Morning Links: DUI crash injures PCH bicyclists, drunken Mardi Gras bike wreck, and Beto’s dad was one of us

March 4, 2019 / / 2 comments

This is how I roll.

For now.

The good news is, the doctor said my knee replacement surgery went well, and I should get back to near 100%. Eventually.

The bad news is that the damage to my knee was so extensive that what is usually a two-hour operation took nearly four. And the recovery promises to be just as extensive and difficult as that implies.

And don’t get me started on the pain. Or constant sleepiness, nausea and confusion caused by the meds to control it.

Let alone the constant nickel and diming for medical services and devices that oddly aren’t covered as part of the surgery.  Even though I couldn’t have it without them.

But I’ll get there.

The only thing standing in the way is the willingness to do the work and fight through the pain to get to where I’m going.

And I think we bike riders know something about that.

But in the short-term, it’s seriously affecting my ability to think clearly and get any work done.

So instead of getting back to our usual Morning Links this morning, let’s go with a more limited edition to try and ease back in.

Call it Morning Links Lite.

………

My biggest fear when life forces me to take time some off is that we”ll miss an important story while I’m not able to share it with you.

Which is exactly what happened this time.

Last Wednesday, Allyson Vought forwarded news of a DUI crash on SoCal’s Killer Highway in Newport Beach that left two riders seriously injured.

Our friends Dr. Sherri Bates  & Allison Prendergast were hit by a DUI driver at 8am in Newport Beach today on PCH near Superior Blvd. Not sure of direction of their travel. We do know that the driver tried to run away but was stopped by witnesses and later arrested. 

Gil Bates, Sherri’s husband, just spoke with the plastic surgeon. Sherri needs facial surgery to repair sinus cavity, eye-socket and nose. Could be done tonight if the swelling subsides. Most incisions can be hidden but one will be at eyebrow line. Her knee is sore and swollen but not serious. 

Sheri is going for a neck MRI in a little bit.

Meanwhile, Allison has a broken femur at the hip socket and torn lip. Will possibly have surgery tonight. Really bad so early in the morning.

Unfortunately, there was no way I could write anything from my hospital bed that night, or do anything more than the bare minimum after I was released the next day.

That was followed on Friday by this email from Jay Doyle of the Velo Allegro cycling club.

On Wednesday, February 27th, Sherri Bates and Allison Prendergast went for an early morning bike ride from Long Beach and headed south on PCH. They were riding side-by-side in the bike lane and as they approached and passed Superior Avenue in Newport Beach they encountered slowed and stopped morning traffic. 

A northbound van turned left between the stopped southbound traffic to enter a strip mall parking lot on the west side of the street. Due to the stopped traffic the van driver, as well as Sherri and Allison, did not see one another. As the van crossed the bike lane, Sherri and Allison had no time to react and they both slammed into the right side of the vehicle. Both Sherri and Allison took the brunt of the impact head and face-first.

Sherri and Allison had to be taken by Paramedics to the closest trauma center at Orange County Global Medical in Santa Ana.

Sherri needed to undergo facial surgery to repair her sinus cavity, right eye-socket and nose. She also sustained neck and head trauma. 

Allison needed to undergo surgery to repair a broken femur at the hip socket and torn lip.

As serious as these injuries were, thank God they were not life threatening. Both Sherri and Allison had successful surgeries and will be going home on Friday for many weeks of recuperation.

Allison is self-employed as a massage therapist and will be out of work for an extended period of time. A Go Fund Me account is being set up to assist her with her medical and personal expenses. As soon as more information is obtained regarding the account we will let you know. Any financial donation that you might be able to make to help Allison would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding the driver of the van, NBPD was able to identify his whereabouts within the parking lot area. The male suspect exhibited signs of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was arrested.

Accidents like this are tragic, especially when it occurs to fellow Velo Allegro family members that we know and love. Please, be careful out there! Unfortunately, our fate is in the hands of strangers driving past us on the road. We can only hope that they are sober, paying attention to the road, and giving us at least 3-feet of passing clearance. This is sad news but it could have been much worse. We wish Sherri and Allison a quick road to recovery and we hope to see them back on the bike soon. Get well soon! We love you guys!!

Unfortunately, I can’t find a crowdfunding page for either of the victims, but I’ll be happy to share any links once they come online.

And let this be yet another painful reminder that there’s no time of day when you’re completely safe from drunk and stoned drivers.

………

This is what happens when attempts to encourage people to walk and bike to Mardi Gras celebrations meet an entrenched car culture in a community dedicated to laissez les bons temps rouler.

AKA, letting the good times roll.

A celebratory night in New Orleans was ruined when the adult son of a New Orleans cop slammed down a few drinks too many before getting behind the wheel of his car, and plowing into a group of people on famed Esplanade Ave.

