Well, this is the longest running “job” I have done since I was killed back in ’01. Us zombies just can’t get a break. 😉 But all that aside I have been doing this blog with various service providers since the fall of 2006, here at WordPress since November of 2008 (wow, 4 years almost), with only the occasional gift (greatly appreciated) to sustain the operation. From the looks of the job market people with fully-functional brains are having trouble finding work of any kind. Those of us who died and left something on the road haven’t had a chance in years (for me the job market went south in 2006, that’s when I had my last interview). So as the headline says I need to make this thing pay off for me. WP has indicated a willingness to work with me but I have to bring my numbers back up, and to be blunt this is not a subject that draws people like flies to honey. I know this is a depressing subject matter, and the few bright spots I can find are few and far between. So, I’m open to suggestions as to how to make this blog a viable source of income aside from the few jobs investigating bicycle wrecks it has gotten for me. And don’t suggest I write for a newspaper, they’re in almost as bad a shape as I am.
Up first a wreck that didn’t involve a cyclist but very well could have. Weird News: Police say fast food reach caused Mass. car crash with police cruiser If the driver had hit a cyclist instead of being in “Weird News” this would have been a tragedy. The driver could have changed lanes or gone off the road to hit a pedestrian instead of running a red light, or hit a cyclist crossing legally while she ran the red. It doesn’t have to be a cell phone distracting the driver.
From CA more on the POS driver elderly gentleman that is accused of chasing and running down a cyclist. Oakmont road-rage suspect delays plea in first court appearance I notice that his lawyer is still trying to decide whether or not to plead guilty and throw his client at the mercy of the court. To recap, when LEO found and impounded his car they found paint from the victim’s bicycle and debris that could be positively matched to the golf course where the cyclist was hit (from a previous media report) on the car.
A bunch of links I got from BikingInLA starting with another deliberate assault on a cyclist. Jury Seated for Trial of Man Accused of Running over Bicyclist The 68 YO victim displayed incredible bike-handling skills as he was hit from behind hard enough to make the front of the bike “jump” but did not go down. The driver hit the cyclist at least twice without dismounting him from his bike until he deliberately ran the cyclist over. Now the driver faces life in prison for the murder of the cyclist.
Still running on Ted’s links (but I got this one in the Feed as well) a woman appears to have deliberately hit a cyclist before leaving the scene in NorthEast CA. Bicyclist in critical condition, suspect arrested after chase The weapon vehicle was abandoned after the driver impaled it on steel and concrete posts protecting the front of a business. There was no way for the cyclist to avoid this one as witnesses reported the driver swerved directly at the cyclist in a bike lane, but getting the infrastructure right would prevent it, including getting repeat offenders off the roads.
Another link that Ted and I both found (and that I would have found just reading the site as I do daily) BikePortland has a report on a power grab by LEO being thwarted. In Roseburg, popularity of bicycling thwarts punitive police power grab LEO wanted to be able to write cyclists tickets for not riding in bike lanes but needed a “public hearing” before they could do so, so they tried to get all the bike lanes “certified” in a single hearing. As bike lane conditions can change from moment to moment, this is a fool’s mission. Fortunately the fool declined the mission. Activists who had mobilized before the hearing as cancelled were allowed to speak and tell the city how bad conditions were in the bike lanes that LEO wanted to write citations for leaving.
A MI cyclist took a long time to die after getting hit from behind by a blind driver. Cyclist hit by car dies 4 months later The driver claimed to be “blinded by the setting sun” and hit the cyclist hard enough to send him “flying” over the cyclist in front of him which tells me the driver was going way too fast for conditions. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and fix the infrastructure which includes getting blind drivers off the roads to prevent a similar wreck.
A CO wreck that was very similar to that Lake Tahoe hit-and-run. Lakewood woman charged with DUI in hit-and-run that nearly killed cyclist That wrecked car looks familiar. I think I might have posted a link about this wreck yesterday.
Right hook in AZ. Bicycle rider hit and dragged by pickup truck Intersection wreck, use the intersection protocols to avoid until they get the infrastructure fixed to prevent a wreck like this. I couldn’t tell if there was a bike lane at the intersection but the description of the wreck and the location of the truck after just don’t make a lot of sense as the truck appears to be stopped in the inside lane well to the left of where the cyclist was supposedly hit. To paraphrase the Bard, “there is a distinct odor from Arizona”.
