding a bike. As for why no post on Saturday, I spent all day in meetings for my church, doing the BoD thing and I’m also in 2 committees that run aspects of the church that had meetings that day. I left the house at 0930 and got home about 1500 and finally got something to eat. It was that kind of day.

Up first is a SWSS fatality in west TX. Dallas bicyclist dies after being hit by pickup before Lubbock Senior Games The stated events that the cyclist swerved from the shoulder are disputed by the dead-center dent in the front of the pickup truck and witness accounts of the skid marks on the road from the bicycle tires at impact both not being in the places that would account for the driver’s description of the events. I didn’t see the bicycle but in the comments section someone mentioned that the rear wheel was collapsed straight, not at an angle like it would have been had the cyclist been making a turn as the driver stated. Again I see this as a visual processing error on the part of the driver, not seeing the cyclist until she was right in front of the bumper. On the plus side, the cyclist probably never knew she was about to die until the last second before she was hit.

Another cyclist hit from behind in GA, with witnesses that just happened to be trained first medical responders. Emergency-oriented couple aid injured cyclist on Ogeechee Road The cyclist made a legal lane change to enter the left turn lane and was hit from behind by a person that witnesses said was not paying attention to what was in front of her, again a case of failure to process the visual information in time to prevent a wreck. “She’s saying he came out of nowhere.” Since another witness was watching the cyclist make his lane change we know the cyclist was not “nowhere” prior to impact. More: UPDATE: Man severely injured in bicycle-vehicle collision on Ogeechee Road near Chatham Parkway

A San Francisco cyclist is killed in a hit-and-run. Cyclist killed in S.F. hit-and-run, driver arrested Aside from the usual hit-from-behind protocols I don’t know anything the cyclist could have done to avoid this wreck. Insert usual rant about hit-and-run drivers that kill in this space.

And in the most deadliest state in the US to ride a bike or walk, they got another one. Another bicyclist hit at entrance to Key Biscayne This statement at the beginning of the article is testimony to how dangerous drivers in FL are to non-motorized road users: “Another evening rush hour, another bicycle accident! It has become so commonplace that it’s no longer a surprise to see emergency vehicles at the side of the road in Key Biscayne picking up injured cyclists.” If the situation has gotten that commonplace then there needs to be serious repercussions for drivers that hit cyclists, because until something is done the CARnage will be unabated. The cyclist in this case was riding in the lane legally and the driver just drove right into her as he “didn’t see her”, the universal get-out-of-jail free card for drivers when they hit a cyclist. Hit-from-behind protocol to avoid being his next victim.

So many cyclists getting hit in Ft. Wayne IN that they can’t even give them separate articles. 7-year-old cyclist ID’d, listed serious In addition to the wreck in the headline there was another mentioned in the body of the article but no mention on the mode of the wreck in that one, the 7YO was apparently crossing against the light but that wasn’t explicitly stated so I can’t say for sure.

A PA cyclist falls off his bike when he has some kind of malfunction with his chain. Bicycle rider injured in Mercer County The report was that the chain “came off” and then the rider crashed, so the rider may have been doing a hard pedal and the chain broke or derailed causing the cyclist to come uncoupled from the bike. To avoid a similar wreck either don’t pedal as hard as this cyclist, or take better care of your bike.

This kind of story just drives me crazy. Pregnant bicyclist killed by hit-and-run driver in Gardena; police seek suspect Insert standard rant about hit-and-run drivers here, mention rabid wolverines and wombats.

Another of those vehicles without drivers kills again. Woodward Cyclist Hit, Killed By Semi Once again the universal get-out-of-jail-free card was played by the driver and accepted by the LEO. I just don’t get it, the driver volunteers that he is driving with impaired vision, and the LEO just lets him get away with homicide? TANJ!

