I didn’t get home from the widow woman’s house until after 3 (1500) this afternoon. Her meds didn’t wear off until 1 and she was still groggy preparing breakfast (I don’t cook in other people’s kitchens unless asked) so I didn’t eat until 2:30 (1430), then I had to do some minor work on her car as she dressed for the day, and on the road a touch before 1500. I am also severely caffeine deprived as there was only a single cup of coffee in the pot when I got home, so this post will undoubtedly have a great deal more snark and anti-driver sentiment than I normally display in my normal calmly buzzed state (Think Fry after 1000 cups of coffee on Futurama). Normally I’m Flash Buddha by this time of day, Zen at the Speed Of Light, today I’m just a grouch, Oscar without the trash can.
Up first from Upstate NY a drunk driver hits the jackpot. Cyclist Killed by Drunk Driver The driver has a previous DUI conviction, which is very hard to get in NY (by reputation at any rate, reality might be a little different). We’ll have to see what this might get in the way of prosecution, if any. Since mode and direction were not given I can’t say how to avoid, but getting the infrastructure right would probably have kept the drunk driver away from the cyclist riding home from work.
A cyclist is killed in PA. Cyclist killed in morning West Goshen crash At this point all that has been released was the direction of travel for the weapon vehicle, the cyclist’s direction is either unknown or being kept secret so as not to arouse pitchforks and torches. So I can’t say again what could have been done to avoid the wreck, only that woeful infrastructure (hey, this is the USA all of our bike infrastructure is woeful) had a major part in causing the death and fixing that condition would prevent most of the 600-700 annual deaths and millions of injuries suffered every year because people in motor vehicles run into people on bikes.
And those are all the links I have today, except for the motorcycle wrecks…
Billed @$0.02, Opus
Witch on a Bicycle 