Tag Archive for bicycle fatality

San Diego-area cyclist killed on Sunday

September 21, 2010 / / 6 comments

Yet another Southern California cyclist was killed over the weekend.

According to a number of news reports, a 50-year old Poway woman was killed while riding her bike in Carlsbad on Sunday; authorities are withholding her name until relatives can be notified.

The North County Times reports that she was riding north on South Rancho Sante Fe Road with her boyfriend when she attempted to turn left onto Calle Barcelona near the border of Carlsbad and Encinitas.

As she entered the left turn lane, she hit the curb on the center divider and lost control of her bike; in a struggle to regain control, she swerved back into the left through lane where she was hit by an oncoming car. A photo from MSNBC shows that the driver clearly tried to stop but was unable to avoid her; she died at the scene.

In light of the recent debate over the unacceptably high rate of bike deaths in Orange County — more on that later today — she did not run a red light or stop sign and wasn’t riding in a group, well behaved or otherwise. And whether she signaled or was riding side-by-side had nothing to do with this collision.

Not that any death is acceptable, of course.

This time, at least, it seems to be a case of rider error. Police note that drugs or alcohol don’t seem to involved, though no mention is made of whether the driver was distracted or exceeding the speed limit.

This also serves as a reminder that it’s always important be aware of road conditions and the traffic around you, and can be better to let yourself fall than struggle to stay upright and risk getting hit by oncoming cars.

Even when you’re not in full control of your bike, it’s often possible to choose when and where you want to land by shifting your weight in the direction you want to fall.

For instance, had she let herself fall to the left instead of struggling to stay upright, she would have risked going over the narrow median and landing in the path of south bound traffic; if there were no cars coming, that might have been a viable option. Or she could have made herself fall to the right, which probably would have kept her in the left turn lane and out of the way of through traffic.

Either way, she might have ended up hurt.

But chances are, she’d be alive.

It doesn’t do any good to play armchair quarterback and analyze what she should have done. She reacted in the moment, undoubtedly out of instinct and fear.

The point is to train yourself to respond in a conscious and deliberate manner, and maintain as much control over the situation as possible.

Even when you can’t control your bike.

………

The Beverly Hills City Council will discuss the reconstruction of Santa Monica Blvd through the city at tonight’s council meeting. This will provide an opportunity for cyclists to argue for bikes of be accommodated in the new plans, and end the current dangerous black hole between the bikeways of West Hollywood and Century City; current plans include consideration of a bike lane in one direction only. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm at Beverly Hills City Hall.

………

The Source offers instructions on how to load your bike onto a bus; helpful advice for those of us who haven’t tried it yet. UCLA offers a new Android app for campus bike lockers. Mayor Villaraigosa plans a Wednesday press conference to officially announce CicLAvia. If Long Beach is truly going to be one of the nation’s most bike friendly cities, it has to design bridges that work for everyone. An actor who was about to quit the profession stars in the upcoming movie Peloton as a cyclist who was about to quit the sport. Santa Rosa gets a bike-activated beacon to warn motorists about cyclists on the road ahead of them. Just Another Cyclist jumps into the helmet debate with both feet, offering an all-too-rare cool-headed look at both sides of the question. Sharrows are coming soon to my hometown. A Colorado cyclist pepper sprays two attacking dogs and their owner, who ends up getting a ticket. The biggest bike news in DC since Tony Kornheiser’s infamous anti-bike rant, as the nation’s capitol unveils its long-awaited bike share program. A personal crusade to stop the salmon cyclists. A New York cyclist is killed on an environmental tour in New Brunswick. A beginner’s guide to fast descents. Bike pools allow you to connect with other cyclists who want to share a ride. Both British teenage inmates who busted out by bike are now back in custody. A new study shows Brit cyclists and motorists would rather not share the road, thank you. After a Bangalore bar bouncer collided with cyclist while escaping after punching a cop, the bar owner takes the rider to the hospital and promises to buy him a new bike.

Finally, if you think riding in L.A. traffic is hard, at least it beats riding underwater.

Category: General / Tags: , , , , ,

Cyclist killed in San Bernardino hit-and-run; drunk driver kills cyclist in Ramona

September 14, 2010 / / 2 comments

It was another bad weekend for Southern California cyclists, with yet another fatal hit-and-run, as well as one more in the seemingly endless list of bike riders killed by drunk drivers.

However, in both cases, the riders may have been at least partially at fault.

………

After killing a woman riding a bike, a heartless ex-con stopped for a midnight snack at Jack in the Box before fleeing the scene.

At least, that’s what the police initially thought.

About 12:15 am on Friday, 43-year old Lauretto Jean Romo was riding a mountain bike on Highland Avenue where it meets the 215 Freeway bridge in San Bernardino. According to reports, she was wearing dark clothing and riding west in the eastbound lane — without a light — when she was hit by a dark green vehicle, which then took off.

Romo was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:42 am.

For a change, the stories did not note whether she was wearing a helmet, perhaps recognizing that it wouldn’t have mattered. The car hit with so hard that the bike was broken in half and pieces of the vehicle were found at the scene.

According to the Press Enterprise, police followed a trail of automotive fluid about 200 yards to a nearby Jack in the Box, where surveillance video showed Bobby Joe Jackson, a convicted bank robber out on federal probation, calmly ordering a meal at the drive-through window in a green Honda Civic. Employees reported that he appeared to be intoxicated.

