Recovering what was left of my sanity, and the Feed

Mrs. the Poet and I have been together long enough again that I have regained my grasp of what remained of my sanity. Also I have finally managed to get that spot in the middle of my back cleaned and dried. Bliss!

I talked to Dad this morning and he has recovered some from how he was when we took him to the hospital. The doctors have decided his TB wasn’t an active infection but just the scars from his old infection. They seem to have his other infections under control now, and on the way to being cured. The prognosis is that after the infections are cleared up he will be going to assisted living until he regains enough weight to return home and live independently.

Up first because that’s the only window I can get open is the CO cyclist hit-and-run while walking his bike in a crosswalk. DU Student Dies After Hit & Run At Denver Intersection and DU Student Cyclist Struck, Killed By Hit-And-Run SUV As the reports read when I made the post the SUV was seen weaving through traffic in excess of the speed limit by a large amount, when it ran the red light where the cyclist was crossing with the green. This was not a wreck that could be avoided by the cyclist, or prevented by infrastructure. It might be prevented in the future for this driver by crushing the car with the driver chained to the steering wheel then recycling the mess into bicycles.

From the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bicycle for 6 years running (I haven’t seen the data for 2010-11, but the NHTSA has issued a press release naming FL the “winner” again) another cyclist is hit. UPDATE: DeFuniak Springs bicyclist killed in wreck Another cyclist hit from behind while riding on the shoulder of a FL highway, quell surprise as my wife would say. From what I can find out about this wreck the cyclist never saw the vehicle coming and would have had no way of avoiding this wreck, and the only thing that really would have prevented it would be separated cycling infrastructure with a guard rail or concrete wall between the highway and the bicycle road.

Still in FL, LEO released the report on why they couldn’t charge the driver that killed a cyclist when she fell asleep at the wheel and ran him over from behind with impaired driving. Investigation documents released in 2011 Sanibel Causeway crash where bicyclist was killed I’m still wondering about this one. Apparently driving while asleep is not considered the same as driving while impaired in FL, even when the driver is asleep because of prescription drugs in her system that have label warnings against driving or operating heavy equipment while taking the medication.

Update on a hit-and-run in NC almost a year ago with no suspects. Marrissa Shelton Would Have Turned 9, Still No Closure For Her Family Intersection wreck, maybe intersection protocols would have helped, or maybe the driver was a selfish jerk that had no consideration for others when he ran down and killed a 8YO and then left the scene and deserves to be chained to the wheel of his (maybe her) precious motor vehicle while it gets recycled into bicycles.

This is either the SWSS to end all, or a really stupid salmon cyclist. Cyclist hit, killed by car in River Road head-on crash The problem with this wreck is the cyclist is dead, and I can’t find any pictures of the wreck to be able to tell if the cyclist was riding salmon or not, so I’m going to split my advice on this one. If the driver crossed over into the cyclist’s lane and blamed the cyclist for being in the wrong lane, then to avoid this wreck you need a really bright front light and ride slightly to the right in the lane to avoid, if the cyclist was actually riding salmon then to avoid you just need to have a really bright front light and ride on your side of the lane. But to prevent you need to get the huge motor vehicles away from the fragile human beings.

Update on the kid killed in IL earlier this week. Round Lake Boy is Killed While Bike Riding This report has the cyclist crossing with the green and hit by a motor vehicle running the red, unlike previous reports. Other than that though the same advice applies, intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent the wreck.

A NC boy is hit while riding laps in front of his house. Clayton boy, 7, dies of injuries from bike-pickup crash I don’t know what would prevent this except making it safe for kids to ride in circles in front of their houses, streets are for people, not just people in cars.

A NJ cyclist is hit-and-run with minor injuries in this blotter link. RAYNHAM POLICE LOG 6-2-12 Yeah, before you confront the driver that just hit your bike, take a cellphone picture of the license plate. Other than that I can’t say how to avoid a wreck like this.

