A driver headed in the opposite direction lost control attempting to pass another vehicle and skidded across the roadway, hitting the victim head-on.
She was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, where she died.
Thirty-eight-year old Claremont resident Cheryl Becker was arrested for vehicular manslaughter. She also faces a charge of child endangerment because her children were in the car with her at the time of the crash.
Not surprisingly, police say speed may have been a factor.
A street view shows a two lane roadway on Mills, with a center turn lane and bike lanes in each direction. Police say there’s been an increase in unsafe driving on the street in recent months, including drivers exceeding the 40 mph speed limit.
This is at least the 56th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 15th that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
Update: The victim has been identified as long-time Claremont resident Terri Wolfe Ingalls, who was killed less than a week after her 62nd birthday.
According to the Claremont Courier, she was run down just moments after leaving her home. Her final act may have been waving to her neighbor as she set out on her bike.
The paper describes her as a “thoughtful, lovely” mother of four, and grandmother of seven, who checked in on her elderly parents every day.
They’ll all have to find a way to get along without her now.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Terri Wolfe Ingalls and her loved ones.
It’s hard to call 16 years in state prison a slap on the wrist. But this one feels wrong for a couple reasons.
If Wicksted really was suffering from psychiatric problems, she need treatment, not jail; too often we warehouse the mentally ill in jail, which doesn’t benefit anyone.
If not, a 16-year sentence for what amounts to first degree murder is ridiculously low. She could easily be out in half that time, or possibly less under current circumstances.
Either way, it’s yet another example of the outgoing DA’s repeated failure to take traffic crimes seriously.
Let alone do the right thing.
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Yes, carmakers really are trying to kill you.
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GCN thinks you need to improve your bike handling skills.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
A 49-year old mother of two remains missing six months after she reportedly rode her bike away from her Southern Colorado home last Mother’s Day, despite massive search efforts.
After a Kansas appeals court threw out his original two-year sentence as too lenient, a driver convicted of using his car to murder a bike-riding man following an argument between the two was resentenced to a still too low ten years and a month behind bars.
This is why people keep dying on the streets. A Toronto-area man got a slap on the wrist for jumping the curb and killing a woman as she rode her bike on the sidewalk, while he was allegedly street racing with another driver who fled the scene; the judge said he hoped the paltry 26-month sentence would serve as a deterrent. Not bloody likely.
Something that would have been easy for the former motorcycle racer better known as Pinkyracer, but nearly impossible under the circumstances on her bicycle — especially since her bike computer showed a more modest 18 mph.
We got to know each other as she underwent a painful rehab program to rebuild her shattered body, and resumed her fierce advocacy for safer streets for everyone on two wheels.
She fought for the environment and social welfare, working with homeless children, people suffering from addiction, and the down and out on Skid Row.
She had recently moved to Barcelona with her boyfriend, reveling in the city’s newfound bikeability. Yet even from that distance, continued to argue online for street safety in the City of Angels.
According to her obituary, Susanna “Pinkyracer” Schick died of heart failure in Barcelona less than two weeks ago, on October 30th.
A motorcycle racing magazine adds a little more detail, explaining that she was hospitalized with a bacterial infection, then contracted pneumonia. She was finally released after several weeks in the hospital, but collapsed and stopped breathing just a day later.
She was just 50 years old.
To say I’m stunned and heartbroken is putting it mildly. And judging from the reaction I’ve seen online, I’m not alone.
Schick was one of those rare people who lived life to the fullest, and made this world a little better and brighter for everyone around her.
Photo from the obituary for Susanna “Pinkyracer” Schick.
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Los Angeles unveiled a cute little electric street sweeper for protected bike lanes.
Dutch cyclist Dylan Groenewegen got a nine month ban for forcing Fabio Jakobsen into a horrific crash with a roadside barrier in the final sprint on the first stage of the Tour of Poland, resulting in a medically induced coma and reconstructive surgery on Jakobsen’s face and jaw. But at least Jakobsen was given the stage win.
Sixty-three-year old Sandra Marie Wicksted agreed to a deal to plead no contest after prosecutors took a murder charge off the table for intentionally running down 54-year old Leslie Pray as she was riding her bike in Claremont two years ago.
She was also charged with swerving her car at two other people riding bikes in separate incidents before slamming into Pray.
Wicksted copped to one count each of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon, along with two counts of attempted murder.
What remains unanswered, however, is the most basic question of all.
Why?
What could possibly have convinced Wicksted to try to kill not one, not two, but three total strangers for no other reason than they were riding bicycles?
We’ll probably never know.
But now an innocent woman is dead because of it.
And Wicksted has thrown away what’s left of her own life.
San Diego adopts a new Complete Communities plan, including fees for developers in the city’s most car-dependent areas, which will be used to build bike and pedestrian projects in denser urban areas.
Next time you’re in Seattle, hop the ferry to the Bainbridge Island Cycle Museum, where you can see exhibits like a rare three-wheeled lawnmower bike and a signed yellow jersey worn by He Who Must Not Be Named.
Primož Roglič’s victory in the Vuelta has pulled it out at the wire, beating Tour de France champ and fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar for the #1 spot in the UCI World Ranking for 2020, while Anna van der Breggen topped the women’s list. No American made the top ten on either list.
Seriously, just slow the hell down around slower or less experienced bicyclists and pedestrians. Never a good idea to punch a traffic cop, even if they did just door you.
What’s more surprising is that’s also reflected in the dramatic drop in bicycling deaths in LA County this year, at less than half of last year’s total — 14 so far this year, compared to 34 for all of last year.
Now if we could just keep it that way, as traffic creeps back up to pre-pandemic levels.
Today’s photo comes courtesy of David Drexler, combining two of my favorite things — bikes and coffee.
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Your periodic reminder that some people can live forever, and still be gone too soon.
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And this.
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Here’s your chance to weigh in on proposed bus/bike lanes in Culver City, which is rapidly lapping Los Angeles in the race for safe streets.
November 9, 2020 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Photo released in Long Beach hit-and-run, Biden endorses bike/ped infrastructure, and no end to bike shortage soon
The good news is, my new carpal tunnel wrist braces are helping with the pain.
The bad news is, they’re really slowing down my workflow by restricting my usually flying fingers.
Both retailers and manufacturers say they haven’t seen such demand for bikes in several decades. Revard said that despite manufacturers significantly ramping up production, his industry contacts estimate the pandemic-fueled bike and part shortage will continue into 2021 and—based on what brands are quietly telling their retailers—may even last until 2022.
The magazine adds the lower-end bikes are in higher demand, so you may have better luck if you’re willing to spend more. Or consider buying a used bike.
Just be sure to check with Bike Index and 529 Garage to make sure you aren’t buying someone else’s stolen wheels.
No bias here. The same London paper that hosted Farage’s diatribe insists it’s time to end the bike lane madness, accusing bike infrastructure of being the cause of traffic congestion, while ignoring the role played by all those people in cars, trucks and SUVs.
When Canadian musician Adrian House’s car-based tour of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in support of his latest album was blocked by Covid-19, he bought a special pannier for his guitar and did it by bike. And no, you can’t find his music on iTunes, I tried.
Chris Froome pulled the plug on his career with Team Ineos, nee Team Sky, after 11 years and four Tour de France titles; he’ll ride for Israel Start-Up Nation as he seeks a record-tying fifth win next year. Even though He Who Must Not Be Named won seven, but everyone is pretending he didn’t. So there’s that.
