That driver fled the scene, leaving the victim lying in the street, where he was struck by a second driver a few minutes later.
The second driver had the decency to remain at the scene.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, was pronounced dead at Loma Linda University Medical Center a short time later.
No one will ever know if the victim, who has not been publicly identified, could have survived if the first driver had called for help and stayed at the scene to prevent the second crash.
The 20-year old driver turned himself in to police two hours later.
Which would have given him plenty of time to clear out his text messaging history or hide any other possible evidence of distraction or drug or alcohol use.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Redlands Police Department at 909-798-7681 ext. 1.
This is the 32nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh in San Bernardino County. And it’s just the second bicycling death in Redlands in the last five years.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
Cars aren’t the only threats people on bikes have to face.
One of the constant themes repeated by the people fighting bike lanes in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey is that, in their humble opinion, bike riders would be better off riding away from traffic on the Ballona Creek bike path than risking getting hit by cars on the streets.
Never mind that Ballona Creek bypasses all the shopping and employment centers between Culver City and the beach. Or that limited access points makes it harder for people to get where they need to go.
Which makes it more practical for recreational riding than for people who need to get somewhere, in most cases.
But there’s another recurring problem with the Ballona Creek bike path.
But nothing ever happens. And no government agency ever seems to want to take responsibility for the path.
Which leads up to what happened two weeks ago, when Jesus David Orozco was riding home after attending to Mar Vista Community Council meeting to discuss the Venice Blvd Great Streets project.
Something has to be done to ensure safety for everyone on the Ballona Creek bike path.
And done quickly.
Because just like on the streets, people won’t use it if they don’t feel safe there.
Especially if they actually aren’t.
Update: I’m told that Orozco posted on Facebook that he has returned to work today, and that, thanks to the physicians that treated him, is feeling good and looking like himself again.
I’m not sharing the post, since I haven’t requested his permission to use it.
But the only things that would make this news any better is if the police caught the people who did this, and the county and cities along the trail committed to improving safety so it doesn’t happen again.
Thanks to Jonathan Weiss for the heads-up.
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The LA Times really nails it this time.
In a surprising editorial, the paper calls on LA leaders to find the courage to fight back against “selfish” motorists opposed to street safety projects.
And let’s be clear. This is the official editorial voice of the publisher and paper, not merely an Op-Ed.
The paper complains about the callousness of too many commuters, and the risk that kneejerk opposition to change will override good policy. And possibly even reverse the city’s Vision Zero plan.
Vista del Mar wasn’t an official Vision Zero project – it didn’t go through the standard community outreach and input process that is an essential part of any road reconfiguration. Still, it quickly became the rallying cry for opponents of road diets and other projects that might slow traffic. It’s worth noting that some of the loudest critics of the Vista del Mar reconfiguration and another nearby Vision Zero project in Playa del Rey don’t live in the community; they commute through it to avoid 405 traffic.
The paper goes on to criticize Roadkill Gil Cedillo’s cynical effort to gain veto power over any road diet or lane reconfiguration in CD1, as well as Paul Krekorian’s backtracking on the Great Streets project proposed for Lankershim Blvd.
Typical City Hall. It’s easy for Garcetti and council members to tout their progressive credentials and sign off on ambitious policies to transform L.A. It’s much harder to implement those plans. Too often city leaders fold in the face of opposition. We’ve seen this with the city’s Bicycle Plan. We’ve seen it with homeless housing. And that’s why so many ambitious plans remain unfulfilled.
City leaders, and Garcetti in particular, have to continually make the case that Vision Zero is about making the streets safer for walkers, bike riders, motorcyclists and, yes, even drivers. The mayor has been far too quiet in defending his program and council members who face blowback when they support road safety efforts. Projects downtown and in Silver Lake have demonstrated that road diets can help reduce injuries without significant traffic delays. There is a learning curve, and over time as more Vision Zero projects are completed, residents will likely see that the benefits of safer streets outweigh the lane losses and any effect on traffic flow.
Not to mention the attitude they attribute to motorists at the start of the piece is no exaggeration. It’s exactly what I’ve been dealing with on social media and in the comments on this site.
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In Orange County, they’re not actually attacking bike riders, just pretending to.
And likely, scaring the crap out of innocent people in the process, for the sake of a stupid prank.
