The victim, identified only as a 27-year old man, reportedly stopped at the trolley crossing alongside Harbor Drive near Sampson Street around 5:45 this morning.
After a southbound trolley passed, he rode around the crossing bars, and was immediately struck by a second trolley headed in the opposite direction. Emergency personnel tried to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses said that he was wearing earbuds, and may not have heard the second trolley approaching.
San Diego’s KUSI TV reports employees of both Naval Base San Diego and cyber-defense company BAE Systems, located nearby, rushed to the scene, concerned the victim may have been one of their co-workers.
This is a tragic reminder to always wait until the crossing arms are raised before walking or riding across any railroad tracks.
This is the 25th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fifth in San Diego County; it’s also the third bike-related death in San Diego since the first of the year.
Update: The victim has been identified as 27-year old Robert Jamil-Hanna Warren, possibly of National City.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his loved ones.
We reported yesterday that the founder of the LACBC’s Santa Monica Spoke local chapter had won the Alliance for Biking & Walking’s award for the nation’s most inspirational bike advocate.
Which if you know Cynthia, seems like an understatement.
But we missed the news that the LACBC won a second award, for Winning Campaign of the Year, for their successful work behind the scenes in getting the LA Mobility Plan 2035 approved by the city council.
Which is actually typical of the way the bike coalition seems to work; they may not make a lot of waves, but they get a lot done in ways for which they don’t always get, or take, the credit they deserve.
Congratulations to Cynthia and the LACBC for getting national recognition for their outstanding work.
Or rather, the people of New York, who back her work in reimagining the city’s streets in overwhelming numbers, despite very vocal opposition, came out on top.
None of the bike-lane opponents’ predictions has come to pass. City streets have never been safer, more economically thriving, or offered more transportation options than they do today. My successor as Transportation commissioner is greatly expanding the network of bike paths and doubling the size of the city’s bike-share system…
When you push the status quo, it pushes back, hard. Everyone likes to watch a good fight. And the battle over bike lanes most surely was a street fight: politically bloody and ripped from the tabloids. Call me biased, call me crazy — many people have — but I’ll tell you this: The bikes, and all New Yorkers, won.
Meanwhile, Gothamist and Next City talk with her about her book and the battle over bike lanes.
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A couple recent bike incidents were caught on video.
In the first, a Ventura County bike rider captures the drifting driver who ran him down from behind as he rode on the shoulder of a roadway; fortunately, he wasn’t seriously injured. Thanks to Erik Griswold for the heads-up.
https://vimeo.com/158039745
And a British cyclist captures the passenger in a passing BMW leaning out of the window to push him off his bike.
And yes, that’s a crime, not a prank.
Correction: I had originally said the cyclist was riding salmon, based on the directional flow of the traffic and parked cars. However, Andy S. points out that the person who posted the video says it wasn’t a one-way street, despite appearances.
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Local
Like a character from a horror film that just refuses to die, the debate over opening Griffith Park’s Mt. Hollywood Drive to shuttle buses is back for yet another round, with a meeting tonight to present the latest on the Griffith Park Circulation & Traffic Enhancement Plan.
LADOT reports the installation of a new bike corral on Main Street in Venice. But does that red curb mean you could get a ticket if you use it?
Twitter’s topomodesto shows a section of westbound Venice got a semi-protected bike lane between Crenshaw and San Vicente with no fanfare, even if it does need a good cleaning.
State
California now ranks fourth in the US for bike commuting, though it remains at just 1.1% of all commuting trips.
A bike has become a four-year fixture at UC Irvine, thanks to a sign attached to the handlebars reading “Jesus ain’t white.”
A Palm Springs writer calls it a terrible waste of energy to argue over whether bicycles should be allowed in wilderness areas, saying the matter is long settled.
A Stockton bike rider was critically injured when he was collateral damage in a collision between two cars; he had the misfortune of simply being nearby when one driver pulled out in front of the other.
An Oregon letter writer blames an “inconsiderate” spandexed cyclist riding on the white line, not even in the roadway, for a near collision. And apparently never considering that it’s possible to slow down in order wait for the opportunity to pass safely.
A Seattle writer says instead of the city buying the bikeshare system, people should just go out and buy their own bikes. Except that’s not what bikeshare is for. And no offense, but any bike you can buy at Target for $70 probably isn’t worth riding.
Chicago police and cyclists disagree over whether bike riders are allowed to ride a primary bike path through the Logan Square district after 11 pm; police insist the city park it runs through is closed between 11 pm and 6 am, while bike advocates says people are allowed to ride through as long as they don’t stop. So if they get stopped by the robbers that frequent the path, would they be breaking the law? Thanks to J. Patrick Lynch for the link.
