Once again, the legal system did its best to keep a dangerous driver on the road until it was too late.
With predictably tragic results.
Authorities identified the driver who intentionally slammed into participants in a Master’s bike race in Show Low, Arizona on Saturday as 35-year old Show Low resident Shawn Michael Chock.
The AP reports Chock has a long criminal record, dating back to a 2007, when he pled guilty to a reduced charge after being indicted for aggravated assault, followed by disorderly conduct with a weapon a few months later.
Three years later, Chock was allowed to walk with probation after prosecutors dropped three DUI charges, allowing him to plead to a single count of felony aggravated DUI, as well as shoplifting and another aggravated assault.
He ended up serving 19 months behind bars anyway, after violating his probation.
Now seven innocent people are paying the price for that extreme leniency, with six of Chock’s victims still hospitalized in critical condition, and another in stable condition.
Chock himself is in critical condition after he was shot by police during a standoff following the crash.
Maybe someday our courts will take driving under the influence seriously, and put the public’s right to safety on the roads above the privilege — not right — of driving.
But sadly, not now. Or anytime soon.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels.
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This is why people keep dying on our streets.
Ex-con Jamison Connor was sentenced to nearly 30 years behind bars after pleading guilty to felony charges of gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run in the death of 36-year-old mountain biker Kevin Lentz in Escondido two years ago.
Lentz was just below the entrance to the Daley Ranch Recreation Area when Connor rounded a blind curve at a high rate of speed, slamming into him head-on.
Yet despite a well-deserved sentence of 29 years and ten months, Connor could be out in just six years due to a quirk in California law, Prop 57, passed by voters in 2016, allows a prisoner to be considered for parole after completing the sentence for the primary offense if it was a nonviolent crime
Remarkably, Connor’s primary sentence of vehicular homicide is not considered a violent crime.
Although I’m sure Lentz and his loved ones would disagree.
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Cycling News went all in on Amazon Prime Day this year, with recommendations on the best bicycling deals, what Garmin deal to avoid and the ones you shouldn’t, and where else you can find good bike deals today.
Meanwhile, The National looks at the best Prime Day ebike deals.
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The Transport Workers Union of America reports that Metro Bike workers are trying to unionize.
Workers always deserve a strong voice on the job. Glad to see that @BikeMetro workers are exercising their right to form a union with @transportworker. Together, we will grow the LA Metro Bike Share system and make sure that bike share jobs are good-paying, long-term career jobs. pic.twitter.com/AstPCcshej
— TWU (@transportworker) June 21, 2021
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Crouching Tiger, Levitating Bicycle.
This has got to be a metaphor for something, but as of yet I'm not sure just what… pic.twitter.com/DHMYDhZPZ1
— Steven M. Bellovin (@SteveBellovin) June 21, 2021
Apparently this was done by the construction crew so they could lay the new concrete without disturbing the bicycle.
They seem to have wired the bike to the rack—see the highlights in these two pictures—to suspend it above nominal ground level, without disturbing the lock. pic.twitter.com/ZaWzTabEie
— Steven M. Bellovin (@SteveBellovin) June 21, 2021
Thanks to Ted Faber for the heads-up.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Oklahoma residents are fighting plans for a bike path through their neighborhood, trotting out the trope that bicycles and pedestrians don’t mix — even though they’d be on separate pathways — and fears that people on motorcycles or small cars would use the pathway. Which says a lot more about the mentality of Oklahoma residents and drivers than it does about bicycles.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Tasmanian police strongly recommend riding you bike on the bridge, not across the arches supporting it.
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Local
Tragic news from Compton, where a man was shot to death while riding a bicycle early Monday; no word on the identity of the victim, or how it happened.
Voting is underway for this year’s LA2050 Grants Challenge; CicLAvia is a finalist in the Play category, in addition to East Side Riders, as we mentioned yesterday.
State
The San Diego Reader accuses scooter companies of bullying, and says the tragic death of actress Lisa Banes raises safety concerns for the San Diego area, after she was killed by a hit-and-run e-scooter rider in New York. If they’re that worried about a single death caused by a scooter rider, just wait until they learn about cars and the people who drive them.
Santa Barbara is expanding its bikeshare system into the city’s Coastal Zone, after a successful introduction downtown earlier this year.
A Bakersfield TV station goes back to basics by explaining what an ebike is, as debate continues whether to allow them on the city’s Kern River Parkway Trail.
A Lodi man is preparing to spend the next few months riding across the US from San Francisco to Savannah, Georgia, to raise funds for five different charities.
A Sebastopol paper celebrates hometown boy Luke Lamperti, after the 18-year old cyclist won an unexpected victory in the road cycling national championships.
National
A new study of “socioeconomic and demographic changes in predominantly residential neighborhoods” in 29 US cities show that despite fears of gentrification, new bike lanes don’t result in the displacement of people of color and low income residents.
A writer for Forbes considers whether dooring will still be risk in the era of self-driving cars.
Yes, you can ride a bike when you’re pregnant, and it’s actually good for you.
Sad news from Colorado, where a missing man was found dead in a creek swollen with winter runoff, after he failed to return from a bike rider on Saturday.
A little more sanity from Oklahoma, where kindhearted strangers pitched in to buy a new bicycle for a man after learning he was walking 17 miles each way in the the scorching heat to get to his job at Buffalo Wild Wings.
International
Treehugger offers tips on how to keep your bike safe at home, where half of all bike thefts occur.
Road.cc suggests ways to keep your bike from being a pain in the butt. Literally.
A British Columbia letter writer says we’ll stay off the sidewalk if you’ll stay the hell out of the bike lane. Actually, I may have added that hell part myself. Not that I’ve ever had to deal with recalcitrant pedestrians in bike lanes, or anything.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 83-year old British man is back on his bike, just two weeks after a major endo left him a “bloody mess.” I mean, aside from the endo and bloody mess, that is.
A new German-made taillight includes an HD video camera that automatically saves video of close passes, as well as the last several seconds of video if you hit the pavement.
The Financial Express says India is riding its way to a more bike-friendly future, as bike sales have jumped up to 400% during the pandemic.
Competitive Cycling
The Guardian offers a stage-by-stage preview of the Tour de France, which gets off to an earlier than usual late June start this Saturday.
Bicycling offers a team-by-team guide to who will win this year’s Tour de France, while suggesting it may not be your favorite one. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
British sprinter Mark Cavendish was a surprise addition to the Deceuninck-Quick-Step roster, after missing the last three Tours.
Why just watch the races as an uninvolved spectator, when you can join the fun with Cycling Tips’ Tour de France Fantasy Competition?
Cyclist looks back to Frenchman Antonin Magne’s win in the 1931 Tour, which he repeated three years later.
Britain’s cycling team is looking to continue their success at the Summer Games, despite several years of scandals and conflict since capturing 12 medals in Rio.
A gritty 30-mile breakaway at the US road cycling nationals won a pro contract for 30-year old Lauren De Crescenzo. But only after she finishes her work with the CDC.
Finally…
Apparently, riding a bike isn’t just like riding a bike. If you can’t remember whether you stole the bike you’re riding, maybe cut back on the drugs a bit.
And that feeling when you’re cut off by a drifting weinermobile.
Just an absolutely brutal, negligent driver at the wheel of the Weinermobile. pic.twitter.com/1FeUWZ1XPh
— Faux Macho (@nedmulka) June 21, 2021
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Daley is my local spot. Glad to see the ghost bike for Kevin Lentz is still there. It’s fun to bomb down that hill but there are a few blind corners and no real shoulder, so it’s definitely dodgy.