Now we finally know.
Twenty-four-year old Oxnard resident Gabriel Esquivel was charged in the DUI deaths of Kellie Standish and Colby Tucker in Ventura County last Thursday.
Esquival was allegedly under the influence of alcohol when he ran down from behind three people riding in the bike lane on PCH, killing Standish and Tucker, while leaving the other victim with major injuries.
He’s been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the crash, after receiving multiple Watson Advisements following a previous DUI arrest last December. He is being held without bail pending his arraignment, which has been postponed to this coming Monday.
According to News Channel 12-3-11,
Equivel (sic) is also facing charges of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, driving with a suspended or revoked license, and driving with a blood alcohol content above the legal limit and causing injury to a third bicyclists during the same incident shared the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
Meanwhile, the Oregon press remembered Standish, a native of the state, as a “beloved adaptive sports volunteer.”
I screwed up yesterday in identifying Tucker as Standish’s boyfriend. As his brother pointed out, while they may have been dating, he was an individual in his own right. I should have known better, and I apologize.
Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels.
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No surprise here.
A new report from Smart Growth America says fewer people may be dying in the US, but slightly less deadly is not the same as safe.
According to the report, California is only the eighth most dangerous state for pedestrians on a per capita basis.
Yay us.
The report ranks the top ten worst states for pedestrian deaths as,
- New Mexico
- Louisiana
- Arizona
- South Carolina
- Florida
- Mississippi
- Nevada
- California
- Georgia
- Delaware
The good news is, Los Angeles doesn’t show up in the top twenty riskiest cities for people walking. In fact, none of the 88 cities in LA County does.
The bad news, the Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario metro area does, in a tie for ninth.
Other California cities on the list are Bakersfield & Delano at 3rd, Fresno 7th, and Sacramento, Roseville and Folsom tied at 19 with Stockton & Lodi.
In another non-surprise, the roads remain deadliest for older pedestrians, with people 65 and up accounting 5.36 deaths per 100,000 people.
And people of color continue to be disproportionately represented, with Black and African Americans a whopping 170% above the national average.
The report also shows Florida remains one of the most dangerous states for pedestrians, ranking fifth in the US, in addition to being the nation’s deadliest for bicyclists.
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This is who we share the road with.
A man accused of a knifepoint carjacking in DTLA allegedly used the car as a weapon, driving through Culver City intentionally targeting pedestrians, drivers and bike riders.
An hour after the carjacking, Culver City police received a report that four people on foot were injured in a hit-and-run collision near Centinela Ave and Washington Blvd.
Shortly after that, the driver, later identified as 45-year old Perris resident Juan Luis Estrada, struck a motorist in the 3800 block of Sepulveda Blvd before police took up the chase, watching as Estrada allegedly swerved towards multiple people.
That included a pedestrian near Braddock Drive and Sepulveda Blvd, two teens on ebike near Culver Blvd and Le Bourget Ave, and another pedestrian near Canfield Ave and Culver Blvd.
The vehicular mayhem finally came to an end when he crashed head-on into another vehicle in a restaurant drive-thru lane in the 200 block of Washington Blvd.
Fortunately, none of the victims — who ranged in age from 15 to 70 — suffered life-threatening injuries.
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Tomorrow morning, Freedom Ride LA and We Major will host a “Joyous Juneteenth Bike Ride” from Earle’s on Crenshaw to historic Bruce’s Beach; you can find other Juneteenth events here.
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A patient at the Mayo Clinic will ride all 21-stages of the Tour de France a week before the race, traveling more than 2,000 miles, with 175,000 feet of total elevation, from Barcelona, Spain to Paris, France to raise awareness for blood cancer.
Christopher Edgerton was diagnosed with very rare form of cancer, called Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia, in 2018; a year later, he raised over $50,000 to fight the disease by riding across the US.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps going on.
The Salt Lake City Tribune says a growing intolerance for bicyclists is coming at exactly the wrong time, as the city’s bicycle culture is maturing.
Seriously? A bicyclist was injured by a New York City cop in a protected bike lane; the officer refused to apologize and repeatedly asked the cyclist for his ID, insisting the victim “came out of nowhere.” Because obviously, the presence of a bike lane doesn’t inherently imply that there might, just possibly, be someone riding on it.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
You’ve got to be kidding. A former San Antonio bike cop, who was fired for feeding two homeless men literal shit sandwiches, has been hired as police chief of Benavides, Texas.
Brits are suitably outraged after a woman was seen riding her cargo bike through a red light with three kids on the back.
British baron, politician and journalist Michael Gove called out an “unmannerly” bicyclist who managed to avoid crashing into him after Gove crossed against a red light while the rider was — legally — turning left, the equivalent of a right turn here; Road.cc says the bicyclist did everything right “until he opened his mouth, and posted the footage to the world’s worst social media platform.”
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Local
The Los Angeles City Council approved a sweeping revision of the city charter for the fall ballot, including greater oversight of the LAPD, and voting by noncitizens in city elections — but without the popular provisions to expand the council and ranked-choice voting. Without those two, I’m a definite no vote this fall; as far as I’m concerned, they can go back to the fucking drawing board and start over until they get it right. Hopefully, someone will put a citizen’s referendum on the next available ballot.
