OK to address the issues brought up in the headline, I have been reading wreck reports almost daily since 2006, thousands of them. What gets me is the comments where a cyclist is minding his or her own business JRA (Just Riding Along) when they get hit from behind and left to die or not by a hit-and-run driver. Now to me, that’s assault with a deadly weapon by the driver against the cyclist, but for about a third of the comments I read in articles like that, it’s the fault of the cyclist for being there to get hit. The “playing in the street” meme is brought up frequently for the daytime wrecks, with the “what were they doing out at that time of night” meme dragged out for the wrecks after dark. I have never seen a car wreck with “what were they doing out at that time of night” except when the driver is a minor, and when have you ever seen a wreck where a car driver is accused of “playing in the street”? And with the night-time hit-and-run wrecks I (almost) never see a comment on why was the driver of the weapon vehicle out at that time of night until I post it. So, if I’m not crazy (and brain damage =/= crazy), then a large chunk of the people in the US are crazy. And most of them have drivers’ licenses. If that doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will.
Up first, when is hit-and-run not hit-and-run? Charges Won’t be Filed Against Driver That Struck and Killed a Northville Cyclist To recap the details of this wreck, the cyclist was forced off the shoulder by a clogged storm drain that flooded the shoulder and half the outside lane of travel, when the cyclist was hit from behind by the driver of the weapon vehicle. The driver did not stop at the scene but continued down the highway until reaching a driveway a quarter of a mile away, then calling 911. The bicycle was legally equipped for the time of day of the wreck (I don’t know if there were lights on the bike, but it was a couple hours before sunset and raining hard) and the status of the headlights of the weapon vehicle has not been released (on or off). IOW the driver should have been able to see the cyclist avoiding the hidden dangers under the surface of the water at the clogged storm drain, but hit him and then left the scene. And for some reason this was not a hit-and-run…
Still in MI a cyclist is cut off by a turning driver and then given a ticket before he was able to make coherent noises after the wreck. Bicyclist taken to hospital after riding into side of car in downtown Kalamazoo I would almost count this as a SWCC wreck since the cyclist was not capable of coherent speech when LEO took their report… To avoid use lights at night, maybe a video camera on your bike and/or helmet, and intersection protocols.
Update on the cyclist hit from behind in rural MI earlier this week. Grand Haven bicyclist seriously injured in crash, Ottawa County sheriff’s deputies say Now they are claiming the cyclist didn’t have lights or a helmet, but at that speed of impact a helmet just leaves a few less scrapes on the cyclist’s head.
In the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bicycle, they killed another one. Cyclist struck and killed by fire truck in Florida A right hook that isn’t the driver’s fault in FL, what a shock (not). Anyway, intersection protocols, make sure your brakes are in good shape. And stay the hell away from FL until they start treating cyclists as legitimate road users.
Still in FL a kid riding what appears to be a BMX bike set up for performing vert tricks in a half-pipe rides into a car in an intersection. Teen riding bike without brakes crashes into car near Orange City Of course without a clear picture I couldn’t say for sure, it could have been a fixie which has brakes, they’re just attached to the riders legs.
From AZ the mystery of why an experienced cyclist who had travelled the route daily for years failed to stop for a stop sign he “always” stopped at before. TPD: Cyclist killed in crash on Friday had brakes The cyclist was seemingly unconcerned that a motor vehicle was bearing down on him at a high rate of speed, lending credence to the theory that he had a medical incident as he approached the intersection. Also he was not frantically grabbing his brakes trying to stop, he just kept on rolling. This one continues to be a mystery.
OK this wreck made no sense at all. Bicyclist injured in Crawford County crash If I read this correctly the cyclist went completely across the road after leaving a driveway and was hit by a vehicle on the wrong side of the road that had swerved to miss him. IOW had the driver just continued in his lane without changing speed or direction he would have missed the cyclist completely, as the cyclist had judged before pulling out from the driveway. This is not one that a cyclist can avoid, you have to be able to assume that drivers are sane and won’t change lanes to hit you when you pull into the other side of the street. See this just reinforces the conclusion I pointed out in the headline of my blog post. This wreck was in PA BTW.