An OC law firm reports that people in cars are zooming in close to bicyclists, then making a gun with their hands and yelling “Butt dart!” at the rider.
It’s just pure luck that someone hasn’t been startled or frightened into falling or crashing, with potentially serious consequences.
LA’s own Coryn Rivera topped the women’s field to win the 2017 RideLondon Classique. More on the RideLondon festival in the International section below.
The Colorado legislator who called for an annual registration fee for bicyclists, then backed off after a massive backlash, now says maybe there needs to be a crackdown on scofflaw cyclists. And suggests it’s not fair if owners of ATVs, boats and snowmobiles to have to buy registration stickers, and bicyclists don’t. Never mind that all of those have motors; if they’re going to tax cyclists, maybe they should make hikers, skiers and pedestrians pay a fee, as well.
Touching story from Texas, where an entire family is wearing bike helmets in solidarity with their new baby, who has to wear a helmet to treat flat head syndrome.
Kindhearted Duluth MN cops pitch in to buy a new mountain bike for a man when his was destroyed in a crash, after they discovered he lived in an assisted living home and it was his only means of transportation.
Off-duty police officers will patrol multi-use trails in an Ohio town, as residents say they’d be more likely to use them if there was a police presence, even though there hasn’t been a crime problem. Which might be an answer for Ballona Creek, and other off-road paths in the LA area.
A Tennessee hit-and driver caught on bike cam ramming a bicyclist on the Natchez Trace Parkway has been indicted on federal charges of reckless aggravated assault, lying to a federal agent, and obstruction of justice; he could face a total of up to 37 years in federal prison. Apparently, they didn’t buy his excuse that someone on the side of the road had thrown a bicycle at his Volvo. Thanks to Allyson Vought for the link.
The New York Times says bicycling has become part of the city’s culture, with over 450,000 bike trips every day; the city has committed to building an additional 50 miles of bike lanes every year — including ten miles of protected lanes — after more than doubling the number of bike lanes over the past ten years. Thanks to Victor Bank for the tip.
Caught on video: An Aussie bicyclist pulls an endo and just barely avoids falling in front of an oncoming car. Note to Daily Mail: Going over the handlebars isn’t caused by going too fast, but by squeezing the front brake hard before the back one, causing the front wheel to lock before halting the bike’s momentum.
Last week I was forwarded an email from Robert Cable, asking for help solving a seemingly intractable problem getting help with a dark and dangerous section of the Orange Line bike path.
He gave me permission to share this in hopes that someone who reads it might be able to point him to some person, anyone, who could help get lights installed and make the Orange Line bikeway a safer and more practical alternative for people who commute after dark.
Especially in light of the many homeless encampments now dotting — and sometimes blocking — the San Fernando Valley’s longest and most important east-west bikeway.
And after getting bounced repeatedly between Metro, the city, the county, the local councilmember’s office, and back again.
My name is Robert Cable. I had the good fortune to meet with several LAPD officers over the past two days. They suggested I reach out to you after I told them how I tried to get some lighting installed on a short stretch of the Orange Line Bike Path but was completely shot down by my district reps.
Most of the path from Chandler to the 405, and then west of White Oak has lighting. There is one area just west of the 405 at Haskell to Balboa (but mostly to Woodley) that is unlit and gets extremely dark at night. The path is set back from Victory, rides thru areas of thick trees, has low visibility and feels unsafe for many reasons. Additionally, along with the lack of lighting, lights from oncoming cars makes it even more difficult to see.
Originally, after reaching out to District 6 for help, Lauren Padick told me it was metro’s jurisdiction. Metro responded that it was city. After going back to Padick with that information, she immediately responded, and I am talking two minutes, with this,
Robert,
“There is no existing poles besides Metro’s. At this point, the City would be unable to install lighting.”
Since then, I learned that a colleague of mine who also commutes by bike, departs the bike path at that section and rides in the street. Well it turns out that one night, he was hit by a car over there as a direct result of feeling unsafe on the path.
So, who can help me? Who can I contact about this? There is no reason that a small, less then half mile stretch of path shouldn’t have the same lighting as the rest of the run. Coincidentally, I believe this to be the same area where the Rabbi whose family sued and settled a multi million dollar suit with the city, was hit. Lastly, Hotchkiss thought that solar lights, like those installed in Glendale would be a good solution.
Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
Best,
Robert Cable
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The LA Weeklylooks at the insanity in Playa del Rey, where Mike Bonin announced Wednesday that Vista del Mar will be returned to two lanes in each direction.
KPCC’s Take Twotalks with Bonin about traffic safety, and why the changes on Vista del Mar had to be made right away, in an unusually balanced report.
A Colorado newspaper says maybe bikes should be taxed at $25 or $50 a year, with the funds dedicated to building and maintaining bikeways. Except an annual fee — especially that high — would only serve to discourage more people from bicycling, and result in more unused bikes remaining in garages.
A Houston driver describes the attack by a bicyclist who allegedly scratched the man’s car with his bike, then reached in and beat him through an open window. While violence is never the answer, something tells me there’s another side to this story; a violent attack on a totally innocent driver just doesn’t add up.
This is what heroes look like. A Chicago firefighter is retiring after 27 years on the job, and 25 years after starting a program that promised kids a refurbished bicycle if they came in with a report card showing good grades and perfect attendance — boosting attendance at a local school from 20% to 92% in a single year.
A Rhode Island public service campaign suggests waving at others on the roads to improve safety. At least if they wave back, you know they’ve seen you. Unless they’re waving at someone behind you.
A British couple is celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary, after choosing a wedding over buying a bicycle. Tough choice, but it seems to have worked out okay.
Evidently, the angry drivers in Playa del Rey have made themselves heard.
CD 11 Councilmember Mike Bonin took the unusual step of offering a public apology to people inconvenienced by the road diets in Playa del Rey, while announcing steps to alleviate their anger.
Hopefully, anyway.
Bonin announced an agreement with LA County Commissioner Janice Hahn that will allow “free or affordable” street parking in the county parking lot at Dockweiler Beach, enabling the city to eliminate street parking on Vista del Mar and restore the street to two lanes in each direction.
The city had moved parking to the beach side of the street after being warned by the City Attorney that it would face continued liability if people had to cross the busy roadway after parking on the opposite side, after paying out $9.5 million for the death of a 16-year old girl in 2015.
He also announced the formation of a Playa del Rey Road Safety Task Force, made up of both supporters and opponents of the lane reduction projects, charged with finding solutions to traffic safety problems in the area.
Maybe now the people opposed to the project will take a breath and calm down a little.
And while they’re at it, maybe the city can remove those nonexistent bike lanes that opponents keep insisting were the reason for the road diet on Vista del Mar.
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While Bonin is focused on saving lives by implementing Vision Zero, CD1’s “Roadkill” Gil Cedillo appears intent on keeping his nickname intact, and his district dangerous.
Cedillo filed a motion with the city council(scroll down) that would make a handful of pedestrian safety improvements, while gutting Vision Zero by halting all “road diets, lane removals and/or lane reductions” in his district without his personal stamp of approval.
This comes after his earlier failed attempt to get the council to remove all the bike lanes planned for his entire district from the city’s mobility plan.
The question is whether he really hates bike riders that much. Or if he just lacks Bonin’s courage to face up to angry drivers.
Work is under way on a much-needed new community plan for Hollywood, including plans to make Hollywood Blvd, Edgemont Street, Finley Avenue, Rowena Avenue and Los Feliz Boulevard more bike and pedestrian friendly.
An anti-growth columnist in Santa Monica says build more affordable housing — somewhere else. And uses kids, the disabled and the elderly as an excuse to maintain the city’s failed auto-centric policies. Never mind that kids, the disabled and older people benefit from walkable, bikeable streets as much as anyone, if not more. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the tip.
The bikelash has spread to San Diego’s Hillcrest neighborhood, where merchants would rather have a few dozen parking spaces than business from customers who arrive by bike, and residents can’t figure out what those bicycle symbols on the street mean. Here’s a thought — if bike lanes and sharrows confuse you, either find out what the hell they are or park your car, and leave it there. Permanently.
A allegedly drunk Harley rider plowed into a group of up to 20 Fresno cyclists on a club ride Monday evening, sending three riders to the hospital with major injuries; the motorcyclist faces a pair of felony DUI charges. Hats off to the Fresno Bee for getting it right by reporting the victims were wearing helmets, but that those weren’t enough to keep them safe.