The multi-block rampage, which took place just blocks from the popular Endymion Mardi Gras parade, left two people dead and three critically injured, along with another four less seriously injured.

Most, if not all of those, were believed to have been riding bikes at the time of the crash.

The driver, Tashonty Toney, tried to flee the scene on foot, but was stopped nearby by bystanders, who described him as “blind drunk.”

A witness said the 32-year old Toney had swerved his sports car into the bike lane on Esplanade to go around slower traffic, then stumbled out of his car after coming to a stop, and passed out on a street corner.

He later told police he had a drinking problem and should have gotten help.

No shit.

This came just two years after another driver plowed into crowds at the same Endymion parade.

Twitter post

Toney is being held on $510,000 bond.

………

Stephen Katz forwards a reminder that unannounced Democratic presidential contender Beto O’Rourke’s father was one of us.

And it didn’t end well.

Prominent Texas Judge and cross-country cyclist Pat O’Rourke was killed while during a solitary recumbent ride on July 3rd, 2001, before having an El Paso bike trail named after him 16 years later.

Clearly, it hasn’t scared his son off.

………

Who said women can’t compete with the men?

A Belgian women’s cycling competition had to be halted by race officials after the lead racer caught up with the back of the men’s race, despite giving the men a ten minute head start.

Unfortunately, she ended up finishing 74th when the peloton caught her after being forced to cool her pedals for so long.

………

Speaking of Belgium, the country’s E3 Harrelbeke race once again rushes into sexist territory where wiser minds would fear to tred, following a number of regretful marketing misfires in recent years.

The poster for this year’s race features what at first glance appears to be a frog — but on closer examination turns out to be two naked, intertwined women painted green.

What that has to do with bike racing, we’ll probably never know.

Or, chances are, want too.

………

And finally…

Who says bicyclists aren’t tough? Like riding 30 minutes to get help after a rattlesnake bite.

At 75 years old.

………

Thanks to Bryan Z and Matthew R for their generous and unexpected donations support this site and help pay for my new knee.

I couldn’t have been more surprised by their kindness. Or grateful.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , , , , , ,

62-year old woman killed riding a bike on Railroad Ave in Newhall

March 1, 2019 / / 2 comments

A woman was killed in a Newhall crash this morning, apparently for no other reason than she was riding a bicycle.

According to The Signal, the victim was struck by a driver around 7:05 this morning at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and 15th Street. She was transported to a local hospital, where she died.

She was publicly identified only as a 62-year old woman pending notification of relatives.

The victim was riding on Railroad at the time of the crash; there’s no word on where the person who struck her was driving, or how the crash occurred.

Initial reports had said the victim was a pedestrian, or a man in his 50s.

Photos from the scene appear to show a teal and yellow cruiser bike; debris was left strewn across the roadway.

A street view shows a four-lane road with a single left turn lane and wide parking lanes on Railroad; 15th ends at Railroad with a signalized intersection.

This is at least the tenth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth I’m aware of in Los Angeles County 

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all her loved ones.

Thanks to Sindy Saito for the heads-up. 

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , ,

Man killed riding a bike on Manchester Blvd in South LA hit-and-run

February 24, 2019 / / 4 comments

Once again, another innocent person has been murdered by a heartless hit-and-run driver, once again on Manchester Blvd in South Los Angeles.

And once again, don’t count on our elected leaders actually doing anything about it.

According to KTLA-5, the victim, identified only as a man in his late 20s, was riding eastbound on Manchester Blvd at South Gramercy Place when he was run down from by an unknown driver around 9 pm last night.

The victim, who appeared to be on a knobby-tired bicycle, died at the scene. The impact was hard enough that a witness described finding his shoes on opposite sides of the wide, four lane street.

Unfortunately, there is no description of the suspect or his or her vehicle.

An infuriating report by KCAL-9 says the victim was riding in the street despite the presence of a wide sidewalk, implying that’s where he should have been.

This is the second fatal hit-and-run involving a bicycle rider on Manchester Blvd in less than a year, following the death of Frederick “Woon” Frazer at less that a mile away at Manchester and Normandie last April.

That driver still hasn’t been charged, despite admitting to being behind the wheel, and allegedly repainting and hiding her SUV in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Which makes you wonder just what it takes to get the DA to file charges.

In addition, no action has been taken to improve the deadly street that has now taken the lives of two bike riders in recent months, despite the presence of both Manchester and Normandie on the city’s High Injury Network.

As with any fatal hit-and-run in LA, there is a standing $50,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

This is at least the tenth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the third in the City of Los Angeles.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , ,

Morning Links: Lime pulls plug on bikeshare, history of bikes, and Harry and Megan’s unborn kid gets a Trek

February 22, 2019 / / 10 comments

This is going to be the last Morning Links for awhile. 

I’ll be having surgery next week to hack out a chunk of my knee, and replace it with a piece of lifeless metal.