Connecticut cyclists back a bill that would increase the fine for careless drivers who hit bike riders or pedestrians from $90 to $500. Needless to say, truckers, who evidently plan on hitting them, think the fine is too high.
New York unveils plans for a protected bike lane to improve safety on a dangerous stretch of roadway. Maybe someday we can see something like that here in LA.
A Georgia collegiate cyclist rises to prominence, overcoming a form of stroke so rare that only six people have ever had it — and he’s the only one who survived.
International
Nice piece from the founder of Ella, who looks back on nine things she’s learned after launching a women’s cycling website.
No matter how many cities, states and provinces adopt a three-foot passing law — or one meter, in this case — politicians always seem to act like no one has ever done it before, predicting catastrophe in defeating a proposed bill in Manitoba.
Japan has recorded over 9,100 bicycling violations in the six months since a new law went into effect regulating bike safety; eight men have been required to take a safety course after repeated violations.before being allowed back on their bikes.
Ghost bike for Jonathan Tansavatdi; photo by Jim Lyle
Word is just coming in that someone has been killed while riding a bicycle in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Very few details are available at this time.
However, KNBC-4 reports the victim was struck by a moving truck on Vallon Drive near Hawthorne Boulevard around 2:50 pm this afternoon; presumably they mean a truck for a moving company, rather than one in motion.
According to the station, sheriff’s deputies believe the truck, which KCBS-2 identifies as a big rig, was making a right turn off an undisclosed side street when it struck the rider.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. No other information is available at this time.
A satellite view shows Vallon as a narrow, winding residential road; Via la Cresta is the only cross street that enters it, just above Hawthorne, though Vallon connects with Marne Drive just below Hawthorne.
This is the 24th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 6th in Los Angeles County.
According to a sheriff’s spokesperson, the victim was riding down the hill on Hawthorne at a high rate of speed, estimated at 45 mph. The driver of a Mayflower truck turned right onto Hawthorne in front of the cyclist, who was unable to stop at that speed.
The driver continued on, reportedly having no idea the rider had collided with his truck.
However, if the rider was really going that fast, he would have hit with a significant amount of force, making it seem odd that the driver failed to notice.
Regardless, sheriff’s deputies concluded that the driver didn’t break the law, and everything he did was “legal at the time.”
Update 3: In their report from the scene, which I was unable to view last night, KNBC-4 reports the truck was stopped at the red light headed west on Hawthorne, and made a wide turn onto Vallon when the light turned green.
The victim, who still hasn’t been publicly identified, apparently rounded a blind curve on westbound Hawthorne while descending at a high rate of speed; unable to stop, he slammed into the side or rear of the truck.
The driver continued on, dragging the bicycle roughly 200 feet up Vallon before finally coming to a stop.
There’s no way to know if the victim would have had a chance if the driver had stopped after the initial collision.
Update 4: The victim has been identified as 29-year old Redondo Beach resident Pissanuk Jonathan Tansavatdi. Thanks to Martin Blount for the heads-up.
Meanwhile, Blount forwards a video showing the descent on Hawthorne Blvd. The intersection at Vallon comes into view at the 1:30 mark, with the riders passing through at 49 mph, giving credence to the police theory that Tansavatdi may have hit the truck at 45 mph.
Update 5: I’ve heard from a relative of Tansavatdi, who described him as sunny, cheerful, handsome, talented engineer, and a friend to many.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for the victim and his or her loved ones.
Although someone should tell the Daily News that the brakeless bike they refer to is called a fixie, not a “fix-it.”
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Congratulations to Santa Monica Spoke’s Cynthia Rose, who won the award for the nation’s most inspirational bike advocate from the Alliance for Biking & Walking at the National Bike Summit.
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Nineteen-year old Dutch ‘cross rider Femke Van den Driessche could face a lifetime ban for the first confirmed case of motor-doping. It’s not that the penalty is too stiff; it’s just sad that she’s thrown away her entire racing career at such a young age.
Meanwhile, aptly named Jelly Belly rider Joshua Berry became the latest in a rash of pro cyclists who have been injured in collisions, as he was hit by a car while training in San Diego; he credits his helmet with preventing more serious injuries.
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Thanks to James for discovering this great poetic Brit PSA warning people not let their broken glass endanger the war effort by puncturing the bike tires of battleship builders.