Tillamook OR tries a bike lane protected by angled parking to give riders adequate road space. Although judging by the photo, there’s not much left after drivers nose over the limit line.
Washington state has banned handheld cellphones while driving, or even resting your hand on a phone at a red light. But doesn’t do anything about hands-free cellphone use, which studies show is just as dangerous.
No surprise here. A new Wisconsin study shows that investing in infrastructure and policies to encourage bicycling and walking results correlates with improved bike and pedestrian safety. And not doing it correlates to worse safety figures.
Boston unveils a new Vision Zero website that allows people to individually report safety concerns pinpointed on a crowdsourced map.
An Op-Ed in the New York Daily News says lay off ebikes — which are bizarrely banned in the city — and target reckless cars. But even when they get it right, they get it wrong — cars aren’t reckless, their drivers are.
A man in the UK rode his bicycle three days to attend a court hearing on a charge of riding his bike on a freeway, and pled guilty to avoid another three-day trip back for a trial. Pro tip: If police try to stop you for a traffic violation, probably best not to tell them to fuck off, and refer to them by a slang term for female genitalia.
Hours, in fact, that I will undoubtedly regret on my dying day, trying in vain to defend the Mar Vista and Playa del Rey lane reductions, both here and on Twitter.
And yes, I should know better.
But I’m a firm believer in engaging with people of all viewpoints, in hopes that I can correct inaccurate beliefs, and that I might learn something from them. And maybe, just maybe, we could come to some kind of a consensus.
Hopes that were quickly dashed on the rubble heaps of online discourse.
The best one, by far, was a comment from someone complaining that traffic backups caused by the Venice Blvd Great Streets project had pushed cut-through drivers onto the surrounding side streets. So he insisted that since the project included bike lanes, bike riders should be licensed and taxed to mitigate the problems caused by… drivers.
Uh, sure.
However, the primary argument cited by virtually everyone opposed to the projects was the accusation of soul crushing traffic congestion causing total gridlock and destroying the vehicular lifeblood of the communities.
But as the song says, it ain’t necessarily so.
Yesterday, we included a bike cam video made by Jon Phillips as he rode on Culver Blvd through Play del Rey, showing almost no congestion during the evening rush hour. Though as we noted, that was just one trip, and another journey at another time might have shown something different.
What he found was similar to what Phillips found on Culver. Traffic did back up at times, but it started flowing again once the light changed. And at least part of the problem appeared to stem from poor synchronization of traffic lights.
But don’t take his word for it. Or mine.
Read his report and watch the videos, whether the full 14 minute version, or the three minute highlight reel.
And decide for yourself is this is really the return of Carmageddon.
Which turned out to be no big deal, either.
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Montgomery also forwarded this screen shot from the North Venice Beach Nextdoor, giving what may be the single most bizarrely auto-centric and capitalistic perspective ever on using a bicycle for transportation.
Meanwhile, the other argument used anytime the subject of bicycling comes up is the accusation that bike riders don’t deserve equal treatment on the streets because we all break the law anyway.
So he set out to record those scofflaw cyclists in action.
A DUI hit-and-run driver faces up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty in the death a Watsonville cyclist last year; she was also texting at the time of the crash, as well as driving with a suspended license.
Most US students can legally drive a car before they’re old enough to legally ride a bikeshare bike, even though a bikeshare membership can be provided for a fraction of the cost of busing them to school. We should be encouraging students to ride any kind of bicycle rather than clogging the roads with more buses and cars. Thanks to Mike Wilkinson and David Drexler for the heads-up.
Talk about getting Vision Zero wrong. After a New York cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run, the NYPD responds by cracking down on bike riders, rather than the people in the big dangerous machines. Thanks again to Mike Wilkinson.
A proposed New York state law would require all bicyclists in New York City to wear bike helmets, including users of the Citi Bike bikeshare — even though there’s only been one fatality, and just 50 injuries requiring medical attention, in over 43 million Citi Bike rides. The real question is why the law would only apply to NYC; evidently, no one else in the state has heads worth protecting.
After a kindhearted South Carolina cop fails to recover a boy’s stolen bicycle, he buys him a new one.