Otherwise known as a full knee replacement.

I’m going to need some time to calm my nerves and get ready for the procedure. And once it’s over, I expect to be too drugged out to get any significant work done.

However, I’m planning to put up a guest post or two, and hope to get to a couple of other brief items. And I’ll do my best to keep up with any breaking news while I’m out.

So check back every now and then so you don’t miss anything.

If all goes as expected, I should be back on Monday the 4th with a fresh Morning Links, and knee that actually works for a change.

Wish me luck, and I’ll see you soon.

And stay safe out there.

………

The former Lime Bike continues to pull the plug on dockless bikeshare in favor of cheaper and more popular e-scooters, withdrawing with little notice from San Mateo, San Francisco and Burlingame, as well as Seattle, Rockville IL and Starkville, Mississippi. Thanks to David Drexler for the heads-up.

………

An intrepid, trench coated BBC reporter traces the early history of the bicycle firsthand in a video from 1963.

Twitter post

………

Prince Harry and Megan’s new baby hasn’t even been born yet, and the kid’s already got as many bikes as I do.

Twitter post

………

The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes goes on, as some Brit asshole — and I use the term advisedly — pushes a woman off her bike from a moving car.

Let’s hope police find this jerk, and give him a shove into a jail cell.

https://twitter.com/sticky_bottle/status/1098372609828372485?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1098372609828372485%7Ctwgr%5E363937393b70726f64756374696f6e&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Froad.cc%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2F256582-live-blog-car-passenger-filmed-pushing-woman-bike-brief-history-bicycle-bbc

………

Local

If you’re on a waitlist for a bike locker at a Metro station, you may have to keep waiting. The transit agency has proposed scrapping the program because of break-ins and bike thefts, and replacing it with smartphone controlled docking racks.

Safe Routes to School Los Angeles scored a $33.5 million state grant to improve safety around eight local schools.

A South Pasadena website looks back on the doomed California Cycleway, and the birth of the motorcycle when early SoCal bike riders added engines to their bicycle.

Speaking of South Pas, Gabe the Sasquatch dropped in on the city council meeting to promote May’s 626 Golden Streets Mission-to-Mission open streets event.

Environmentalists are fighting plans to move a line of palm trees to make room for a Long Beach Complete Streets project. Even though palm trees aren’t native plants and are big consumers of scarce SoCal water.

A woman on a bicycle may or may not have been hurt when a Long Beach driver jumped the curb and backed into a building; Patch describes her as a pedestrian, while a tweet from the police says she was a bike rider.

Long Beach is expanding its scooter program from the current 1,800 citywide to as many as 6,000 within six months.

State

A San Diego bike rider was seriously injured in a fall, apparently caused by a passing driver. Another reminder that a car doesn’t have to hit you to cause serious damage.

Santa Cruz bike rental shops say Jump’s dockless ebikes have unfairly cut into their business.

Facebook employees keep dumping their free company bikes on Silicon Valley streets. And police keep hassling the kids who pick ’em up and ride ’em.

A San Francisco supervisor joined with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition in calling for more bike racks throughout the city.

One of the six cops who fatally shot an unarmed Vallejo rapper who was sleeping in his car in a Taco Bell parking lot last year was involved in the fatal shooting of another unarmed black man earlier in the year, firing his gun into the back of the man’s head during a struggle after stopping him on his bicycle.

National

The Conversation examines the problem of auto-centric urban design that’s literally killing bike riders and pedestrians.

The Bike League says states may forfeit as much as $1 billion in federal funding for sidewalks, bike trails and other safety projects if they don’t use all the money by the end of the year.

The Oregon driver who killed a woman riding a bike while high on 12 different prescription drugs — including her dog’s anxiety meds — was sentenced to a well–deserved 12 years behind bars. That’s one year for each medication; let’s hope she gets the drug treatment she seems to desperately need.

A professional reporter, who is apparently better versed in the 1st Amendment than some police officers, confronted an Arizona marshal who threatened to arrest her for following on her bicycle and filming him. Did I mention that she’s just 12-years old?

Idaho decides that ebikes are bicycles, and should be treated like any other bike.

New Belgium Brewing — based in my hometown and makers of my favorite beer — has teamed with Brooklyn Bicycle Co. to make their eponymous 2019 cruiser bikes.

A judge issued a search warrant for the Austin, Texas bus driver who killed a bike rider on the UT campus last month; police say she appeared to be stoned on prescription medications, oblivious to her surroundings and driving distracted at the time of the crash, while failing to brake and ignoring passengers’ cries to stop. Thanks to Stephen Katz for the link.

A Minnesota bicycle columnist calls plans for a coast-to-coast bike path “fanciful but resilient,” saying Adventure Cycling is taking the long view in efforts to complete it. Wake me up when the LA Times — or any other local paper — gets around to hosting a column on bicycling.

