Morning Links: Cyclist critically injured in Laguna Beach; lawsuit filed against LA County, LASD in Milt Olin case

Late breaking news as this goes online.

According to the Orange County Register, a 55-year old bike rider was critically injured when he was hit by a car on Coast Highway near Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach around 7 pm Tuesday. Despite initial reports that the driver had fled the scene, he actually stopped a short distance away and waited for authorities.

No word yet on how the collision occurred; a satellite view of the street shows a wide parking lane or shoulder, but no bike lanes.

The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a full and fast recovery.

……..

The only real question is why they waited so long.

Not surprisingly, the family of fallen cyclist and former Napster executive Milt Olin has filed a lawsuit against LA County, the LA Sheriff’s Department, and the deputy behind the wheel when he was run down from behind while riding in a Mulholland bike lane last December.

According to the LA Daily News,

The family “suffered a profound loss, a loss of a wonderful husband and father, and actually a wonderful human being, as all his friends will tell you,” attorney Bruce A. Broillet, who is representing the family, said Tuesday. “We believe the sheriff (deputy) was operating his vehicle negligently, inappropriately and this never should have happened. We will be seeking to hold the county, the sheriff (deputy) and the Sheriff’s Department accountable for the death of Milton Olin.”

The claim seeks an unspecified amount in damages for loss of love, care, protection, moral support and financial support, among other things. It also seeks more than $30,000 in damages for medical, burial and funeral expenses.

Meanwhile, the DA’s office is still reviewing the Sheriff’s Department’s self-described unbiased investigation of their own officer nearly a month after the results of the five-month investigation were turned over to them.

No word on what conclusions they reached, if any, or when or if the DA will announce whether charges will be filed.

Or whether it was an official or unofficial departmental policy that resulted in Olin’s death, as many suspect.

……..

Local

In response to Metro’s advice for cyclists on how to share the road with buses, Streetsblog’s Joe Linton offers his own five astute points on how Metro can better interact with us.

The LACBC will be providing free bike valet at the Roaring Nights at the LA Zoo.

Claremont is sponsoring a free bike safety class for children and adults this Thursday.

Santa Clarita sheriff’s deputies arrest two men for a string of armed bike path robberies.

 

State

The Coronado Historical Society is hosting a series of guided bike rides around the island this summer.

An OC businessman is riding 5,000 miles to raise funds to help end malnutrition, while a Menlo Park man is competing in the Race Across America to raise funds for the Stanford Cancer Institute.

Police arrest a bike rider for groping a Bay Area woman before riding off.

A sharp-eyed Sacramento-area man spots someone riding this daughter’s stolen BMX bike.

 

National

Speaking of RAAM, the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay looks at Dave Zabriskie and his four-man Legends of the Road team.

Momentum Magazine examines the next great bicycling cities; shocked! shocked! am I that LA failed to make the list.

CLIF Bar teams up with People for Bikes to get more people on bikes.

A writer for Crain’s Chicago Business says we all have to get along, no matter how many wheels we travel on.

A bike shop in the Windy City installs a 24-hour bike parts vending machine.

Memphis turns half a divided highway into a two-way biking and walking path along the Mississippi River.

The Alabama man who posted videos of himself running cyclists off the road pleads guilty to reckless endangerment. And gets off with a mere loving caress on the wrist.

 

International

An Irish man learns not to honk and swear at a group of cyclists. Because they might turn out to be off-duty cops.

Forty-one amateur riders prepare to ride the entire 2014 Tour de France route.

Caught on video: a bike riding Japanese schoolgirl learns the hard way to stop at the stop sign and look both ways before crossing an intersection

 

Finally…

Repeat after me: When you’re carrying six bags of meth and wanted on outstanding warrants, stop for the damn red light — but don’t do it directly in front of a pursuing police car after trying to flee.

And it takes a real schmuck to steal a 9-year old’s bike at gunpoint.

 

8 comments

  1. PatrickGSR94 says:

    Hey I’m in Memphis and have ridden Riverside Drive a couple of times since they changed it! It’s pretty cool, though not without a couple of minor issues to be addressed.

    I would call it a boulevard, though, not a highway, even though the interstate (I-55) basically becomes that boulevard if you don’t take the exit going across the river.

  2. David Huntsman says:

    Stopping and waiting for authorities is still hit/run if the victim is injured. The law requires you render assistance. Can’t just sit there in your car like you are at a drive in theater while the victim lies there on the road.

  3. James says:

    PCH in OC should be known as Pacific Coast Freeway. It is sort of like riding on an actual freeway but with regular driveways and dangerous interchanges at regular intervals. Motor vehicle speeds are greater than any I experienced driving on urban freeways in Portland or Seattle. At one time OCTA’s engineers probably fantasized about building an actual freeway along the coast and because that never happened they’ve re-designed PCH to be as freeway like as possible. There are regular stretches where traffic really picks up speeds 60-70mph, right before drivers encounters bends they aren’t prepared for. I routinely see drivers stray out of their lane the area mentioned above. Another problem is the long straight stretches that produce freeways speeds and a low level of driver attentiveness one might associate with rural highways. The long high speed stre of this Drivers come out of this stretch driving at speeds totally inappropriate for the urban environment and don’t expect or don’t notice intersections, red lights and they certainly don’t understand what a crosswalk it. On a daily basis I cross PCH at the northern edge of Huntington Beach and there are always a couple cars that run a red light seemingly at speeds above 60mpg several seconds after I get a green. I’v developed a habit of waiting 5 seconds before I enter the intersection. Did I mention I’ve seen highspeed drifting at night? This sort of thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkzgYbL58qQ

    Once again California’s traffic engineers appear to have been criminally negligent. They produced a surface freeway that intersects (and cuts off) adjacent communities, endangers anyone crossing the street and encourages inattentive highspeed driving and gives reckless drivers the room to treat the road it as their own personal racetrack.

    • PatrickGSR94 says:

      Yeah and then there was that scene from Fast & Furious 1 “More than you can afford pal, Ferrari” “Smoke’em” and then off they go in a street drag race. I think that was the PCH, yes?

      • ValleyBall1 says:

        Yeah, that scene was filmed in Malibu PCH but still a deathway for cyclists. I get to the HB boardwalk and SART by way of PCH and pray for those 5 or so miles that I don’t get clipped.

        James is correct about that stretch of PCH. In addition, the sun is blinding for northbound traffic on PCH so the driver may not have seen Mr. Colvin before impact, although the driver had to have known he hit someone upon impact. Like I’ve always said, it’s an accident to hit someone but a felony to leave the scene.

        • ValleyBall1 says:

          I meant, the sun is blinding for north bound traffic @ 7pm on that stretch of PCH…

  4. David Huntsman says:

    Besides being a backdrop for Zabriskie’s participation in the Race Across America, does anyone have any idea what his non-profit Yield to Life Foundation does? I asked the Foundation the same question a few months ago and didn’t get details.

  5. […] Daily Ted is extremely good today. Morning Links: Cyclist critically injured in Laguna Beach; lawsuit filed against LA County, LASD in … I was wondering what the delay in the Olin wreck was after he was hit from behind while riding in […]

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