Just a quick update.
I was really hoping to be back by now. But my doctor tells me.a that, while my shoulder surgery was successful, they had to do a lot more work than they expected. And I haven’t bounced back the way I had planned.
So please accept my apologies. I’ll try to be back to our regular schedule next week.
Nope.
Nothing suspicious here.
A man was struck and killed by a wrong-way, hit-and-run driver while riding his bike on a South LA sidewalk early Thursday morning.
According to Fox-11, the man was riding on the 7900 block of Alameda Street in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood just after 1 am Thursday, when an unknown driver jumped the curb on the opposite side of the roadway, traveling against traffic, and striking the victim on the sidewalk.
The driver sped off following the crash, leaving the victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, to die at the scene.
My News LA places the location at 7927 Alameda.
Video from Fox-11 shows the victim’s blurred body lying on the sidewalk, next to his backpack and cellphone, with his BMX bike in the street nearby.
There’s no description of the suspect vehicle at this time, let alone the person behind the wheel.
But considering that the driver struck someone on a raised sidewalk, on the opposite side of a two-way street, it suggests they may have lost control at high rate of speed, or while driving distracted or under the influence.
Or that the crash may have been intentional.
Hopefully we’ll learn more soon.
This is at least the 35th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the tenth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
Thirteen of those SoCal deaths have come at the hands of heartless cowards who didn’t have the basic human decency to stick around afterward.
Update: The victim has been identified as 37-year old Julio Castellon, while the location has been corrected to be the Florence-Graham neighborhood of South LA.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Julio Castellon and all his loved ones.
Too often when someone is injured while riding a bicycle, we never hear any more about it.
This time we did. But the news wasn’t good.
According to multiple, virtually identical news reports, 61-year old Scott Andrew Morris died three weeks to the day after suffering a head injury in an Irvine collision earlier this month.
Morris was riding his beach cruiser north on MacArthur Blvd, in the onramp to the 405 Freeway, around 1:20 pm on Thursday, August 1st, when police say he suddenly turned to the left, crashing his bike into the passenger door and mirror of a massive Chevy Suburban SUV.
He fell to the ground, striking his head, and was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died on Thursday.
The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators.
Morris was not wearing a helmet. Which is worth noting this time, since he apparently died of a head injury; however, we don’t know how fast the SUV was going, or whether the crash would have been survivable with or without one.
Although another possible explanation for how the collision unfolded is that Morris was forced to ride across a dangerous slip lane designed for high speeds, with no bike infrastructure or safety accommodations of any kind. And was sideswiped by the driver, who either didn’t see him or was trying to get around his bike as Morris tried to make his way across.
Something that could be supported by damage to the Suburban’s passenger-side mirror, which would have likely hit Morris first if the driver struck him, rather than the other way around.
The question is whether there were independent witnesses to the crash, or any video evidence, or if investigators simply took the driver’s word for it, since Morris may have been unable to give his version of events.
Anyone with information is urged to call Irvine Police detectives at 949/724-7024.
This is at least the 34th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in Orange County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Scott Andrew Morris and all his loved ones.
I received the following email from Sonia Garfinkel of Streets Are For Everyone, asking to share a brief survey about California traffic laws.
Since I’m still working with one hand, I asked if I could share her letter in the form of a guest post.
So please take just a few moments to compete this important survey, and help influence the future safety on our streets.
My name’s Sonia, and I’m pleased to be writing a guest post for this great community and readership. My organization, Streets Are For Everyone (known as SAFE), works to improve the quality of life for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike by reducing traffic fatalities to zero. SAFE is conducting a research project focused on California drivers’ knowledge of driving laws, and we need your responses! We will use the response data to guide SAFE-sponsored legislation that will require the California DMV to provide updated education on existing and new driving laws. In order for this survey to be equitable and representative, we need to collect data from as many communities as possible.
That’s where you come in! We would love for you to take our 5-minute survey on California driving laws. We would also appreciate it if you could share our survey to your networks via social media, email, or any other method. We have created a social media toolkit to make it easier to share the survey.Thank you for your responses, and your help!
California Driving Laws Survey (English Version)
California Driving Laws Survey (Spanish Version)
Best,
Sonia Garfinkel, on behalf of SAFE.
I really hoped SoCal drivers could manage tp avoid killing anyone while I recovered from shoulder surgery.
Apparently, I should have made the same wish for motorcyclists.
According to the Victorville Daily News, three people are dead following a crash between two people on a motorcycle and a man riding a bicycle.
The collision occurred at La Paz Drive and Valley Center Drive in Victorville just after 12:20 am today.
Emergency responders found a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a mangled mountain bike lying in the roadway, along with the three victims.
They all died at the scene, despite the efforts of paramedics. They were identified only as a 30-year old white man and a 38-year old woman man who had been on the motorcycle, and a 57-year old Black man riding the bicycle.
Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on how the crash occurred.
Anyone with information as urged to call the Victorville Police Department at 760/241-2911, or call anonymously at 800/782-7463.
This is at least the 33rd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the just the second that I’m aware this year in San Bernardino County.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for all the victims and their loved ones.
My apologies.
I was hoping to post one last time before my shoulder surgery. But my surgery time was move up several hours, which means I should be sleeping already if I’m going to make it on time.
I’ll be out for most, if not all, of the month. But we should have a number of guest posts between now and then, so keep checking back. Or better yet, sign up for the email list over there on the right to ensure you won’t miss anything.
Stay safe out there, and ride with a smile on your face. And I’ll see you again in a few weeks.