Another cyclist killed following the law trying to avoid conflict with motor vehicles. Circle of blame in Morgan Hill crosswalk death “Police say Arlia struck Tomasello with her Cadillac sport-utility vehicle as Tomasello was riding his bicycle through the mid-block crosswalk in front of the Centennial Recreation Center.” OK CA law says you have to STOP when you come to a crosswalk with a cyclist or pedestrian in it, this driver failed to stop and killed the person in the crosswalk. I fail to see what the difficulty in this case is, the driver failed to stop and killed as a result of her violation of the law, she should lose her license and spend some time in jail. And WTF is this?:”Arlia answered by filing cross-complaints against the city of Morgan Hill and the Santa Clara Valley Water District.” What does the water district have to do with the crosswalk?

I’m not sure about this wreck. Cyclist killed in downtown collision The report was “he failed to yield to traffic” not that he ran a red light or a stop sign. Anyway, to avoid, yield when there is a conflict with motor vehicle traffic and there is question about right of way, but think about this statement from LEO: “It’s just one of those things where you’ve got a lot of bicycles around here and sometimes they happen in front of you and unfortunately this is a tragic accident.” Remember, bicycles “happen” in front of drivers in Spokane.

In the same area of the country, a cyclist that was accompanying a relay runner in a race was killed when the 2 of them were hit with a van that was on the wrong side of the road. Cyclist in relay race killed The driver of the van was suspected of being drunk when he crossed the road and hit the pair on the opposite side of the road. The cyclist was there to protect the runner and provide support (I guess by having cold water on the bike), but there is nothing a bicycle rider can do to stop a van with a drunk driver at the wheel from driving on the wrong side of the road.

Student drivers have been killing a lot of cyclists in the news lately, this one in Canadia. Cyclist killed in collision with student driver There were some things in the article that upset me, ““He said ‘Help me.’ I touched his shoulder and said, ‘God will help you.'”” She did this twice and the man died because instead of trying to control the injured man’s bleeding she just mouthed words. Well, I can’t lay all the blame on her, the man might have died anyway had she actually been able to help instead of just expecting a miracle. But seriously, this particular thing annoys me no end.

Speaking of student drivers that kill cyclists, more reaction to the one that was found guilty in the UK. Unsupervised learner driver ‘killed cyclist after dropping mother off at chip shop’ and Unlicensed driver walks free after being found guilty of cyclist’s death As I posted about this last week, the punishment did not even come close to fitting the crime.

And in Oz, things got really messy yeaterday. Man dies, cyclist trapped, man loses arm Nothing on the mode of the wreck for the cyclist, but the people making comments all seemed sure the cyclist was at fault for being there…

A Boston driver notes that when cycling with cars, it’s the drivers that make the difference, not a magic styrofoam hat. Motorists, not bike helmets, are what make the difference The comments just don’t “get it” as they still harp on wearing helmets, when not getting hit with cars is the solution.

In Infrastructure! news Miami-Dade attorneys find fault with the local infrastructure for cyclists, both physical and legal. Miami Wrongful Death Attorneys: Miami-Dade Deadly for Bicyclists and Pedestrians I could have told them that, and I’m in TX, not FL. “But bad driver behavior resulting in preventable, wrongful deaths earns perhaps the biggest share of responsibility.” Another case of “Duh!” for the lawyers.

And that’s all the news that gives me fits.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Not much riding for me yesterday, and the Feed

I was supposed to go to a party yesterday, but as I was rolling the bike out of the garage I noticed the tire was dead flat, as in “flop, flop” noises at walking speed flat. Combine that with 101 F outside and 115 F in the garage… Well I didn’t go to the party, and I didn’t fix the tire until after sundown. I may be brain damaged, but I’m still smart enough to know when doing something is a bad idea.