Update on that wreck with the two kids riding one bike in UT a few weeks back. Family sees miracles, chance to improve safety after accident Yeah those pegs on the back aren’t really made for riding on as a passenger, and the captain really needs to be very careful about how he rides, especially since the stoker in this case has no pedals and is just live weight.

Up in the Great White North, a cyclist is hit-and-run. Cyclist injured in hit and run OK the car swerved into the bike lane and hit the cyclist then booked. You think it might have been on purpose? Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, but really, who expects to get hit from behind in the bike lane?

From West Canuckistan, an update on the cyclist hit by a drunk driver fleeing police. Cyclist killed in Maple Ridge was father of three When the car is rolling over and on fire when it hits you, you don’t have much of a chance of avoiding it. Infrastructure would not have been of any great assistance in this wreck.

Infrastructure! news from NYC as an idiot tries to make not wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle a crime, with multiple links. Councilman David Greenfield Introduces Law Requiring Use Of Helmets For City Cyclists and Bike Helmets Next in Nanny State Legislation and thoughts from the other side of the country Some Reasonable Thoughts on Bike Helmets My take: Bicycle helmets are made to prevent skull fracture in impacts under 12.5 MPH. If Helmet Nazis can make a reasonably-priced helmet that will protect my brain when Bozo the Driver hits my bike at 35 MPH because he was texting instead of watching the road, then we can talk about making helmets mandatory. Until then, keep your laws away from my head.

Infrastructure news from the UK. Cyclist-only traffic lights switched on at Bow Roundabout (+ video) This looks like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

And finally these are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

About to be reunited with Mrs. the Poet, and the Feed

It’s been a long time separated, but this afternoon Mrs. the Poet and I will be co-located again. Usually when we have to have separations like this we have things we do so that I don’t suffer without her much, as Mrs. the Poet is part of my psychological support system. But this time we didn’t get to do any of that as we got notice Dad had been in a wreck on a Tuesday, and by Wednesday night I was on the road. That was over a month and a half ago, and the suffering for me started about 4 days later. It took a little longer for Mrs. the Poet to start suffering, if she ever actually “suffered”, her psychology being different from mine.

Dad is still in the hospital, and they are still trying to get all the little things fixed so they can get him rehabbed. They found the old TB scars on his lungs again, so now he’s in a slight isolation (not an actual quarantine) until his TB tests come back to see if it’s active again. If it is that means I have to get tested to make sure I didn’t get it too. TB would explain a great deal about what has been going on with Dad as far as his health is concerned, but I think it’s about as likely as dengue fever. Most of his other “little things” are being treated, I understand that his dehydration is now under control and they are working on the infections that were caused by the dehydration. When they get those cured he will most likely go to assisted living until he gets strong enough to go to rehab. After rehab he gets to go home again.

Up first is another report on the woman who was run over in a child carrier trailer in CA. Woman in kid-size bike trailer is hit and killed in Modesto While this is a tragedy, what most of the reports I read on this are missing is that had there been kids in the kid carrier instead of a tiny elderly woman, they would have been crushed, too. And as of this post they still don’t know if the bicycle got caught in the intersection by a stale green or a short light cycle when the light changed for the truck driver.

Another MA cyclist is hit. Bike rider hit by car in Brockton If this link had been any less informative it would have come from a UK media outlet. Intersection wreck, so we can assume intersection protocols might be helpful. Getting teenagers out of cars and bikes away from motor vehicles would probably prevent the wreck, as well.

A bike wreck that investigators don’t think is the result of a hit-and-run. UPDATE: Bicyclist Injured at Smith Road I-80 Ramp An unconscious cyclist with no crash debris, could have been a hit-and-run but with no evidence unless someone claims responsibility for the wreck there is no way of knowing. Given the location I think hit-and-run is a high order probability, but again, no evidence aside from the cyclist with a head injury and a helmet…

An arrest warrant has been issued for the passenger that leaned out of a car window to assault a cyclist, causing serious injury to the cyclist and destroying the bicycle. Warrant issued in Twin Peaks felony assault Too may times actions like these are just ignored by LEO as part of the “cost” of riding a bicycle on the roads. It’s good to see that someone has gotten the message that these are assaults, not the “cost” of riding a bicycle.

