The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was struck by 25-year old man from Washington state who was driving west on Ammunition.
He died at the scene.
Police do not suspect drug or alcohol use played a roll in the crash.
There’s no word on how the crash occurred, though it’s most likely the victim was walking along the right hand side of the roadway when he was run down.
There’s also no word on why he was apparently walking in the street, though it is possible he was on the sidewalk. However, the sidewalk appears to end a short distance west of Alturas, which could have forced him into the street.
No explanation has been given for why he was walking his bike. It’s possible he had just gotten off for some reason, or had a flat or some other mechanical issue. Or he may have just felt more comfortable walking after dark instead of riding.
But unless he just happened to find the bicycle on the side of the road, he died as one of us. And should have had the same right to remain safe walking a bicycle as riding one.
Anyone with information is urged to call the CHP at 760/643-3400.
This is at least the 53rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 15th that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
However, it will more likely be counted as a pedestrian death in official statistics.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
October 4, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on $50,000 reward in Venice hit-and-run death, man killed on 4,000 mile charity ride, and Eagle Rock wants one lane
Imagine someone you love traveling across the country to follow her faith and feed the hungry.
Now imagine getting a call from an LAPD detective telling you she’s been murdered by a hit-and-run driver.
Although they probably didn’t use that word.
Then imagine that the police won’t return your calls. And you have no idea what’s going on with a case that seems to be going nowhere, and doesn’t seem to be a priority.
You’ve just put yourself in the shoes of the entire family of fallen bike rider Prynsess Di’Amond Brazzle.
Don’t feel bad if you don’t recognize her name. I only recently learned it myself, confirmed by her relatives.
Which could mean Los Angeles bears at least some legal responsibility for knowing about the dangers of the street, and failing to fix it.
Prynsess Brazzle had traveled from her family’s Pennsylvania home to Georgia, then west to Los Angeles, believing she had been called by God to feed the homeless.
Only to have her life taken by someone who didn’t have the basic human decency to stop their damn car after slamming another human being early in the morning of August 20th.
Unfortunately, since then, the trail appears to have gone cold.
That’s despite a $50,000 reward from the City of Los Angeles for information “leading to the offender’s identification, apprehension, and conviction or resolution through a civil compromise.”
So let’s be honest.
Someone out there knows something. Maybe you’ve seen an SUV with a mangled front end. Or heard someone talk about an early morning crash in Venice, or acting strange the next day.
Maybe you’ve got video or other information the police missed.
We could easily top that today if everyone who reads this digs in to give what they can. And forwards this piece to anyone else who might be interested in helping.
And keeping their eyes open to bring her killer to justice.
Twenty-seven-year old Tyler Droeger was nearly 3,000 miles into the ride, when a driver drifted off the roadway and ran him down from behind as he rode on the shoulder of a Utah highway, knocking him into a ravine.
Chances are, he literally never knew what hit him.
It’s heartbreaking to think someone could be trying to do good for others, and still end up a needless victim of traffic violence.
Droeger wrote that, when he began his journey, he “wasn’t even aware of the inequality we have here in our homeland.” And he offered this advice:
“Be good to the strangers you meet. No matter their situation. it could just as easily have been you in those shoes.”
A British kid can’t use the bike lane during Back to School Week, because it’s full of cars lined up to get gas during the country’s crippling fuel shortage.
A Fresno bike rider was critically injured after allegedly running a red light; police also blamed him for riding outside the crosswalk, as if bicycles aren’t allowed in the street. Someone should tell the Fresno Bee that the victim didn’t collide with a vehicle, he was struck by a car, which had a driver.
Lafayette considers safety improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists after a school crossing guard was killed in a collision last month, but not before heroically pushing school kids in a crosswalk out of the way, sacrificing himself to save them. Thanks to Robert Leone for the link.
Chicago finally gets around to installing a road diet and bike lanes on the deadly street where School of Rock drummer Kevin Clark was killed riding his bike, 13 years after another bike-riding man was killed at the same site. This is how Vision Zero is supposed to work, just not so slow.
After a man was killed in Mississippi on a cross-country fundraising bike ride from Dover, New Hampshire to San Diego three years ago, his mother is planning to finish the ride, picking up where he was killed; his ride raised over 12 times his original $10,000 goal to help children with cancer.
The victim, identified only as a man in his 50s, was pronounced at the scene.
Investigators initially suspected he died as a result of a mountain biking crash, but later concluded his death was caused by some sort of undisclosed medical problem.
This is at least the 52nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Ventura County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
October 1, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on The cost of traffic violence, Metro unveils October bike calendar, and Colorado Blvd public meeting this weekend
A Queensland, Australia driver is behind bars for deliberately swerving into two bike riders in separate incidents, with one rider suffering “significant injuries.” Although he appears to be an equal opportunity offender, smashing his car into two other vehicles, as well.