The new album by the LA band Dunes was inspired by a hit-and-run collision that seriously injured the band’s bike-riding guitarist. Note to the LA Weekly, as well as KPCC for the above item — Repeat after me: wrecks aren’t accidents, and hit-and-run is a crime, not an oopsie.
The family of fallen 14-year old Ventura bicyclist Jonathan Hernandez, the victim of last month’s double hit-and-run, calls on the city to offer a reward to find the still-unidentified second driver; the city’s deputy mayor says that would be “unprecedented.” So maybe it’s time they set a new precedence by taking hit-and-run seriously.
Hats off to police in Des Moines IA, who arrested what may be the nation’s most obnoxiously motor-addled woman for driving up behind an eight-year old kid riding his bike, and revving her engine to frighten him B.cause those damn little bike-riding kids never get out of her way. Yes, eight-years old. Which is at least how long she should lose her license.
Chicago cyclists complain about drivers parking in bike lanes and using them for turn lanes. If someone can park or drive in a protected bike lane, maybe it’s not protected enough.
Tennessee proposes fining drivers $50 for swerving into a bike lane unless it’s an emergency. It should rise to $500 if there’s someone riding in it at the time. Or $5,000 if they hit them.
New Hampshire police discover two abandoned bicycles, and trace one back to a ten-year old boy whose bike was stolen a year earlier. In Oregon.
New York police shoot a man suffering from mental illness following a bloody rampage that began when he slashed a woman for looking at him as he rode past on his bike.
The 30-mile Tammany Trace trail allows riders to leisurely explore the north shore of Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain; New Orleans is on the other side of the lakes massive causeway. I used to take my life in my hands by riding through that same area on the narrow high-speed roadways before the trail was built, but the scenery was worth it.
International
Co.Exist looks at Milan’s plans to pay people to ride their bikes to work. That could be more effective, and less coercive, than congestion pricing in a spread-out city like Los Angeles; the challenge would be verifying that people are actually riding rather than driving, which could be overcome with a tracking app similar to Strava.
A British cyclist wins a bike race, then suffers a broken leg when a delivery driver turns into her path on the way home. Then gets screwed again when the driver is fined a lousy £145 — the equivalent of just $206.
A UK man is convicted of stealing a $700 bicycle, then selling it for $28 worth of heroin; he’s been prohibited from even touching any bicycle he doesn’t own pending his sentencing. Although he’s the exception; Brit bike thieves get away with it at least 75% of the time.
A HuffPo writer says London’s next mayor must “go Dutch” on bicycling. Meanwhile, British actor Tom Conti displays more than a touch of paranoia, claiming a planned London bikeway is just the first step in a “some kind of Soviet idea” to ban all vehicular traffic from the city. Um, sure. Now calm down and take your meds.
Norway is investing over $900 million to build ten bicycle superhighways around the country’s nine largest cities.
He starts with a suspicion of a grand conspiracy to force drivers out of their cars.
According to him, road diets, bulb-outs and bike lanes are planned, not to improve safety or provide transportation options, but to make driving so miserable that people have no choice but to give up on their cars and take to bikes.
Never mind that if bicycling somehow miraculously reached the level of ridership found in the Netherlands, it would still only amount to 27% of all trips.
He insists that those behind it are those damn progressive politicians and traffic department bureaucrats, environmental advocates, and the “well-funded, politically powerful Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition.”
Which would no doubt come as a surprise to the SBBC. And make it one of the few well-funded bike advocacy groups anywhere.
Or maybe the only one.
Then he pivots to the standard complaint that bicyclists don’t pay for the lanes they ride on. Which is based on the false assumption that drivers do, rather than being the most heavily publicly subsidized form of transportation.
The obvious solution, in his mind, anyway, is licensing cyclists.
Even though the money raised by licensing is unlikely to bring in enough to even cover its own operating costs. And even though bike riders already pay more than their share for the roads through their own taxes.
Naturally, he also complains that bike riders break the law. Except for him, of course.
And unlike motorists, who would never, ever dream of speeding, driving distracted or making an unsafe lane change in a vehicle capable of doing far more harm than even the worst scofflaw cyclist.
So the law needs to crack down on cyclists, he insists. And we all need to carry liability insurance, because maybe someday, in the bike utopian world he so fears, a distracted cyclist could cause a massive bike pileup that forces a poor, innocent driver off the road.
No, really.
It’s worth the read if you need a good laugh.
Unlike the New York Post’s latest attack on former NYDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.
He complains about “her ruinous tampering with historic traffic patterns” as she sought to turn the city into one of the world’s great bicycling cities, “everyone else be damned.”
Even though surveys consistently show most New Yorkers support the city’s bike lanes and the changes she helped make, and traffic fatalities have reached historic lows.