In the Great White North, that pickup truck “driver” that hit a bike from behind before hitting an SUV head on is charged. London man charged following crash which killed cyclist The “driver” was on a cellphone at the time of the wreck. So, one dead, one seriously but not “life-threatening” injured person, and 3 destroyed vehicles, for a phone call. Half of this wreck could have been prevented by separating bicycles from motor vehicles via infrastructure. The other half could be prevented by separating idiots from motor vehicles via stricter licensing laws.

In a rare occurence, a killer driver gets a smidgen of jail time in the UK. Jail term for Parvis Road cyclist death driver Nine months for a deliberate assault disguised as a road incident is still egregiously low, but it is leaps and bounds more than the usual community service and 120 day ban on driving that is seldom or never enforced.

And even the best of road cyclists in the UK are not immune from idiots on the roads or who designed the roads. Cyclist who campaigned for safer roads is knocked off his bike and killed At least the driver in this case has been charged.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Still laboring under the delusion that no news is good news, and the Feed

Well I didn’t hear anything from the VA all day yesterday, so I’m going to take that as a sign that Dad is doing hunky-dory (I know, who says “hunky-dory” these days?). Mrs. the Poet will be making the arduous trek via DawgBus starting tonight and be here tomorrow afternoon. Saturday’s post may be a few hours late 😉

I’m not posting any links because it has nothing to do with bicycles, really, but the big story in the Feed this morning was there were a number of people seen riding bicycles in the video of the naked guy eating the man’s face in Miami. Not mentioned was there were an even larger number of people driving cars past the altercation, but I’m assuming they were excused because nothing that goes on outside a car is of any concern to the driver… which also explains why FL is the most deadliest state in the US to walk or ride a bike 6 years running now.

Up first, a ghost bike is installed for the teen cyclist killed after falling from an obstructed sidewalk in NC and being run over by a semi. Memorial in place to remember Myers Park student killed riding bike This is another reason why sidewalks =/= bicycle infrastructure. The cyclist bumped one of the garbage cans in the sidewalk with the end of his handlebars which tossed him into the street just as the semi was passing.

Next up a cyclist towing a child-carrying trailer is hit and the trailer run over in CA. Modesto woman riding in child’s bicycle trailer is hit by SUV, dies And doesn’t a driver that runs one of those trailers over pretty much say to the world that they don’t care about anything smaller than a compact car? Since the wreck happened in an intersection, use intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right to prevent a similar wreck.

A child cyclist is run over in a crosswalk according to initial reports from IL. Boy Killed Riding Bike In Round Lake Heights The report as it stands as I post this is the child was hit by the trailer being towed by the weapon vehicle, and that the weapon vehicle had the green. Intersection protocols to avoid, but this would be a place that would not be allowed to exist in the Dutch model of infrastructure as it is a high-speed arterial that directly connects to a residential street. In the Dutch model the arterial would be much slower if located that close to a residential area, or there would have been a connecting bike path that separated off from the arterial but went to the same places. But there would never be an intersection like the one that killed this child.

A cyclist’s life is permanently changed by a hit-and-run driver in LA. Bicyclist injured in hit & run, search continues for suspect No word on the mode of the wreck, but you know what I think of the driver and what he or she deserves.

A CA cyclist making a left on the green arrow is hit by a truck making a right on red from the opposite direction onto the same street. Cyclist Critically Injured By Right-Turning Truck This one is so easy to figure out I’m surprised no tickets have been issued to the truck driver yet. The cyclist had the clear right of way with the green light, the driver had to wait until the way was clear before turning with a right on red. Intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right including ticketing drivers (and cyclists) that run red lights and cause wrecks, to prevent. I see this wreck as no different than a driver running the red during a bike green with separated bike infrastructure.

