The victim, identified as Leo Steven Beveridge, was struck by a train at the Metrolink crossing on Central Ave at 8:53 am, and pronounced dead at the scene nearly 40 minutes later.
It’s not clear from the limited information whether Beveridge was struck by a Metrolink train, or if other lines might use that same track.
There’s also no word on whether there was a working railroad crossing at the site, or why he would have been unaware of an oncoming train.
However, it’s a tragic reminder to never cross under or around crossing gates, or assume it’s safe to cross after one train passes, because there’s often another coming from the opposite direction.
This is at least the 35th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third that I’m aware of in San Bernardino County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Leo Steven Beveridge and his loved ones.
He reportedly was ordered to shoot the man as a group of Russian soldiers were fleeing a Ukrainian counterattack in a commandeered car during the first days of the war, so the victim couldn’t report their location to Ukrainian forces.
The prosecutor’s office said that Ukrainian investigators collected evidence of the soldier’s involvement, finding him “in violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder,” and that the crime can carry a penalty of 10 to 15 years or life in prison. The statement did not provide details on the nature of the evidence or how the Russian soldier ended up in Ukrainian custody.
He is the first Russian soldier to be charged with a war crime while in Ukrainian custody, though ten soldiers were charged in absentia last month for the torture and mutilation of civilians in Bucha.
Ukraine reports evidence of more than 10,000 alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces, with 5,000 open investigations.
On a related subject, our anonymous courtroom correspondent writes in with a few observations, including turning heads with her two-wheeled support of the country under attack by Russian forces.
I’ve been flying a little (12″x18″) Ukrainian flag on my rear bike basket for a couple months now but constantly reconsider because whoo boy does it attract the honking.
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Remember Santa Barbara’s intention to designate In-N-Out a nuisance due to the traffic it attracts? Santa Ana just plans it into the street. Those pesky cyclists are never in the way of hungry drivers turning, or just waiting on the roadway to turn!
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In the latest edition of Motorists Behaving Badly:
Last week at the Pasadena DMV, a driver hit a DMV examiner, and then (sigh) backed up into a parked vehicle. This was an already licensed motorist, btw. Somehow.
Meanwhile, in Orange County the same night, a speeding driver smashed into a house on Newport Blvd…and then caught fire. The road road here has the CMUTC’s minimum-width bike lanes, and a (maximum) speed limit of 50mph. County officials remain confused as to how a collision possibly could’ve happened.
Cycling Weekly profiles the young women who will ride this year’s 950-mile Remember the Removal Bike Ride, retracing the route taken by their Cherokee ancestors during the infamous Trail of Tears; over a quarter of the 16,000 members of the Cherokee Nation ordered out of their ancestral lands by the US government died of starvation, disease or exposure during the forced march.
One more example of keeping a dangerous driver on the road until it’s too late. A Davenport, Iowa man was sentenced to a whopping 55 years behind bars for the drunken hit-and-run death of a man riding a bicycle, after driving aggressively and running multiple red lights; it was his third DUI offense. Although even I think that sentence might be just a tad extreme.
Kingston, Ontario voted to eliminate parking minimums, replacing them with maximum limits on parking spaces for commercial and residential buildings, as well as requiring parking for bicycles, e-scooters and shared vehicles.
A former Antigua national cycling champ is fighting for his life after a driver claims he was at the wheel when he ran down four bicyclists training for a weekend race, which was cancelled in the wake of the crash; another victim says the collision has left him mentally struggling.
Sanchez also admitted to special allegations of fleeing the scene and committing a serious felony involving great violence.
He was sentence to nine years, after prosecutors dropped charges of second degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with prior DUI convictions, which could have resulted in a sentence of 15 years to life.
Instead, he’ll likely spend less than half his nine-year sentence behind bars.
Let’s at least hope he’s never allowed to drive again.
Hermoso, better known as Panduh in the cycling community, was killed in a head-on collision while riding the Santa Clara Truck Trail near Santa Clarita 12 days ago.
Unfortunately, the city council isn’t taking phone-in comments anymore following the reopening of City Hall, despite rising Covid rates. So you’ll have to show up in person, or email members of the committee in advance of the Friday afternoon meeting.
And if you have any question what difference more funding could make, just take a look at the photo in the tweet below.
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Your periodic reminder that this is what we could have in Los Angeles, where the terrain and weather are more inviting than London.
And London commutes didn’t look like this, either, until the city built out a network of bicycle superhighways just a few years ago.
Twitter post
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The annual Ride of Silence to remember the victims of traffic violence is scheduled for next Wednesday.
Streetsblog’s Joe Linton digs deep into Metro’s proposed budget for the 2023 fiscal year, which calls for a 27.2% increase in active transportation spending. Although the $80 active transportation budget is dwarfed by the agency’s proposed $634 million in highway spending, a 35% increase over this year.