Another SWSS in KY. Cyclist injured in traffic accident, taken to UK Hospital Notice that in this wreck the cyclist crosses the road to get hit head-on, but only suffers “serious, but non-life-threatening injuries“. Using the Google Street View we can see that the road was narrow with landscaping that came almost to the edge of the pavement, and had a 45 MPH speed limit and that the area where the cyclist was hit was at the bottom of a slight depression or a small hill that would have given the cyclist and driver a good long look at the oncoming traffic. I think what really happened was because the road is narrow with trees and bushes almost in the road the driver drifted a little to the left to unconsciously “get away” from the stuff at the edge of the road and the cyclist also drifted a little to the left so that he would be more visible against the visual clutter, and the driver wasn’t paying attention to the road… Bang!

Hit-and-run in MI. Police seek hit-run driver after bicycle rider is killed Apparently riding on the freeway isn’t “free” in MI, as the driver assumed the roles of judge, jury, and executioner in finding the cyclist guilty of riding on the freeway, then left him there. To avoid the same result, first don’t ride on the freeway in MI, unlike TX in MI such riding is illegal which makes people decide that momentary inconveniencing them is a capital offence since riding there is not legal killing you is legal. Second, hit-from-behind protocols as spelled out in the link at the top of my blog…

Finally in the UK, another cyclist competing in a time trial on a good road is hit from behind and injured. Cyclist injured during A11 time trial Events that have been taking place for years with no dangerous interactions with motor vehicles are suddenly killing and injuring cyclists. Something is going on in Jolly Olde, and it doesn’t pass the smell test…

And that’s all the news in the Feed.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

After a protracted visit to the Lab Rat Keeper, I bring you the Feed

The good news: the meds are working and my BP is well under control. The bad news: I gained 0.2 pounds since the last visit in spite of riding 205 utility miles last month, and 83 already this month. It might be muscle mass, I have been doing a lot of sprint starts where I race the cars from the traffic light. I can usually get across 2 lanes of traffic and the left turn lane before their mighty dinosaur powered behemoths can pass me, and I’m doing close to 15 MPH by then. This bodes well for the HP drag racing trike.

Up first because of proximity to WoaB HQ in the suburbs of Hell, a cyclist riding to raise money for a food bank is hit and critically injured by a person driving a 4-door pickup truck. Cyclist still in critical condition Hit from behind by a driver not looking at the road. Given the speed of this vehicle (65-70 MPH) I’m not sure there was enough time to react when he could tell the truck wasn’t moving over. Also this was a slightly higher speed than the speed I was hit at, making 2 of us that survived an impact at that speed.

A Boston cyclist is hit with a car and blamed for her death because she wasn’t wearing a helmet. Cyclist is killed by a car in Brighton Nothing in the article about the mode of the wreck except to blame it on the cyclist because she did not have a helmet on. I firmly believe in wearing helmets, but really, when did wearing a helmet ever keep a car from running into a cyclist?

A PA driver is facing a $500 fine for doing 48MPH in a 30 zone and hitting a cyclist head on after losing control of her car. Teen Charged In Crash That Killed Cyclist Once again, no way the cyclist could have even reacted to the sight of a car moving at nearly twice the speed limit coming at him in the wrong lane of travel. This was beyond even a “Oh, shit.” moment.

A woman left-crosses a cyclist and kills him. Central Kitsap Woman Who Hit, Killed Cyclist Sentenced to Community Service Yes, you read that right, and the article’s details are even worse. The driver was given 360 hours of community service, for killing a man, while driving on a suspended license. Legally she should not have even been driving, she kills a man and at the tender young age of 48 (!) is “too impressionable” to put in prison. I would say “Only in America” but that ain’t true either, the UK gives out ridiculous sentences, too.

In Canuckistan, another SWSS, this time into oncoming traffic. Two dead after highway crashes in rural Alberta I will grant that there might have been a medical emergency that caused the cyclist to fall to the left and into oncoming traffic, but to say he “veered” into oncoming traffic, unless they find evidence of depression I would call that male bovine excrement.