In the Great White North another cyclist is injured. UPDATED: Cyclist transferred to London hospital Another left-cross wreck where the driver violated the cyclist’s right of way, intersection protocols to avoid, and get the infrastructure right so bikes and motor vehicles are not trying to occupy the road at the same time (and space).

The rest of the links today are Infrastructure! of one kind or another, either physical or legal.First one up is about mountain bike infrastructure from the Twin Cities. River Bottoms Part II By: Chris Chavie Come the Zombie Apocalypse all cycling will be “off-road”, this is a good time to get in some practice.

The Bicycle Federation reviews the infrastructure where there were two people killed on the same road in 2 years. Bicycle Federation of WI in Wausau After Fatal Bike Accident This was in response to a second fatal wreck on KK.

Staten Island credits infrastructure changes in reducing the death toll on the streets. Deaths on Staten Island hit a record low: Traffic strategies saving lives Notice that improving bicycle infrastructure has a collateral effect of reducing the number of fatal wrecks for everyone. Bicycle infrastructure slows motor vehicle traffic while maintaining total vehicle throughput, and slowing motor vehicle speeds reduces both the number and severity of wrecks with all modes of transportation. It’s a win/win/win solution.

General legal infrastructure in VA. Some Biking Rules and Tips for the Road in Virginia Note that even the most restrictive FRAP rules in the US still allow cyclists to take the lane in many if not most situations. While IANAL, the person that wrote the linked article is a lawyer.

And Jolly Olde is decidedly not Jolly about killer drivers getting less than a slap on the wrist. British Cycling and Cycling Weekly call on government to make justice system fairer for road users People are getting tired of killers getting community service and suspended jail terms for killing people with cars or other motor vehicles. Had some other weapon, like a cricket bat (culturally congruent for the location, we would use a baseball bat) or lead pipe been used, the person that killed would have spent years behind bars, but because they killed with a motor vehicle it’s an “accident” and not to blame the driver for killing.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Moving to a new “new normal”, and the Feed

Dad is settled in at the VA, with a bunch of symptoms that mostly come down to “not eating or drinking enough”. He claims he is not having any problems swallowing, but watching from the outside it sure looks like it is a struggle when he swallows, what with all the grimacing and shaking his head from side to side… He is having trouble chewing also because he has lost so much weight his dentures don’t fit any more. And he is still complaining about everything having no flavor and demanding more salt in his food (though to be honest the food at the VA leaves a lot to be desired).

Up first by virtue of more links, a cyclist in Walla Walla WA is hit. Bicyclist from Walla Walla killed near Prosser and Walla Walla Cyclist Killed in Prosser more Walla Walla man killed on bike died from multiple injuries This was the wreck I commented about yesterday that the driver saw the skunk but not the cyclist? and there must be something more to the story. Well the driver had been drinking, and may have been legally impaired. There is also a question of assault because there was no trace of the alleged skunk at the scene when at least some of the LEO involved showed at the wreck.

Update on the MA boy injured in a wreck. Southampton boy injured in bike accident with car remains hospitalized Get well soon, little bike-riding dude!

SF is still batting 1.000 in prosecuting cyclists that hit pedestrians, unlike drivers. Matthew Grillone, Cyclist in Giants Jersey, Acquitted of Hitting Elderly Pedestrian Apparently, any cyclist will do for prosecution, so long as the barest rudiments of identification are met, like the right team jersey. Wrong number, wrong cyclist, and the cyclist that was arrested was wearing a backpack, while the cyclist that hit the pedestrian was wearing a helmet and sunglasses but no backpack… The automotive analogy would be that they arrested a guy driving a car the same color but the wrong make, model, and year.