A Calgary, Alberta couple dug up a metal 1935 bike license while working in their garden. Note that it wraps around the frame, and would be virtually invisible to anyone at a distance, for all those who insist bicycles should a license to force scofflaw riders to behave.
Columbia’s Miguel Ángel López withdrew from the Giro after getting dropped in the first miles of Tuesday’s fourth stage; he reportedly suffers a left hip injury that failed to bounce back on Monday’s rest day.
Martinez was charged with felony counts of murder and hit-and-run driving resulting in death, as well as a misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended or revoked license following a previous DUI conviction.
He reportedly ran away on foot after killing Jelmert, who was participating in a training ride for next month’s 545-mile AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.
Martinez remains behind bars on $2 million bail.
The murder count stems from receiving a Watson notice after his previous DUI conviction, which states that he could be charged with murder if he kills someone while driving drunk anytime in the future.
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There might be hope for LA’s 1st Council District after all.
Current CD1 Councilmember “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo has apparently made it his life’s work to throttle traffic safety projects that pose the slightest risk of inconveniencing motorists or annoying local business owners.
An act he followed up by actively blocking bike lanes in the district he runs like a fiefdom, going so far as trying — and thankfully, failing — to have every bike lane in CD1 removed from the city’s mobility plan.
Here’s the salient part of the endorsement for our purposes.
The council member (Cedillo) has also been a barrier to building bike infrastructure and street projects designed to make it safer and easier for people to travel without a car. Council District 1 has some of L.A.’s most deadly streets, yet he voted against the city’s Mobility Plan to make the car-dominated streets safer and more inviting for pedestrians, bicyclists and transit. He blocked bike lanes, including directing city staff to remove bike lanes from the widened Spring Street bridge.
Hernandez, on the other hand, has made transportation and street safety top priorities within her larger environmental justice and climate change agenda. She said she would launch community reviews of the most dangerous intersections, and advocate for bike lanes, bus benches and shelters, redesigned streets and pedestrian plazas, so it’s easier for people to get around without cars.
Cedillo was in serious danger of losing last time around when the community rallied around challenger Josef Bray-Ali — until Cedillo’s campaign leaked a handful of intemperate, ill-advised and offensive comments Bray-Ali had posted to various websites.
It will be interesting to see what Cedillo comes up with this time to attack his opponent. Let’s hope Hernandez has a few less skeletons in her closest.
Because people in CD1 are dying for a less regressive representative.
Too often, literally.
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A KABC-7 remote broadcast captures an attempted bike theft in the background on live TV.
Vicetalks with Silver Lake resident Eric Brightwell, who has been living carfree in Los Angeles ever since his broke down 11 years ago, leading to the unexpected discovery that he doesn’t need one here.
Seal Beach police announced a crackdown on drivers who threaten the safety of bike riders and pedestrians ths monththrough speeding, failing to yield to pedestrians or bicyclists, illegal turns and running red lights or stop signs. Although nothing says they won’t ticket you for the same violations, so ride to the letter of the law while you’re in the city.
A Mt. Hood ski area is banning bikes this summer, after paying out a $10.5 million settlement when a mountain biker was paralyzed hitting a signpost placed directly next to a double black-diamond trail.
The good news is, my migraines finally let up after about eleventy-seven hours of sleep the past few days.
The bad news is, they haven’t gone far.
It’s been more than a month since one of my many doctors decided the health problems I’ve been suffering since last fall were the result of vestibular migraines, necessitating a complete upending of my diet.
No caffeine. No chocolate. No artificial sweeteners — not a good thing for a diabetic. No aged cheeses or dried fruits. Or even a number of fresh ones, along with a very long list of other newly verboten foods.
Basically, if I like it, or used it to control my diabetes, I can’t have it.
But after five weeks of slowly adjusting the new diet, I’m feeling even worse than when I started.
But let’s try to plow through this anyway, and see how much we can catch up on today.
And a belated happy Mother’s Day to all you mom’s out there.
It looks like we’ll finally see justice for fallen bicyclist Frederick Frazier, who was run down by a speeding driver in a Mercedes SUV on a South LA street over four long years ago.
This is what our anonymous courtroom correspondent emailed me Friday afternoon.
On a beautiful sunny day over four years ago, Mariah Kandise Banks ran down Frederick Frazier and left him to die in the arms of a stranger just a few blocks from his home. She was later apprehended and charged with hit and run and vehicular manslaughter.
This afternoon, another gloriously sunny spring day, Banks accepted a plea deal from the DA.
The count of 20001(b)(2), hit and run involving great bodily injury or death, was dropped.
With tears, Banks pleaded no contest to one count of 192(c)(1), vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
For this charge, she was sentenced to four years in state prison, restitution, fines, and three years of parole upon release from incarceration.
She had requested a surrender date in September due to significant childcare obligations, which was denied.
Sentencing will be on August 19th. Woon’s family is expected to present their impact statements on that date.