Los Angeles is installing 125 speed cams throughout the city, which will be the largest number in California. Then again, we probably have the most speeders, too.
State
Police in Huntington Beach busted a thief for stealing a high-end ebike, tracking him in realtime using a bait-bike valued over $2,000 to qualify as a felony theft. Which serves as a reminder that the LAPD still won’t use bait bikes to cut down on the city’s bike theft rates, based on bad advice from the City Attorney’s office that it could be considered entrapment — even though they’re successfully used and prosecuted throughout the state. Or maybe the LAPD thinks it just has more important things to do.
A new bill from Encinitas State Senator Catherine Blakespear will require the same scrutiny to remove or reduce a bike lane as to install it, throwing a much-needed monkey wrench in plans to rip out the bike lanes on Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas.
An op-ed from a Santa Barbara bike safety researcher says bicycle accidents bring home the need for bike and pedestrian paths. Although you’d think someone who studies bike safety would know enough to call them crashes or collisions. Or wrecks, even.
National
Good for them. Alaska officials aren’t looking for a grizzly bear that attacked a mountain biker over the weekend, arguing that after the biker startled it, “the bear defended itself from a perceived threat and then left the area, which is what any bear likely in that same situation would have done.” The bears have seniority rights on the trails, anyway.
A new Washington State law makes a clear distinction between ebikes and electric motorbikes, limiting an ebike to no more than 20 mph without the rider pedaling and a motor that producing no more than 750 watts; anything else is considered a motorcycle and will require a license.
Moab, Utah opened the first trail system designed and built for adaptive bicyclists.
Cheyenne, Wyoming is kicking off the city’s bike week. Which is a far cry from when cowboys in pickups used to run me off the road the few times I tried to ride there.
Over 5,800 people in 14 counties in Arkansas and Oklahoma could get ebike vouchers up to $1,200 through a grant from the EPA. Something CARB no doubt explored before stealing the funding for the California Ebike Incentive Program to pay for electric cars.
Chicago protesters say the city has to value people over parking, after a Complete Streets planner was killed riding his bike in a painted bike lane.
A 60-year old mother of seven was killed when she was hit by a freight train in a Chicago suburb last week; she was also the chief financial officer for a nonprofit working to support victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, and had been winning the battle against a rare form of blood cancer.
Hundreds of Braintree, Massachusetts community members turned out to pray for a 12-year old boy who was hit by the driver of an SUV while riding his bike to Little League practice; he remains in a coma after undergoing multiple surgeries for severe head and upper body injuries. A crowdfunding page has raised nearly $90,000 of the $110,000 goal.
The mere sight of Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner riding New York bikeshares caused a writer for Vogue to go into a paroxysm of uncontrollable thoughts, although another fashion writer was primarily concerned with Jenner’s thousand dollar shoes.
Cycling Weekly says forget California or Colorado, and head to the Carolinas for “long climbs, empty roads, breathtaking scenery, and a culture built around the bicycle.”
Speaking of the Carolinas, the South one just adopted the “Palmetto Stop,” aka Stop as Yield or Idaho Stop, becoming the first state on the east coast to allow bicyclists to treat stop signs like yields, and red lights like stop signs.
The Florida legislature has passed a bill imposing a 10 mph speed limit for all ebikes on shared-use paths, regardless of type or class.
An 18-year old Florida man went missing on a bikepacking trip from Jacksonville to the Florida Keys.
International
A new two-way protected bike path on a Brazilian bridge recorded 7,000 bicyclists in first month, improving mobility on the country’s coastal region.
A new Dubai cycle track will “allow pelotons to velo on a network of paths and bridges from Dubai Hills to Internet City.” Although pelotons seldom use bike paths that are only wide enough for a single rider in each direction. And who the hell uses velo as a verb, anyway — never mind the “wheely” bad pun in the headline?
Competitive Cycling
Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner will be a no-show for this week’s US Pro Road Cycling National Championships, after “travel chaos” returning home from the Giro Donne left her without the energy to compete.
Belgian star Wout van Aert is out of this year’s Tour de France after an elbow injury suffered in a training crash resulted in an infection, throwing a “spanner in the works.”
The route was announced for the Tour of Britain this September. Although the trophies appear to have been cut out of plywood.
Um, okay. The cycling events of the 2026 Pasadena Senior Games were held at El Dorado East Regional Park in Long Beach yesterday; the 10k time trial and 20K road race were sponsored by SoCalCycling.com and the Pasadena Senior Center. Because apparently, there are no locations in Pasadena where the races could be held, such as, oh, I don’t know, maybe the Rose Bowl.
Heartbreaking news from Ireland, where yet another junior cyclist was killed in a training crash, as 16-year old Shane O’Brien was killed when he ran into a parked truck while on a training ride Tuesday morning; the rising star had just made his debut with the national team, and was described as one of the country’s most exciting talents.
Finally…
That feeling when “hundreds of naked cyclists” somehow leave a major city paralyzed. Seriously, if you’re going to put your naked ass on a bikeshare seat, put a damn cover on it first.
And that feeling when PeopleForBikes doesn’t know which way a helmet is supposed to go.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
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