Infrastructure! from CA. Ramona Turner, Street Smarts: Wrong-way cycling is dangerous, thus illegal Umm, duh? Really?! This was important enough to waste column inches in the paper over?

Infrastructure from MN. River Bottoms Part I By: Chris Chavie mountain bikes need infrastructure just as much as road bikes, but different kinds of infrastructure.

And closing out with a pretty picture. Twin Cities Bike Picture of the Day: 5.29.12

And that’s all the news that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

About to start hospice for Dad, Wreck-Free Sunday

I have been dreading writing this for weeks now, but the time has come now. Dad will start hospice this week, which is simultaneously a relief and a weight. The relief is this will bring in trained care-givers to relieve his pain and make Dad as comfortable as possible. The weight is obvious, I’m going to be losing my Dad and it’s going to be a long, drawn-out process compared to the sudden death of my Mother in 2004. I have been preparing myself for this day ever since I saw how little he was eating last summer. I knew that nobody could live long on what he was eating then, and after the wreck he ate even less.

My father has lived a long life, with a 22 year military career that is still mostly classified “Need to Know” from what he did during the Vietnam conflict. All I know now is that he was working for Naval Intelligence in their communication section Supplementary Radio. This was before they had high-security satellite communications between distant points on the globe so everything had to be done via HF and short wave, with highly encrypted communications that used methods that dated back to the second World War. We won the Big One that way, surely we could beat Charlie the same way. Well I can say that Charlie never got anything useful out of Naval Intelligence radio traffic from the Vietnam conflict, so my Dad did his job, it was what other people did with that information that caused us to lose Vietnam. Some day the world will know what he did, I hope I live long enough to find out.

After he retired from the Navy he went on to teach school for a year as the junior instructor in a NJROTC unit in Salt Lake City UT. When he lost that job because someone whose career he derailed was certifying instructors and pulled his certificate, he went to a job cleaning toilets. He made more money cleaning toilets than he did teaching high school. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from that.

Dad had the toilet cleaning gig with the local Lien Chemical franchise for 4 years until the owner decided he was getting too old (the owner, not Dad) and closed the shop. Dad had a wild hair up his butt and decided to move everything again out of Utah. So we moved back to TN, where Dad got a job as a floor manager for a company that packed store brand beans, rice, and paper plates (in that shop, they also did a bunch of other things in other shops. He kept that job until he retired in 1995. Since then he has been keeping busy going fishing, traveling the world, building jigsaw puzzles, and aggravating doctors by recovering from illnesses and injuries that should have killed him several times over. He has COPD, and was on O2 at one time back when my daughter graduated from college and got married on the same weekend (so that everybody would only have to make the one trip to Scotland), but recovered from that to have normal blood O2 saturation even today. That is the kind of thing that drives doctors crazy.

Even now his body is showing incredible powers of recovery. The arm that he broke back in April appears to be fully healed in spite of his barely eating enough to stay alive. That’s the kind of stuff that drives doctors crazy, too. The thing is he is just tired now, tired of just existing and not living, so he wants to quit, on his terms. It is not quite like his previous claim of wanting to get shot by a jealous husband at age 100, but it’s still better than a bunch of other ways he could go.

And the irony of this is I wrote my father’s obituary while interviewing him about his life. It’s good that I could get this last talk with him while he was still mostly coherent. It’s bad that I know what I’m doing on this…

PSA, opus

I have no witty headline, and the Feed

I can’t say what’s going on with my Dad other than it’s sad. Whatever form of distant healing you do, send him comfort now.