Speaking of stupid sentences for killing cyclists in the UK. Learner driver from Bristol killed cyclist during car manoeuvre Since the driver was driving with a learner’s permit, driving without a licensed driver in the car invalidated the permit while his “mum” picked up the fish and chips. As a result the driver was required to stay home after dark for 8 weeks (house arrest) and “The 26-year-old was also disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay £85 costs.” That’s roughly $136 in what used to be called “real money”. The asymmetry of the effects, death for one and 8 weeks of house arrest and $136 in fines and costs for the killer, just boggles the mind.

A cyclist gets hit from behind while riding legally in the road in the UK. Cyclist killed in collision with lorry and Call for safety measures after Tyron Allen’s death OK this is getting stupid. The thing that makes this wreck so unusual is that the victim was male, otherwise this is the way the majority of cyclists in the UK die, by getting hit from behind or crushed in a left hook (the equivalent of the right hook in the UK) by a large truck (lorrie).

And in our final story for the day, I was checking out the links to my blog and was mentioned inthe post that contained a report on a cop telling a group of senior citizens not to ride in the street and then giving them a ticket for riding in the sidewalk. Cop tells seniors not to ride in the street — then tickets them for riding on the sidewalk and Scofflaws cited for cycling on sidewalk I believe the word for this is entrapment.

And that’s all the news that gives me fits, I’m going to go eat now.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

The Feed was almost banal in the treatment of injured and killed cyclists

The Feed was pretty blase’ about the injured cyclists, or rather the articles in the Feed were blase’ about injured cyclists.

Up first for no particular reason, a cyclist is left-crossed in CA. Cyclist in Santa Rosa injured in crash with vehicle Another “I didn’t see him” wreck to go with the left cross. Other than a rotating beacon on the handlebars I don’t know what more the cyclist could have done to avoid being hit.

The driver that ran a cyclist over from behind will face a maximum penalty of $114 and loss of driving privileges for a year. Citation issued in Waukesha County cyclist fatality See what I mean about banal and blase’? You kill a cyclist, and the worst you get is a $114 fine and no driving for a year? Kill a dog and you get 4 years, but kill a human with the most deadly instrument in daily use and phht! just a minor fine.

And in Canuckistan, a cyclist appears to have run a red light and gets killed. A 57-year-old Oshawa cyclist killed in a collision The initial report from LEO indicated the injuries weren’t serious, but with people this old you just can’t tell.

And that’s all the news that gives me fits, again.

billed @$0.02, Opus

The Feed was like a Clint Eastwood movie: Some Good, some Bad, and a whole lotta Ugly

There was some good news in the Feed today, for which my frazzled nerves are thankful. In some cases LEO and the ancillary support personnel are starting to realize that killing or wounding with a motor vehicle is still killing or wounding, and needs to be treated like killing or wounding with any other weapon. In other cases they are deciding that the cyclist is not guilty of causing the wreck simply by being there, that the rules of the road still apply for bicycles when determining fault in a wreck. The Bad and the Ugly are still pretty much the same old same old.

Up first some Good from the hit-and-run near Tampa. Man charged in hit-and-run that injured Lithia bicyclist The good part is that the man is being held without bond, because he already ran once and had to be tracked down.

Another report on the Arnott wreck, with lawyer talk. Seasoned Road Biker, Albert Arnott, Killed in Crash in Mocksville, NC This is another case where LEO was at first going to let the driver off calling it an “accident” and the realizing that “Hey, we have laws about this, we are supposed to be enforcing the laws.”

A MI cyclist is killed in a hit-and-run by a “driver” with no license. UPDATED: Weidman man jailed in hit-and-run that killed cyclist After sobering up the “driver” was caught in this wreck because of good police work, but still too much time had elapsed between the wreck and the arrest to determine the BAC% of the driver at the time of the wreck. At the time the article was posted the driver had not been arraigned, nor bail set.

And that’s all the news that gives me fits.

Billed @$0.02, Opus