Life really is cheap in Ohio, where a driver walked with just a $250 fine, and an order to donate another $250 to a local national park, after killing a bike rider while driving with a fogged-up windshield.

This is the cost of traffic violence. A woman reminisces about a beloved Boston librarian after she was killed by the driver of a cement truck while riding her bicycle.

The jerk who wrote a non-apology to a 10-year old upstate New York boy after sideswiping his bike may avoid a return to court, despite violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the judges order.

Bike Snob addresses New York’s war on bikes, as the NYPD continues its bizarre crackdown on bicyclists in response to the deaths of innocent bike riders at the hands and bumpers of lawbreaking drivers.

International

Seriously? A Vancouver veterans center says plans for a protected bike lane will put them out of business, evidently operating under the mistaken impression that veterans — even wounded vets — don’t ride bicycles.

Royal-in-law Pippa Middleton’s bike-raging celebrity fitness coach caused the equivalent of $4,800 in damage to a driver’s Mercedes following an altercation and some sort of contact between the car and his bike. He then reached into the car and grabbed the keys, throwing them into a nearby garden before attempting to rip off the door and damaging the upholstery.

A pair of road-raging moped delivery drivers got just under two years behind bars for knocking a British man off his bicycle and viciously beating him with a motorcycle helmet, breaking his arm and jaw — all because he was going faster than they were.

UK police investigating a bike theft from a train station busted a bike thief after discovering whopping 101 stolen bicycles crammed into his home.

A Scottish road safety researcher says lowering speed limits to 20 mph could actually make the streets more deadly by lulling bicyclists and pedestrians into a false sense of security. Which is another way of saying many, if not most, motorists would simply ignore the lower limits and drive as fast as they damn well please. Sort of like they do now.

Paris plans to optimize its beleaguered Vélib’ bikeshare system using artificial intelligence.

Apparently, life in Singapore is too hectic for roadway courtesy.

Competitive Cycling

The 2021 Tour de France will depart from Copenhagen.

American cyclist Peter Stetina says he’s fired up for the coming racing season after nearly retiring last year following struggles with a broken collarbone and the Epstein-Barr virus, as well as almost getting squeezed off the pro tour.

Columbian pro Egan Bernal isn’t feeling any pressure in leading Team Sky in this year’s Giro, saying the team will keep paying him whether he wins or loses.

The Redlands Classic stage race is looking for volunteers to serve as race marshals for this year’s edition.

Finally…

Maybe it’s time to start wearing a striped riding kit to keep the flies away. The best ABS system for your bike is probably a good brake finger.

And who needs wheels for a fast descent when you can ride a wooden ski bike?

Unless maybe you prefer to do your ski bike riding uphill.

………

Thanks to Matthew R and Sameer K for their generous and unexpected donations to support this site — or maybe it was intended to help pay for my new knee.

Either way, it couldn’t be more appreciated.

Category: Morning Links / Tags: , , , ,

Move along, nothing to see here

February 21, 2019 / / Comments Off on Move along, nothing to see here

My apologies.

After writing about yesterday’s fatal bike crash in Koreatown, and spending far too much time making preparations for my upcoming knee surgery, there’s just no time left to write today’s Morning Links and get it online.

As usual, we’ll be back tomorrow to catch up on anything we missed.

And if anyone knows a good, reliable, corgi-friendly dog walker, let me know.

Category: General /

Man killed in collision after apparently falling off his bicycle in Koreatown

February 20, 2019 / / One comment

A man was killed in a Koreatown crash early Wednesday morning in what police initially thought was a hit-and-run.

Investigators at first thought the victim had been hit by a driver who fled the scene before being run over by a second vehicle.

But concluded the second driver had been the only one involved after reviewing video from a nearby security camera.

Early reports indicate the collision occurred at the intersection of Wilshire Blvd and Catalina Street in Koreatown at 3:30 am Wednesday, near the site of the former Ambassador Hotel, now the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools.

According to KTLA-5, the victim, identified only as a Hispanic man in his 30s, was reportedly riding back and forth across Wilshire Blvd when he somehow came off his bike.

He was lying in the street when he was run over and dragged 30 feet by an oncoming car; he was apparently pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver stopped and cooperated with investigators.

The station places the crash scene a block west at Wilshire Boulevard just west of South Berendo Street; no explanation was given for the discrepancy.

The station also reports that coroners smelled alcohol at the scene, suggesting the victim may have been intoxicated, which could explain why he was was lying in the street. Although it does not explain why the driver failed to seem him or the bicycle next to him.

This is at least the ninth bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the second in the City of Los Angeles.

My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and all his loved ones.

Thanks to Mike Wilkinson, Sindy Saito, David Drexler and John McBrearty for the heads-up. And my apologies for the delay in posting this.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
Wordpress Theme by ThemeZee