Because it’s closest to home physically and emotionally, and has the most links of any story I had in the Feed today, more on the 8YO hit by a car on a quiet residential street. 9-Year-Old on Tricycle Fatally Struck by Car and 8-year-old Arlington girl killed while riding bike The street has been described as a “dead end” with a cul d’sac, with no reason to be going very fast either in or out. I don’t know if the weapon vehicle was going in or out of the area when the driver hit the child. As I said yesterday, this would be shared space in the Dutch model, but with a speed limit for all vehicles in the 12 MPH range rather than the 30 MPH minimum statutory limit in TX. For those who don’t understand what minimum statutory limit means, you can drive slower than 30 MPH on those streets, but municipalities are not allowed to post a speed limit lower than 30 MPH except for streets approved by the legislature and signed off by the governor. School zones are not allowed to be any slower than 20 MPH or 15 MPH slower than the posted limit, whichever is faster. Yes, we have a Culture of Speed in TX…

A cyclist is hit-and-run twice in KS. Wichita police say 2 vehicles struck cyclist Hit-from-behind, use the protocols to avoid getting hit the first time so there won’t be a second vehicle. I would suggest lots of lights, not that that will do anything to prevent the wreck but it will give prosecutors something to hang an assault charge on, “Your honor, the victim had more lumens facing back than 2 normal cars, plus a couple of square feet of reflective material to catch headlight beams. The only possible way to explain this wreck is either a legally blind driver, or a deliberate assault, and the driver passed a vision test.” Not that I ever see a prosecutor actually using that argument, but maybe. And of course if they had the infrastructure right all a bike would need would be a tiny LED tail light and a small headlight that lighted enough of the road to be able to avoid debris and potholes.

A Buffalo area cyclist runs a red in front of a dash-cam equipped vehicle and gets plowed. Bicyclist hurt in collision after crossing against light Don’t run the red lights. If a light won’t change for a bicycle, treat it like a stop sign after a reasonable amount of time. Yield to oncoming traffic and cross when clear to do so. To prevent get the infrastructure right so that red lights change for bicycles and cyclists do not mix with fast motor vehicle traffic.

Infrastructure! news from CA. State Senate passes bill: Space for bikes in traffic This is the same bill that Gov. Moonbeam vetoed last year and was called out on it vehemently, to the point of a buzz job in CA now being called “Getting Jerry Browned”. Sorta like what Dan Savage did to Santorum a few years back. So, Moonbeam, sign this legislation and we will stop using your name to describe an assault on a cyclist using a motor vehicle.

infrastructure news from Jolly Olde reveals cyclists are getting less and less jolly. When it comes to cycling, we’re governed by dimwits More than 60% of wrecks between motor vehicles and cyclists in the UK are totally the fault of the driver of the motor vehicle according to LEO, but a politician with a big stage gets it backwards. And UK cyclists wonder why the seem to get killed so often?

Final link, I keep expounding on the subject of electric-assist bicycles, where the combination of the two power sources is greater than either separate or the sum of the whole because of the way both work. IBM looking to put lithium-air batteries on the road LiAir cells are the current Holy Grail unless someone makes a battery that just uses gases as the reactants inside a pressure container. The power density would be about twice current LI cells, or about 60 times the SLA that cheap e-assist bikes and most EV use. The current record for range with SLA in a TX-legal (100 lbs empty weight ready to run, about 60 pounds of battery in most cases) e-bike is 30 miles, but using the same weight in the LiAir cells would get almost 2K miles. That’s how big a difference these cells will make.

And those are all the links that gave me fits today.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

After a very long day Dad is back home, and the Feed

My brother and I finally have Dad back home. His pain levels have been brought under control, and he looks and sounds much better. He still isn’t eating much and has lost a lot of weight he couldn’t afford to lose, but part of that was the quality of the food they served in the hospital. I mean I tried some of the stuff they served him and “Yuck!”. There were a couple of things they couldn’t screw up, like pinto beans and a grilled cheese sandwich (in separate meals) but most of the “food-like substances” were not actually edible by anyone with functioning taste. I mean I wouldn’t even eat most of the stuff they gave Dad, it was that bad, and I managed to eat just about everything my daughter gave me when she was first learning how to be a vegan cook. The total lack of anything with sodium in it except the cheese just ruined what little flavor the ingredients had to begin with and the preparation (pureed and minced foods) did the rest. I mean pureed mac and cheese with low-salt cheese? Try wallpaper and the paste as a substitute. Seriously, it was that bad.