RIP Woon. Ride in peace.
Banks could have received up to six years, with another four for the felony hit-and-run count that was dropped.
Peter Flax offered this heartbreaking account of Woon’s death, and the impact his loss had on his grieving mother, fiancé and infant son, who was born months after he was killed; he didn’t know yet that he was going to be a dad. As usual, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
Four years doesn’t begin to seem like enough for the heartless crime and attempted coverup.
But he’s absolutely right in calling the chronic underfunding and understaffing at LADOT “a threat to public safety.”
Well, no shit.
As LAist points out, despite the adoption of Vision Zero seven years ago,
At the same time, the death toll on L.A. streets continues to rise. Within the first 15 weeks of 2022, 95 people were killed in crashes, according to preliminary city data. In the same period last year, the toll was 87.
The number of pedestrians killed by drivers is especially grim — up 53% citywide compared with the same period last year. The greatest share of those victims is in South L.A., where pedestrian deaths more than doubled from this time last year.
And last year was bad; 2021 marked the highest annual death toll in nearly two decades, with nearly 300 people killed in collisions. Roughly half of those victims were killed by drivers while walking or biking. Nearly 1,500 other people were seriously injured in crashes.
Yet shockingly, but unsurprising to any of us who have been paying attention, LADOT is currently working with a 21% vacancy rate — with a whopping 50% in the active transportation and Vision Zero programs.
Not to mention nearly two dozen additional positions that need to be added to meet LA’s active transportation goals.
The agency tried to address those needs by requesting 18 new active transportation positions, as well as two new Vision Zero hires.
Yet Mayor Garcetti, whose dreams of an India ambassadorship have largely gone up in smoke, responded by cutting LA’s transportation budget, while funding just the two Vision Zero hires.
That’s just two more people for a city of nearly 4 million, with 8,500 miles of streets and a rising toll from traffic violence.
Sure. That’ll fix it it.
Although, as the story notes, Vision Zero spending is up slightly over last year, if you squint hard and juggle the numbers just right.
But no matter how you slice it, it’s still just a fraction of the $80 million LADOT GM Seleta Reynolds said five years ago would be necessary to cut traffic deaths a modest 20%.
And a pittance compared to the $270 million New York invested in Vision Zero in 2019 alone.
As others have said, if you want to know a city’s priorities, look at its budget.
California’s bicycle omnibus bill — which would allow speed-limited, ped assist ebikes on bike paths statewide, permit bike riders to use leading pedestrian intervals, require drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders, and ban bike licensing requirements — has cleared the state assembly and is moving on to the senate.
Twitter post
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We’ve never had a single ride with the mayor of Los Angeles. But at least you can ride with the mayor of Glendale next Saturday.
Or ride SaMo to Venice with Metro.
Twitter post
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Long Beach offers a very full calendar of Bike Month events.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. Carlsbad CA uses Bike Month to actively discriminate against bicycle, ebike and e-scooter users, banning riders from sidewalks, ditches, sports courts or gyms, as well as requiring them dismount on any trails narrower than five feet or within 50 feet of a pedestrian or someone on horseback.
No bias here, either. Australia’s Daily Mail unleashed a recap of online motorist drivel and dreck, including “calling for cyclists to carry licences, criticising those on bikes for taking up ‘car lanes,’ and claiming that cyclists are ‘more dangerous’ than 4×4 drivers.”
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Streetsblog looks at the installation of a permanent rainbow memorial for Venice hit-and-run victim Prynsess Brazzle, who was killed while riding her bike at the intersection of Pacific and Rose Aves last year. Of course, this being Los Angeles, permanent usually means until it breaks or someone gets tired of it.
Barry Morphew, the Colorado man who recently saw murder charges over his missing wife dismissed, says he just wants her to be found. Suzanne Morphew was last seen riding her bike on Mother’s Day two years ago; authorities dropped the charges after claiming they are close to finding her body. Meanwhile, Fox News examines where the case stands now.
Yes, this is what pro cycling is like every day. Four-legged fans at the Junior Peace Race in the Czech Republic kicked up their hooves ahead of the advancing peloton, apparently preparing the young riders for spectators on the WorldTour, who often behave like animals.
According to the paper, the victim, identified only as a 31-year old man, was riding with a friend when he crashed into a wooden fence at Borchard Road and North Los Vientos Drive around 1:30 am.
He died after being taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks.
There’s no word on what caused him to crash into the fence. It’s possible he could have been run off the road, or could have simply lost control of the bike for some reason.
A Ventura County sheriff’s captain also notes the victim wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. Which only matters if he died of a head injury, or if his injuries might have been survivable with one.
This is at least the 34th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the third that I’m aware of in Ventura County.
Update: The victim has been identified as 31-year old Lemoore resident Dustin Rodrigues.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Dustin Rodrigues and his loved ones.