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Local
Evidently, Long Beach wants you to stay in your lane. The city is installing bike lane markers on a portion of the city’s boardwalk. Correction: Once again, I’ve mistaken news from Long Beach, New York for Long Beach, California. We should make one of these change their name. Thanks to Steve White for the catch.
State
San Mateo proposes building bike lanes and a bike boulevard that will necessitate the removal of 214 parking spaces, but promises to make up for it with additional parking nearby. Maybe Los Angeles could learn from their example.
National
Streetsbloglooks at a pair of toxic car ads “that use the shiny gloss of white feminism to sell cars as a form of women’s empowerment.”
Sad news from Iowa, where human remains were found in a farm field matching the description of a young boy who disappeared four months ago, after going out for a bike ride just days before his 11th birthday. Although there’s no word yet on what may have happened to him.
And while she’s happy there’s a new Metro Bike location in our Hollywood neighborhood, she does find the corgo carrier is just a tad cramped.
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Thanks again to Matthew R for his generous monthly donation to help keep this site coming your way every day; donations of any size and frequency are always welcome and appreciated.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
October 1, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Update: 16-year old Port Hueneme boy killed riding bike in Oxnard hit-and-run, 39-year old Oxnard man arrested
Yet another Southern California bike rider has lost his life to a heartless coward in a car.
Except this time, the victim was just a 16-year old boy.
The victim, identified only as a Port Hueneme resident, was rushed to Ventura County Medical Center, where he died.
Police investigators concluded that he was riding west on Hemlock, and had the right-of-way when he was struck.
The driver’s car was found abandoned less that a mile away near Hemlock and Patterson Road. The 39-year old owner was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run.
According to an Oxnard police spokesperson, the victim had a headlight and reflectors on his bike, although it was so badly mangled as a result of the crash that police couldn’t tell if he had a taillight.
However, he was not wearing a helmet, as required for anyone under 18 under California law. Although whether that matters would depend on whether he suffered a head injury, and whether his injuries might have been survivable with one.
And that could depend on how fast the driver was going, on a street where residents have long complained about speeding drivers, and have repeatedly requested speed bumps, with no response from Oxnard city officials.
This is at least the 51st bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth that I’m aware of in Ventura County.
At least 18 of those deaths have involved hit-and-run drivers.
So his lack of a helmet may be relevant, depending on the speed of the impact.
His alleged killer, 39-year old Julio Sanchez, was being held on $500,000 bail after pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter with prior DUI convictions, leaving the scene of an accident, and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Andres Hernandez and all his family and loved ones.
September 30, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Special prosecutor appointed in Texas coal roll crash, and inquest into fatal deputy shooting of South LA bike rider
“They are causing their vehicle to ‘spit’ on a living, breathing, human being that is worthy of dignity and not having his or her person violated,” Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis wrote in a Facebook post. “That simple assault is easily elevated to a jail eligible offense if bodily injury occurs, which can be caused by entry of toxic particles into mouth, nose and eyes.”
Never mind that the kid actually slammed into the victims after belching exhaust on another rider.
Naturally, though, the boy’s lawyer insists it was just an oopsie.
Rick DeToto, a Houston lawyer hired by the teen’s family, called the boy “inexperienced” and characterized the crash as serious but not prompted by someone out to commit mayhem.
“The police did an investigation at the scene.,” DeToto said in an email. “This included speaking with eyewitnesses… After their investigation they decided not to charge my client and did not issue him a traffic citation. Clearly, they decided a crime had not occurred.”
According to the deputies, Kizzee attempted to flee on foot and struggled with deputies when they tried to stop him, and was shot 16 times after he dropped a gun, then allegedly picked it up and pointed it at them.
However, witness reports and security video suggested that Kizzee was running away from them when he was shot repeatedly in the back, deputies continuing to fire even after he lay helpless on the street.
Kizzee’s father has filed suit, alleging that the case raises questions of excessive force, as well as the existence of gangs within the department that celebrate and reward officer shootings.
Maybe SoFi Stadium, the new home of the Los Angeles Rams and the San Diego Chargers of Los Angeles, could learn something from our neighbors to the north.
Turns out the wall of bicycles we showed you the other day is an installation created by a homeless artist in Koreatown. There’s no word on where he got all the bikes, though, so you might want to take a close look if yours went missing lately.
September 29, 2021 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Biking Where Black, candidates to replace Koretz in CD5 back bikes, and Ford fan site blames aggressive drivers
No surprise here.
A new study from Chicago’s South Side shows a correlation between the lack of bike lanes in majority Black communities, and excessive ticketing for bicycling violations by police.
It’s no surprise then that, according to a study by University of California Davis professor Jesus Barajas, tickets for riding on the sidewalk were issued eight times more often per capita in Chicago’s majority-Black communities than majority-white neighborhoods, which tend to have far more miles of marked and protected bike lanes on arterial roads.