Moving on to actual bike links, up first we have a blame-the-victim because all cyclists break the law letter from Just outside Woab World HQ in the beautiful suburbs of Hell. A letter from a reader about cyclists Note the tone of the letter is accusatory, even thought the cyclist in this case was hit several feet away from the actual road on the shoulder.

Another TX cyclist gets splattered across the countryside by the favorite weapon of vehicular homicide (and the biggest selling vehicle in TX) the Ford F-150 pickup truck. Bicyclist Struck, Killed Along Local Highway Identified Another hit-from-behind wreck in TX, q’uelle surprise. The usual protocols apply for avoidance, and effective infrastructure to prevent. Another thing that might help is mandatory seizure of the vehicle as “evidence” any time there is a fatality.

A wreck in CA that could be upgraded in charges if they could locate a couple of key witnesses. Tehama County DA seeks ID of witnesses in cyclist killing “However, in certain situations, the law in California does allow for a murder charge to be filed when the DUI driver acted with a reckless indifference to human life“, from the statement of the DA to the press. On the off chance that either of those two people is reading my blog, or someone that knows these people, please get in contact with the DA’s office.

A cyclist is hit and killed in NC. Bicyclist dies after being struck by vehicle in Laurinburg Since the driver is being charged with a homicide I’m going to assume this was a serious case of “I didn’t see him” that would have required the driver be actually blind to not see the cyclist. IOW negligence that borders on a deliberate assault. Hit-from-behid protocols to avoid, getting the infrastructure right to prevent.

Meanwhile in the most deadliest state to walk or ride a bike in the US for 6 years running, LEO still haven’t cracked the case of a SWCC as a homicide. Investigation of Bicyclist’s Death May Take Another Month So, there’s some evidence the truck driver ran the red? “Curiouser and curiouser,” said Alice…

A sidewalk salmon is hit in Upstate NY. Woman, 47, riding bicycle struck and dragged by car Driver making a right turn and not looking where he was going runs down a cyclist in the sidewalk. Simple enough, to avoid ride in the street with traffic, but the real issue is why an adult woman was riding on the sidewalk instead of the street, so get the infrastructure right to prevent wrecks like this. And in this wreck infrastructure that was not bike friendly was as great a contributor as the salmon cyclist.

Bike V bus in MI, with a somewhat better outcome than what is normally the case. Bus hits bike; biker OK, bus damaged The cyclist in this wreck had too much to drink. To avoid, don’t ride drunk, to prevent, don’t mix buses with bikes which will make drunk cyclists a minor inconvenience.

A bike v bike wreck in OKC. Beloved Cyclist Dies After Crashing Into Other Cyclists In OKC The cyclist appears to have had something like a stroke or heart attack just before he lost control of his bike, nothing that can be done to avoid or prevent something like this.

An ID cyclist has next to no chance of finding justice in his wreck. Bicyclist injured in collision with Boise police car

Another story about that CA hit-and-run. Driver Sought In Hit-And-Run That Injured Antioch Cyclist As I pointed out yesterday that model of Acura has a glued windshield that requires professional tools and supplies to replace, all they need to do to catch the perp is wait for him to fix the windshield and arrest him then for tampering with the evidence in a crime, and obstruction of justice…

Another MD cyclist is hit. UPDATE: Cyclist Killed On Rt. 108 Identified Yet another hit-from-behind fatality, use the protocols to avoid, proper infrastructure to prevent.

Another link that wasn’t posted yesterday about helmets. Only 1 in 5 Capital Bikeshare Users Wears a Helmet Ooohhh! scaaarrryy! cyclists with bare heads! It’s total Anarchy! Cats and dogs lying together… How does that quote go? (Ghostbusters, I think, Bill Murray had the line whatever the movie was.)