A fatal wreck in MO. Man on bicycle struck, killed by pickup truck near Poplar Bluff Drunk driver hits and runs but gets caught immediately. And that headline is wrong, the cyclist was killed by a drunk driver with a pickup truck. I’m not just saying the headline was incorrect even though it is, it is morally wrong too. It makes it seem that the driver was just there not really responsible for the wreck caused by his condition instead of being the sole cause of the death. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, get the drunks of the frelling roads to prevent (and you get 2 geek points if you can tell me where that particular word that means another word came from).
A wreck in the 49th state as a vehicle crossing a sidewalk fails to yield to traffic occupying that sidewalk. Boy killed in North Pole collision identified Of course the driver thinks it was the kid’s fault for “riding in front of the truck” but the kid couldn’t get in front of the truck unless the driver had failed to yield. So, intersection protocols because every driveway is an intersection, and infrastructure including education for drivers of when to yield.
A bicycle cop in (NH,MA,ME?) is hit by a drunk on a motorcycle but is still able to ride faster than the drunk and catch him. Wells summer officer hit by suspect, police say Of course it isn’t hard to catch someone when they hit a parked car. I don’t consider this a wreck the average cyclist has to be concerned about avoiding as we very seldom try to pull over drunks when we ride. I would go so far as to say we never pull over drunks when we ride.
From the Great White North a cyclist gets run over by left-crossing a car. Cyclist injured following collision with motor vehicle Yes there are places where you have to stop for the cars, just like another car would have to do.
From Jolly Olde a not-so-jolly report of a cyclist attacked with a knife on the street and repeatedly stabbed. Cyclist stabbed in Elderslie street attack The attack was so bad that initial responders believed it was a car wreck.
For all my cycling friends that are “in the dark”, from Instructibles. DIY Bike Lights Seriously if you can’t find something in your range of budget and talent from this list you should really be questioning if you are safe to ride a bike at night in the first place 🙂
Last link from Ted in L.A. is a LifeStyle article on someone I have had long technical conversations with over in the recumbents.com fora. Cyclist star defies near-death setback Yep, a lot of us dead guys ride ‘bents… That “big race in Nevada” mentioned in the article is 2012 World Human Powered Speed Challenge
And those are all the links that gave me fits today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
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Witch on a Bicycle 
I need to monetize this blog, and the Feed
Well, this is the longest running “job” I have done since I was killed back in ’01. Us zombies just can’t get a break. 😉 But all that aside I have been doing this blog with various service providers since the fall of 2006, here at WordPress since November of 2008 (wow, 4 years almost), with only the occasional gift (greatly appreciated) to sustain the operation. From the looks of the job market people with fully-functional brains are having trouble finding work of any kind. Those of us who died and left something on the road haven’t had a chance in years (for me the job market went south in 2006, that’s when I had my last interview). So as the headline says I need to make this thing pay off for me. WP has indicated a willingness to work with me but I have to bring my numbers back up, and to be blunt this is not a subject that draws people like flies to honey. I know this is a depressing subject matter, and the few bright spots I can find are few and far between. So, I’m open to suggestions as to how to make this blog a viable source of income aside from the few jobs investigating bicycle wrecks it has gotten for me. And don’t suggest I write for a newspaper, they’re in almost as bad a shape as I am.
Up first a wreck that didn’t involve a cyclist but very well could have. Weird News: Police say fast food reach caused Mass. car crash with police cruiser If the driver had hit a cyclist instead of being in “Weird News” this would have been a tragedy. The driver could have changed lanes or gone off the road to hit a pedestrian instead of running a red light, or hit a cyclist crossing legally while she ran the red. It doesn’t have to be a cell phone distracting the driver.
From CA more on the
POS driverelderly gentleman that is accused of chasing and running down a cyclist. Oakmont road-rage suspect delays plea in first court appearance I notice that his lawyer is still trying to decide whether or not to plead guilty and throw his client at the mercy of the court. To recap, when LEO found and impounded his car they found paint from the victim’s bicycle and debris that could be positively matched to the golf course where the cyclist was hit (from a previous media report) on the car.A bunch of links I got from BikingInLA starting with another deliberate assault on a cyclist. Jury Seated for Trial of Man Accused of Running over Bicyclist The 68 YO victim displayed incredible bike-handling skills as he was hit from behind hard enough to make the front of the bike “jump” but did not go down. The driver hit the cyclist at least twice without dismounting him from his bike until he deliberately ran the cyclist over. Now the driver faces life in prison for the murder of the cyclist.
Still running on Ted’s links (but I got this one in the Feed as well) a woman appears to have deliberately hit a cyclist before leaving the scene in NorthEast CA. Bicyclist in critical condition, suspect arrested after chase The weapon vehicle was abandoned after the driver impaled it on steel and concrete posts protecting the front of a business. There was no way for the cyclist to avoid this one as witnesses reported the driver swerved directly at the cyclist in a bike lane, but getting the infrastructure right would prevent it, including getting repeat offenders off the roads.