In addition, the Chicago Police Department has been fairly upfront about the fact that it uses zero-tolerance traffic enforcement as a strategy to enable searches for guns and drugs in high-crime neighborhoods. “When we have communities experiencing levels of violence, we do increase traffic enforcement,” Glen Brooks, the department’s director of public engagement, said on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” show in 2018. “Part of that includes bicycles.”
Just more evidence of the excessive burden placed on people of color for biking while Black or Brown.
Simply put, these are our brothers and sisters, who deserve better. And the support of the entire bicycling community.
Today’s photo shows a new Metro Bike dock that appeared without warning in Hollywood, just two blocks from the entrance to Runyon Canyon.
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This is who we could have representing LA’s 5th Council District, replacing pseudo-environmentalist Paul Koretz, who was happy to support bicycling as long as it didn’t inconvenience cars or the people in them in any way.
Or anyone else, for that matter.
Right now there is no safe alternative for people to bike from the Expo Line to UCLA due to a lack of leadership in CD5.
It’s our responsibility to make sure that everybody in Los Angeles, no matter their method of transportation, can get around safely. #ScottForLApic.twitter.com/fqkpn0Yhsy
And the senior environment and arts policy deputy for County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and former environmental land-use attorney is already saying the right things when it comes to supporting safer and more livable streets.
Yaroslavsky also said she would have supported Uplift Melrose, a proposal to bring more pedestrian space and fewer traffic lanes to the Melrose area. That proposal was not supported by Koretz because he said it would have created more traffic congestion in surrounding areas. Yaroslavsky said she is open to pursuing options like Uplift Melrose and also supports more bicycle lanes, particularly lanes connecting to locations that are centers of employment.
“I think that we need to create opportunities for people to get out of their cars,” Yaroslavsky said. “Bike lanes need to connect to each other and they need to get people where they need to go.”
We have a long way to go before May’s primary election.
But it looks like we’re off to a good start.
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He gets it.
A writer for a Ford aficionado site takes a surprising stand in the case of a Colorado bike rider killed last week by a 19-year old mechanic test driving a Ford F-150 Raptor pickup.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A 66-year old English woman needed an urgent hip replacement after she was knocked to the ground by a bike rider pulling a trailer at an outdoor market, who simply shouted “sorry” as he rode away without stopping to see if she was okay.
A Wisconsin man is riding 1,600-miles from Martha’s Vineyard back to his home state to raise awareness about kidney disease and the opportunity to be a living donor, just one year after he gave one of his to a stranger.
Or rather drive, in his mangled pickup truck, after mommy and daddy showed up at the crash scene he caused, in a failed attempt to envelop the riders in a cloud of exhaust by rolling coal.
Never mind that four of those six riders weren’t able to walk, drive or ride anywhere, after they were rushed to the hospital — two evacuated by helicopter due to the seriousness of their injuries.
Authorities wouldn’t say if charges will be filed at a later date, or if they’ll simply let a bike-hating little criminal escape justice.
The police chose to let the young adult go home without arresting him. I bet they even let him drive his truck… pic.twitter.com/GkLrIfTwDI
A graphic from Momentum Magazine puts bike safety in perspective.
Riding your bike on a protected bike-lane poses just 1/10th the risk of riding on a major street with on-street parking. And the health benefits of riding bikes FAR outweigh the risks, by at least 9 to 1 with some estimates as high as 96 to 1. Via @MomentumMagpic.twitter.com/0RGo9KgFSx
This is what a protected intersection looks like in practice.
And we could use a lot more of them here in Los Angeles, too.
I love this protected bicycle intersection in Chicago. If you can do it in the Loop, you can do it anywhere. If @IndyDPW built more of these, we might not have as many dead pedestrians.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
The driver in the Las Vegas instant karma crash has pled guilty, nearly a year after a passenger in his van leaned out the window and pushed a 56-year old woman off her bicycle — then fell out of the window himself, tumbling 150 feet along the roadway before slamming into a streetlight. Bike-riding victim Michelle “Shelli” Weissman and her killer, 23-year old Rodrigo Cruz, both died at the scene.
A Texas DA has dropped sexual assault charges against the then 18-year old son of ex-Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, even though the underage victim allegedly recorded him confessing to having sex with her, and four of the six people she told remembered her saying it was nonconsensual.
Talk about leaving a dangerous person on the street until it’s too late. A British man will likely walk out of jail for time served after being sentenced for a hate crime for attacking a man who caught him trying to steal his bicycle, while insulting the victim’s Islamic faith. He was sentenced to just 14 months behind bars, despite 33 previous convictions for 75 offenses.
The woman was riding with her husband on the San Juan Creek Trail north of Creekside Park around 8:30 pm, when she somehow lost control of her bike, and tumbled onto the rocks.