In SC a cyclist is sideswiped by a motor vehicle. Cyclist Injured After Being Struck by Van I agree with the comment on the article, why is it OK to sideswipe a cyclist as long as you wear a seatbelt? But then again this is the same state that failed to prosecute a volunteer fireman for shooting at a cyclist hitting his helmet in full view of his family…
SWCC in GA. 14-year-old Cyclist Hit by 82-Year-Old Driver in Austell The only witness interviewed by LEO stated he had a green light at the intersection, this being the Deep South I give that a 50-50 chance of being truthful. Intersection protocols, and assume all drivers are homicidal maniacs in the presence of cyclists and be ready to bail, and you might survive this wreck if it happens to you. And if the person making the comment to this article is telling the truth the people in charge of the signals at this intersection might need to look at changing the reaction time to the pedestrian crossing button and detection of bicycles.
Moving to the Great White North, in final arguments the prosecutor says the driver was trying to avoid prosecution after hitting a cyclist and leaving the scene. Motorist left scene of accident because he thought he’d killed someone – prosecutor I like this guy, or at least I like his style of prosecution.
Moving to Oz we have a death that LEO will still not release details about but the driver has been given a criminal charge. Woman charged over cyclist death Dangerous driving causing death can be treated as either a misdemeanor or a felony under Ozzy law IIRC. So the sentence can range from a couple days in the pokey to a long prison term.
Infrastructure! in the Great White North! Waterloo Region cycling deaths among those to be reviewed and Father of cyclist killed in Ottawa applauds coroner The investigation is limited by law to deaths in a coroner’s inquiry. The wreck referred to in the second link was almost totally infrastructure-related as the bike path crossed a sidewalk, and then went over a high curb to join a bike/bus lane. The cyclist was hit while negotiating the drop off the curb. I mean seriously, would it have killed them to install a wide dropped curb where the bike path joined the street? It did kill a cyclist to not have one.
And that’s all the news that gives me fits today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
32.928601
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Witch on a Bicycle 
I don’t think I’m crazy, so then is the rest of the world? and the Feed
OK to address the issues brought up in the headline, I have been reading wreck reports almost daily since 2006, thousands of them. What gets me is the comments where a cyclist is minding his or her own business JRA (Just Riding Along) when they get hit from behind and left to die or not by a hit-and-run driver. Now to me, that’s assault with a deadly weapon by the driver against the cyclist, but for about a third of the comments I read in articles like that, it’s the fault of the cyclist for being there to get hit. The “playing in the street” meme is brought up frequently for the daytime wrecks, with the “what were they doing out at that time of night” meme dragged out for the wrecks after dark. I have never seen a car wreck with “what were they doing out at that time of night” except when the driver is a minor, and when have you ever seen a wreck where a car driver is accused of “playing in the street”? And with the night-time hit-and-run wrecks I (almost) never see a comment on why was the driver of the weapon vehicle out at that time of night until I post it. So, if I’m not crazy (and brain damage =/= crazy), then a large chunk of the people in the US are crazy. And most of them have drivers’ licenses. If that doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will.
Up first, when is hit-and-run not hit-and-run? Charges Won’t be Filed Against Driver That Struck and Killed a Northville Cyclist To recap the details of this wreck, the cyclist was forced off the shoulder by a clogged storm drain that flooded the shoulder and half the outside lane of travel, when the cyclist was hit from behind by the driver of the weapon vehicle. The driver did not stop at the scene but continued down the highway until reaching a driveway a quarter of a mile away, then calling 911. The bicycle was legally equipped for the time of day of the wreck (I don’t know if there were lights on the bike, but it was a couple hours before sunset and raining hard) and the status of the headlights of the weapon vehicle has not been released (on or off). IOW the driver should have been able to see the cyclist avoiding the hidden dangers under the surface of the water at the clogged storm drain, but hit him and then left the scene. And for some reason this was not a hit-and-run…
Still in MI a cyclist is cut off by a turning driver and then given a ticket before he was able to make coherent noises after the wreck. Bicyclist taken to hospital after riding into side of car in downtown Kalamazoo I would almost count this as a SWCC wreck since the cyclist was not capable of coherent speech when LEO took their report… To avoid use lights at night, maybe a video camera on your bike and/or helmet, and intersection protocols.