I keep mentioning infrastructure so many times, here’s a link to a partial solution to the problem. Crash expert backs calls for 20mph speed limit While this would be a step in the right direction, speed limits in the Netherlands are 20 km/h in residential areas.

A pretty bike picture. Twin Cities Bike Picture of the Day: 5.3.12

And those are all the links that gave me fits today. Before today becomes tomorrow…

Billed @$0.02, Opus

Dad is coming back from the hospital today, and the Feed

I have been somewhat out of the loop about Dad’s condition and destination, but from what I have been told we are going to pick him up from the hospital this afternoon and bring him home, that there had been some alterations made to his medications that have stopped his back spasms and made him much more comfortable, and that he is able to get in and out of bed on his own. Before he quit eating he was almost able to get back in bed on his own, but still needed help getting sat up to get out of bed. After he quit eating that went backwards of course. His voice on the phone sounded much more sure and stable, and free of pain.

Up first is an update on the CA wreck of the founder of the Cutters cycling club, named for the Cutters team in the Little 500. Cyclist’s death has riders on edge Way too many wrecks on that stretch of pavement, way too many cars leaving the road to hit bicycles. And why haven’t assault charges been filed in the case where the driver crossed the road to hit cyclists head on? TANJ!

Another hit-and-run in CA. Police seek vehicle that injured cyclist in Antioch hit-and-run I didn’t catch the mode of the wreck, but finding the perp shouldn’t be too hard if they lean on the people who sell windshields.

A cyclist is hit in MD. Hit and run leaves teen severely hurt The mode of wreck sounds suspiciously like an assault, “swerved onto the shoulder striking the teen“. Anyway hit-from-behind protocols to avoid, getting the infrastructure right to prevent.

The LEO that hit him says the MA cyclist was riding salmon. Police: Bicyclist rode wrong way on Rte. 9 before crash Assuming the sole witness to the wreck was telling the truth, this wreck could have been avoided by using hit-from-behind protocols and not riding salmon. Getting the infrastructure right would have prevented the cyclist from being on a fast, busy, highway in the first place. The fact that the hospital the cyclist was taken to has no record of his admission and the police report having him with serious injuries makes me wonder about the rest of the report.

An IA wreck has closure as the driver responsible pleads guilty. Driver to plead guilty in death of bike rider AFAIK IA has Vehicular Manslaughter which has a much higher minimum sentence, so I’m assuming this is a plea bargain.

A cyclist is killed in Oz. Cyclist killed in accident near Clunes and Cyclist dies in road accident near Clunes also Three killed on Victoria’s roads None of the reports gave a mode for the wreck but all seemed to indicate the cyclist was not the one at fault in the wreck from the wording of the articles.

Helmet-crazy Infrastructure! news. Study: 80% of bike-share riders don’t use helmets and Bike Sharing? Stay Safe By Wearing A Helmet also 4 out of 5 of Bike Sharers Don’t Wear Helmets another one The Flaw In Public Bike Sharing Programs and last link Bike helmets could save $41 per child in hospital costs So the average child in the ER would cost $41 less if he/she had been wearing a helmet? And how much could we save if we get kids away from the most deadly thing in their lives, motor vehicles?

Infrastructure news from the UK about the upcoming London election. London Mayoral candidates questioned at cycling hustings I agree with one of the hecklers “When in a hole, stop digging!”

Infrastructure of a different kind in Italy where they have charging stations for e-vehicles built into a phone-booth like structure that also offers WiFi for browsing the Internet while waiting for your car or e-bike to recharge. In Italy, solar-powered phone booth offers wifi and electric-vehicle charging Just the spot to recharge your e-bike and catch up on e-mail… (no pun intended)

And that’s all the news that gave me fits today. Come back tomorrow for more Dad news with more actual bike news, too.

Billed @$0.02, Opus