The Guardian’s Peter Walker says that no matter what the safety issue, bike-hating commenters always shift the blame to cyclists. Which is exactly what’s happening in Mar Vista and Play del Rey, and pretty much everywhere else in Southern California; more proof that cyclists face the same issues virtually everywhere.
After a 91-year old English man was killed in a collision while participating in a time trial, the proposed solution is banning bikes from divided highways, rather than expecting people to actually pay attention when they drive.
A 15-year old Irish boy received a twelve-month sentence for bashing another boy over the head with a board to steal his bicycle, on top of the eight-month sentence he’s currently serving for threatening to kill someone else. Along with his previous 24 convictions. Did I mention he’s only 15?
World Bicycle Relief has distributed 78,000 bicycles in Zimbabwe after a 2010 New York Times story about a then 17-year old man who longed for a bike instead of walking nine miles to school.
After all the horror stories, a rare moment of clarity in Playa del Rey.
If you’ve been following the news, you’ve undoubtedly heard motorists ranting that the recent road diets in Playa del Rey have been an unmitigated disaster. Resulting, they swear, in endless traffic backups that have cost people their jobs and stolen time from their families.
Maybe not so fast.
It’s always possible that Jon Phillips happened to ride Culver Blvd through Playa del Rey on an exceptionally light traffic night. Or maybe those horrendous traffic backups had dissipated by the time he rode through at 6 pm.
But other than a brief backup caused by the traffic light at the transition from Jefferson to Culver, it’s nowhere to be seen on the bike cam video he captured Monday evening, as he rode from Jefferson and Lincoln to Vista del Mar on Culver Blvd.
Which, unsurprisingly, commenters to the story promptly called fake news.
It’s one of the major problems in American society these days that far too many people are willing to throw actual research and facts out the window, and refuse believe anything that contradicts their own prejudices.
And anyone who has ever driven a car — or ridden in one, apparently — seems to consider themselves experts in traffic planning.
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The hack jobs go on at City Watch, where a pair of reading-for-comprehension challenged columnists take issue with the scoring system used by Vision Zero LA, which gives more weight to injuries and deaths of people on foot or bikes than in cars.
So why are traffic collisions involving vulnerable road users considered more important than motor vehicle crashes?
Because, according to Vision Zero, “They account for roughly 15% of all collisions, but approximately 50% of all deaths.” Or in other words, are a little more than three times as likely to be fatal.
Every superhero has an origin story. The LACBC’s Zachary Rynew, aka CiclaValley, tells how he really became a cyclist. And gives this site some of the blame credit for inspiring him.
The Pasadena Star-News suggests bike theft — or mangling a bike trying to steal it — is apparently just part of the problems on the Gold Line. Thanks to Megan Lynch for the heads-up.
Santa Monica city officials explain how they go carfree at least some of the time. Note to Santa Monica Lookout: If SaMo is boldly moving into the post WWII era, they’re only about 70 years too late.
Sad news from Salinas, where a 60-year old man died two months after he was hit by a car while riding his bike; he initially refused treatment, saying he wasn’t injured. This is why you always assume you’re hurt following any collision or serious fall; serious injuries — especially internal injuries — may not be apparent in the immediate aftermath of a crash.
Bicycling examines bike helmets, and what you get at every price point. For $300, the damn thing had better come with a full body flak jacket that drops down in the event of a collision. Or maybe a force field.
The next time you go mountain biking, try riding on wood, not just through woods.
An Austin TX hotel and bar are both facing lawsuits for serving an intoxicated woman who then got in her car and critically injured a woman riding her bicycle. Unfortunately, under California law, bars and restaurants can’t be held responsible for serving drunks who go out and kill or injure someone here. Thanks to Steve Katz for the link.
A Texas man says he was the victim of a road raging bicyclist, who he says circled back to attack him after he slowed to wave at a friend. Which kind of stretches credibility, though it is possible the rider may have misinterpreted the gesture; either way, just don’t. Period.
Must have been a heavy bike. J. Patrick Lynch forwards news that an Illinois cop will receive lifetime disability benefits after injuring his back picking up a bicycle.
Glasgow bike cops are caught riding on the sidewalk, even though bikes are banned on them. Sort of like the sidewalk-riding bicycling meter readers in downtown Beverly Hills.