Another link that Ted and I both found (and that I would have found just reading the site as I do daily) BikePortland has a report on a power grab by LEO being thwarted. In Roseburg, popularity of bicycling thwarts punitive police power grab LEO wanted to be able to write cyclists tickets for not riding in bike lanes but needed a “public hearing” before they could do so, so they tried to get all the bike lanes “certified” in a single hearing. As bike lane conditions can change from moment to moment, this is a fool’s mission. Fortunately the fool declined the mission. Activists who had mobilized before the hearing as cancelled were allowed to speak and tell the city how bad conditions were in the bike lanes that LEO wanted to write citations for leaving.
A MI cyclist took a long time to die after getting hit from behind by a blind driver. Cyclist hit by car dies 4 months later The driver claimed to be “blinded by the setting sun” and hit the cyclist hard enough to send him “flying” over the cyclist in front of him which tells me the driver was going way too fast for conditions. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, and fix the infrastructure which includes getting blind drivers off the roads to prevent a similar wreck.
A CO wreck that was very similar to that Lake Tahoe hit-and-run. Lakewood woman charged with DUI in hit-and-run that nearly killed cyclist That wrecked car looks familiar. I think I might have posted a link about this wreck yesterday.
Right hook in AZ. Bicycle rider hit and dragged by pickup truck Intersection wreck, use the intersection protocols to avoid until they get the infrastructure fixed to prevent a wreck like this. I couldn’t tell if there was a bike lane at the intersection but the description of the wreck and the location of the truck after just don’t make a lot of sense as the truck appears to be stopped in the inside lane well to the left of where the cyclist was supposedly hit. To paraphrase the Bard, “there is a distinct odor from Arizona”.
A fatal wreck in MO. Man on bicycle struck, killed by pickup truck near Poplar Bluff Drunk driver hits and runs but gets caught immediately. And that headline is wrong, the cyclist was killed by a drunk driver with a pickup truck. I’m not just saying the headline was incorrect even though it is, it is morally wrong too. It makes it seem that the driver was just there not really responsible for the wreck caused by his condition instead of being the sole cause of the death. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, get the drunks of the frelling roads to prevent (and you get 2 geek points if you can tell me where that particular word that means another word came from).
A wreck in the 49th state as a vehicle crossing a sidewalk fails to yield to traffic occupying that sidewalk. Boy killed in North Pole collision identified Of course the driver thinks it was the kid’s fault for “riding in front of the truck” but the kid couldn’t get in front of the truck unless the driver had failed to yield. So, intersection protocols because every driveway is an intersection, and infrastructure including education for drivers of when to yield.
A bicycle cop in (NH,MA,ME?) is hit by a drunk on a motorcycle but is still able to ride faster than the drunk and catch him. Wells summer officer hit by suspect, police say Of course it isn’t hard to catch someone when they hit a parked car. I don’t consider this a wreck the average cyclist has to be concerned about avoiding as we very seldom try to pull over drunks when we ride. I would go so far as to say we never pull over drunks when we ride.
From the Great White North a cyclist gets run over by left-crossing a car. Cyclist injured following collision with motor vehicle Yes there are places where you have to stop for the cars, just like another car would have to do.
From Jolly Olde a not-so-jolly report of a cyclist attacked with a knife on the street and repeatedly stabbed. Cyclist stabbed in Elderslie street attack The attack was so bad that initial responders believed it was a car wreck.
For all my cycling friends that are “in the dark”, from Instructibles. DIY Bike Lights Seriously if you can’t find something in your range of budget and talent from this list you should really be questioning if you are safe to ride a bike at night in the first place 🙂
Last link from Ted in L.A. is a LifeStyle article on someone I have had long technical conversations with over in the recumbents.com fora. Cyclist star defies near-death setback Yep, a lot of us dead guys ride ‘bents… That “big race in Nevada” mentioned in the article is 2012 World Human Powered Speed Challenge
And those are all the links that gave me fits today.
Billed @$0.02, Opus
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Tagged alms for the poor, anti-bike blatherings, blind driver syndrome, blind drivers, cyclist injured, cyclist killed, Dead cyclists, Don't read the comments, good news, hit from behind, hit-and-run, infrastructure, Jolly Olde, lawyer blatherings, Left cross/right hook, signs of the apocolypse, Something smells, stupid cyclist, stupid drivers, stupid LEO, stupid politicians, UK media wreck articles suck, updates, waste of human skin