I was very gratified to find a much smaller Feed this morning with nothing in it about Eagle CO. As you probably noticed I posted my annual “wish list” of personal things I need or really want, mostly just need. The only “want” item on the list is the tent part for the camping trailer which I have lived without for more than 50 years now without any problem, everything else on the list is more or less a “need” with the possible exception of the LED blinky reflective wrist bands. Whatever, I was asked for a list and now it’s posted. Later I will post a list of things I want for my community and beyond, like that car-free road that goes wherever I need to go. I’m sure that if there was a car-free road that went where I needed or wanted to go it would also go where others needed or wanted to go, right?
Up first because I like happy endings, a hit-and-run driver gets a slap on the wrist, which was a lot more than she was going to get before. Driver gets 90 days in jail for hit-and-run involving bicyclist For those who haven’t been following this case, the victim was a city of L.A. employee who was hit by a woman driving a Porsche Cayenne SUV. The woman left the scene and called in to 911 about an hour later asking if she would go to jail. You won’t believe what the 911 operator told her. Anyway after that the police and DA refused to file charges, hundreds of people rode in a protest ride to complain about the lack of prosecution in such an open-and-shut case, a prosecutor was eventually assigned, and the woman plead guilty. Now she gets to serve her time one weekend at a time, hopefully consecutively and until the full 90 days are served, and she has to pay medical bills and $20K of lost wages and “other” restitutions. I wish I could commit assault with a deadly weapon and only get 90 days in jail. I have a very long list of people that “need” to be assaulted with a deadly weapon. At 90 days per, I would be in jail until 2233… 😉
Still in CA, another hit-and-run on another cyclist. Cyclist hurt in Santa Cruz hit and run I don’t know exactly what was going on here. The cyclist was signalling for a left turn and was hit, but they don’t say if he was hit while waiting to make his turn or during or after the turn. That makes a huge difference, before the turn is a driver that just can’t wait until other traffic has cleared the lane, during is the fault of the cyclist for not waiting until oncoming traffic has cleared unless he was hit after the light changed, and after is a driver that can’t stand to see a bicycle in front of them. So you have two situations where the driver is at fault and one where the cyclist is at fault.
In the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike another cyclist is hit but not killed (fortunately). Driver cited in Weston crash that injured bicyclist From what little I have been able to find out about this wreck it doesn’t look like there was anything the cyclist could have done to avoid it. The car turning reduces the reaction time from knowing you’re going to get hit to getting hit to almost nothing.
In the same city they’re holding a charity event to raise money for medical expenses for yet another injured cyclist. Benefit ride for injured cyclist Grubicy on Sunday at Piccolo Park WoaB suggests doing this ride. If they caught the driver the levels of insurance mandated by the state are quickly exhausted by the kinds of treatments required after a person on a bicycle is hit by a motor vehicle. My expenses came to about a quarter million dollars, making my hip hardware the most expensive thing I have ever owned. My first hospital stay alone was almost $100K, and I had 3 more surgeries after that, not to mention physical therapy and a home health aid who took care of me until I could actually sit up without passing out and wipe my own butt after going to the bathroom. So if you wonder why I’m so virulent about hit-and-run drivers, that’s why. It’s not the scars, it’s the fact that so much money went down the tubes.
And that’s the Feed for today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 