He goes on to complain that public plazas around Times Square are so crowded and overrun with tourists and hucksters that New Yorkers “assiduously” avoid it. Sort of like Yogi Berra’s famous proclamation that “No one goes there’s anymore. It’s too crowded.”
And in his eyes, moving parked cars away from the curb to form protected bike lanes makes the streets look like parking lots. Unlike before, when the same cars were far more attractively parked on the same streets.
Somehow, those cars also make it harder to see what’s on the other side of the street. Because they were apparently transparent before being moved a few feet to the left.
He tops it off with the assertion that the city’s bike lanes are only used by food delivery people most times of the day.
He ends by complaining that the damage done by Sadik-Khan’s reign is with us to stay.
For which most New Yorkers are undoubtedly grateful.
And the rest of us can only envy.
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If you haven’t already, take a few moments to sign the petition asking for all new or used cars sold in California to leave the lot with a temporary license plate.
It doesn’t take much effort watching traffic to realize that too many cars are on the streets with no front plates — or any license plates at all — making them virtually impossible to identify in the event of a hit-and-run or other traffic crime.
And enforcing the law requiring front and back plates on every vehicle seems to be a very low priority.
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Exciting news on the medical front, as stunt cyclist Martyn Ashton takes his first mechanically assisted steps with a new hi-tech walker, three years after he was paralyzed from the waist down.
And after an injection of neural cells taken from his nose, a Polish firefighter can now ride an adaptive tricycle, four years after he was paralyzed from the chest down after a stabbing.
The next LACBC Sunday Funday ride with roll this Sunday, with a pre-St. Patrick’s Day themed ride through DTLA led by board member Patrick Pascal.
State
It’s been over 49 days since the Marines impounded a number of mountain bikes after their riders strayed onto the Miramar Marine base in San Diego, with no resolution in sight.
Here’s your chance to work in bike advocacy, as the Bike League is hiring a new Education Director and a Member Services Coordinator.
The Tucson truck driver who plowed into a group of cyclists while allegedly high on meth is being held on $1.5 million bond. Which somehow seems too low.
Two-thirds of Iowans support proposed legislation that would require drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders. Although someone there clearly doesn’t like cyclists, as a popular Des Moines bikeway is sabotaged with tacks.
The new Audi A4 has lights on the doors to warn drivers if a bike is coming to help avoid doorings. Because actually looking before you open the door is just too hard.
A Vancouver business site says instead of investing $5 million in bikeshare, the city could have bought bicycles for about 200,000 children in low-income households. Which kind of misses the point.
A Toronto lawyer says cars are becoming the weapon of choice, yet drivers who use them to attack others still get their licenses back.
Nice piece on bicycling in Victorian England, which suggests that the bike-riding men of the day were the original hipsters.
Belgian rider Femke Van den Driessche is just 19 years old, and facing a lifetime ban for motor doping.
An Aussie writer says the only thing the country’s mandatory bike helmet law protects you against is fines. Meanwhile, an Australian news network does its best to whip up a panic over e-bikes.
I want to be like him when I grow up. An 85-year old Kiwi cyclist refuses to let a collision with a trailer keep him off his bike.
March 5, 2016 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 100-plus mph, underage drunk driver gets four years for 2014 death of bicyclist Haytham Gamal
Four years.
Four years behind bars for driving at speeds over 100 mph in a 35 mph zone, with a blood alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit.
And taking the life of an innocent man as he rode his bike home from work on Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point, after losing control on a slight curve and skidding 200 feet before striking the victim from behind. Then dragging him another 500 feet before flipping over after hitting the curb.
Needless to say, the victim, 39-year-old Haitham Gamal, was pronounced dead at the scene.
All because he had the misfortune of sharing the road with then 19-year old Dominic Devin Carratt that tragic April night in 2014.
Carratt pleaded guilty last month to A) one count of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence while intoxicated, B) one count of felony driving under the influence of alcohol causing bodily injury, and C) one count of felony driving with a blood alcohol of .08 percent or more causing bodily injury, along with a sentencing enhancement for great bodily injury.
I’m told he imposed a sentence of four years in state prison for the first count, another two years for the second count, to be served concurrently, and stayed an additional two years for the third count.
Carratt will also be required to pay restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date, and his driver’s license will be suspended for three years after his release.
Though why he would ever be allowed to drive again is beyond me.
A woman in the courtroom for the sentencing noted that Carratt’s mother gave him a long, tearful embrace as he walked to the front of the courtroom.
It may be a long time before she gets another chance.