Her children, who had been riding in front and rear bike seats, were also thrown onto the rocks. However, they are expected to fully recover.
An Orange County Sheriff’s sergeant indicated that, unlike her children, Macy was not wearing a helmet, though there’s no indication at this time that she suffered a head injury.
Tragically, Macy’s husband was riding behind on his own ebike, and reportedly watched the crash that took his wife’s life, and nearly his entire family.
This is at least the 50th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 6th that I’m aware of in Orange County.
The news likes to blame e-bikes for everything, but in this case it’s not wearing a helmet that probably killed the woman, while helmets saved her two kids. They were returning from the Ohana Music Festival (Pearl Jam, Beck, etc) at the beach, and it was dark. San Juan Creek Trail there is wide and flat but is bounded by boulders lining the channelized creek below, and it seems she fell over and hit her head on them. Ironically they had passed the most dangerous part of the path, where it dips steeply under Stonehill Dr and speeds accelerate down the hill. I am a frequent user of that important trail, it’s a bicycle highway to Doheny State Beach for thousands of Orange County residents. I agree there is a problem with speeding e-bikers on this trail, especially kids on their Class III speeders, but there’s also plenty of non e-bikers in their kits racing through there. There are a few posted 10 mph signs that no one pays attention to. It seems too slow for a trail like this, 15 mph would be more reasonable, including where the woman fell over.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Jennifer Lee Macy and all her family and loved ones.
What does it take for a driver to get arrested, anyway?
Because if anyone deserves to spend some time behind bars, it’s the 16-year old boy who tried to coal roll a group of bike riders, and plowed into them, instead.
But considering it happened in Texas, he’ll probably get a slap on the wrist and a pat on the back.
According to Houston’s Fox-26, a group of bicyclists were training for a triathlon in Waller County, northwest of Houston Saturday morning.
Roughly 75 miles into their training ride, Ferrell says a black diesel pickup truck slowed down near him and accelerated to blow smoke in his lane. Moments later, the pickup trick tried doing the same thing to other cyclists riding ahead of Ferrell.
“The reason he couldn’t stop is because he was accelerating to blow more diesel fuel on these cyclists,” said Ferrell. “He ended up hitting 3 people before his brakes even started.”
JUST IN: Six cyclists were run over by pickup truck today in Waller County. In total, 4 are hospitalized, 2 had to be air-lifted. The driver of the vehicle is 16-years-old. #houston#breakingpic.twitter.com/j8JVzFlR1y
Yet despite everything, the kid was not ticketed, let alone arrested.
Rolling coal is assault with a deadly weapon, capable of causing riders to fall off their bikes, or cause lung damage, asthma attacks and eye irritation.
Let alone the risk of slamming into the intended targets while doing it.
This was anything but a mere oopsie.
It was a deliberate attack that led to serious injuries. And needs to be prosecuted that way.
Thanks to Victor Bale for the heads-up.
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This is what can happen when you get caught up in one of those bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operations.
A bike rider who prefers to be anonymous forwarded this ticket for running a stop sign in Hermosa Beach. The irony is, that could be legal soon if Governor Newson signs the bill legalizing Stop as Yield in California.
Evidently, Hermosa cops weren’t willing to wait.
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This twitter thread is worth a click to read the whole thing, as he describes the sad state of bicycling in Los Angeles.
Which keeps far too many people from riding their bikes.
I figured getting from her place around Wilshire/Western to All Season Brewing at 8th and La Brea would be an easy first trip. Let's go through all the reasons it was less easy than it should have been.
Residents of Santee are revolting against transportation plans from Caltrans and the San Diego Association of Governments, aka SANDAG, insisting they’re not interested in bike lanes, but want more highway lanes to reduce congestion. Apparently they’ve never heard of induced demand, which would fill those new lanes with even more cars. Or that bike lanes can reduce traffic congestion by given some people an alternative to driving.
The San Francisco Chronicle has apparently dropped its draconian paywall for a special graphic report illustrating the progress the city has made building bike lanes during the pandemic. An opportunity Los Angeles lost by failing to step up efforts when they had the chance.
A Santa Clara newspaper honored a retired electronic salesman with their North Bay Spirit Award for this month, for his work with the nonprofit he founded to fix up unloved bikes and give them to kids whose parents can’t afford one; in just the past seven months, he’s taken in 100 bicycles and given 80 away after repairing them. Thanks to Murphstahoe for the link.
A Florida woman was killed by a road racing motorcyclist, who hit her bicycle while he was racing a driver in a BMW as she was trying to ride across the street; no word on any charges, though police are looking for the driver of the BMW driver.
Seventy percent of the bicyclists killed in the Czech Republic this year weren’t wearing helmets. While that figure sounds disturbing, it’s meaningless without knowing how many of those victims suffered head injuries, and whether their injuries would have been survivable with or without one.