Update on the cyclist hit from behind in rural MI earlier this week. Grand Haven bicyclist seriously injured in crash, Ottawa County sheriff’s deputies say Now they are claiming the cyclist didn’t have lights or a helmet, but at that speed of impact a helmet just leaves a few less scrapes on the cyclist’s head.
In the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bicycle, they killed another one. Cyclist struck and killed by fire truck in Florida A right hook that isn’t the driver’s fault in FL, what a shock (not). Anyway, intersection protocols, make sure your brakes are in good shape. And stay the hell away from FL until they start treating cyclists as legitimate road users.
Still in FL a kid riding what appears to be a BMX bike set up for performing vert tricks in a half-pipe rides into a car in an intersection. Teen riding bike without brakes crashes into car near Orange City Of course without a clear picture I couldn’t say for sure, it could have been a fixie which has brakes, they’re just attached to the riders legs.
From AZ the mystery of why an experienced cyclist who had travelled the route daily for years failed to stop for a stop sign he “always” stopped at before. TPD: Cyclist killed in crash on Friday had brakes The cyclist was seemingly unconcerned that a motor vehicle was bearing down on him at a high rate of speed, lending credence to the theory that he had a medical incident as he approached the intersection. Also he was not frantically grabbing his brakes trying to stop, he just kept on rolling. This one continues to be a mystery.
OK this wreck made no sense at all. Bicyclist injured in Crawford County crash If I read this correctly the cyclist went completely across the road after leaving a driveway and was hit by a vehicle on the wrong side of the road that had swerved to miss him. IOW had the driver just continued in his lane without changing speed or direction he would have missed the cyclist completely, as the cyclist had judged before pulling out from the driveway. This is not one that a cyclist can avoid, you have to be able to assume that drivers are sane and won’t change lanes to hit you when you pull into the other side of the street. See this just reinforces the conclusion I pointed out in the headline of my blog post. This wreck was in PA BTW.
In SC a cyclist is sideswiped by a motor vehicle. Cyclist Injured After Being Struck by Van I agree with the comment on the article, why is it OK to sideswipe a cyclist as long as you wear a seatbelt? But then again this is the same state that failed to prosecute a volunteer fireman for shooting at a cyclist hitting his helmet in full view of his family…
SWCC in GA. 14-year-old Cyclist Hit by 82-Year-Old Driver in Austell The only witness interviewed by LEO stated he had a green light at the intersection, this being the Deep South I give that a 50-50 chance of being truthful. Intersection protocols, and assume all drivers are homicidal maniacs in the presence of cyclists and be ready to bail, and you might survive this wreck if it happens to you. And if the person making the comment to this article is telling the truth the people in charge of the signals at this intersection might need to look at changing the reaction time to the pedestrian crossing button and detection of bicycles.
Moving to the Great White North, in final arguments the prosecutor says the driver was trying to avoid prosecution after hitting a cyclist and leaving the scene. Motorist left scene of accident because he thought he’d killed someone – prosecutor I like this guy, or at least I like his style of prosecution.
Moving to Oz we have a death that LEO will still not release details about but the driver has been given a criminal charge. Woman charged over cyclist death Dangerous driving causing death can be treated as either a misdemeanor or a felony under Ozzy law IIRC. So the sentence can range from a couple days in the pokey to a long prison term.
Infrastructure! in the Great White North! Waterloo Region cycling deaths among those to be reviewed and Father of cyclist killed in Ottawa applauds coroner The investigation is limited by law to deaths in a coroner’s inquiry. The wreck referred to in the second link was almost totally infrastructure-related as the bike path crossed a sidewalk, and then went over a high curb to join a bike/bus lane. The cyclist was hit while negotiating the drop off the curb. I mean seriously, would it have killed them to install a wide dropped curb where the bike path joined the street? It did kill a cyclist to not have one.
And that’s all the news that gives me fits today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
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