As a result, police put out a bulletin identifying Jackson as the suspect, and asking anyone with information to contact them.

Problem is, it looks like he didn’t do it. San Bernardino police cleared Jackson after he turned himself in on Monday.

Authorities continue to look for a dark green vehicle with front end damage. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Dave Carlson at 909/384-5664.

The irony is, had the driver remained at the scene, he or she probably would not have been at fault; now the driver faces up to 4 years in prison and a fine of up to $10.000 for a fatal hit-and-run.

Thanks to DC and reb1 for updates on Monday.

………

In a separate incident, a cyclist was killed by a suspected drunk driver in Ramona on Saturday night, about 28 miles northeast of San Diego.

The Ramona Sentinel reports that 54-year old David Bruce Menea was riding west on Main Street near Kalbaugh Street, and attempting to cross the street when he was hit and thrown onto the roadway by an SUV driven by 32-year old Suzanne Nicole Reed.

Meanwhile, the SUV continued into a stop sign, over an embankment and struck a parked car with two people inside, knocking it through the front window of a nearby liquor store.

Even though the driver was arrested for suspicion of DUI, media reports blamed the cyclist for the collision. According to the Sentinel, a CHP officer said that Reed was “unable to avoid the bicycle in front of her,” while other reports indicate that Menea was “illegally crossing” Main when he was struck, with no explanation of exactly what that means or how he may have violated the law.

Then again, it’s easy to blame the cyclist when he’s not alive to tell his side of the story.

………

More on Monday’s stage 16 of the Vuelta won by Mikel Nieve; new leader Joaquin Rodriguez says his 33 second lead isn’t enough to survive Wednesday’s time trial.

Luxembourg cyclist Kim Kirchen plans to return to racing, despite suffering a heart attack earlier this year — and with an implanted defibrillator. And local racer Rahsaan Bahati donated a limited edition Cannondale Graffiti Bike to raise funds for World Relief and Chicago Cubs Charities.

………

Park(ing) Day prepares to take over the city on Friday, with parking space parks from the Bikerowave and Flying Pigeon; Green LA Girl directs your attention to sites from Santa Monica Spoke and de Lab, as well as the website for Park(ing) Day LA.

………

LADOT Bike Blog creates a Google Map showing all the department’s bicycling facility projects completed or underway this year. LACBC reports progress on bike racks in the McArthur Park, Pico Union and Rampart Village areas, and calls on cyclists to support improvements in the new West Hollywood General Plan. A USC writer calls for a real plan to deal with the 10,000 to 15,000 cyclists on campus. Claremont may play host to a stage in next year’s Tour of California. A writer for the Orange County Register joins with the OC Wheelmen to challenge other bike clubs to enforce safety rules for their members. A gutter bunny transforms into safer cyclist. Compared to Singapore, bicycling in Las Vegas isn’t that bad. Who says bikes don’t have turn signals? Biking Cape Cod in the fall. In a doubly tragic event, a driver hits a cyclist after leaving a birthday party — then kills himself after realizing he’d just killed the man who’s birthday he’d been celebrating; link courtesy of Witch on a Bicycle. The cyclist killed by a New York City bus on Saturday after being doored by a driver has been identified as a 23-year old woman who rode her bike everywhere; the driver was charged with unlicensed operation of a vehicle. An Oklahoma driver unexpectedly pleads no contest to first degree manslaughter and DUI for the death of two cyclists last year. The Interbike Trade Expo returns to the Anaheim Convention Center next year, and moves up to August.  Handcrafted fixies will go on display in London next month. More offerings to drool over from Eurobike. including the latest foldies. Brit riders can visit the birthplace of the Titanic in Northern Ireland this weekend. Cyclists wanting to lose weight should cut down on carbs, not cut them out.

Finally, transform your two-wheeled steed into a real one. Well, sort of.

Category: General / Tags: , , , , , , ,

Leading local scientist and investor killed Friday morning while riding to JPL

August 23, 2010 / / 4 comments

I received an email last night from a reader named John, saying that a friend of his had been killed by a speeding motorist while riding his bike in the greater L.A. area, and that another rider had been hospitalized.

So far, there’s been no official confirmation of the report, either from the authorities or in the media. However, Brent pointed out in a comment that Scott Evans wrote the following on his Facebook page:

Thanks everyone for your well wishes! For those who haven’t heard, on Friday morning my buddy Doug Caldwell and I were hit by a car while we were riding our bikes to work at JPL. Unfortunately, Doug did not survive. I was very lucky and only ended up with a 48 hour stay in the hospital and some broken teeth.

As of now, I have no other details about the collision or where it occurred, other than that the driver stayed at the scene; however, unconfirmed reports indicate that Caldwell was taken off life support over the weekend.

Brent also pointed to a LinkedIn profile that appears to be the same Doug Caldwell, listing him as an investor in Pasadena Angeles, a Chief Architect in Renewable Energy Solutions at Boeing, and a principal at Angeles Energy, as well as a former lecturer in Applied Physics at CalTech and a Project Manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Other sites seem to confirm that, including a Facebook posting that referred to his death on Saturday — which has since disappeared — and identified him as a co-founder of Ecliptic Enterprises.

In light of today’s Calabasas collision on Mulholland Hwy, in which a car driven by an 81-year old woman caused major injuries to three riders, many people are questioning the ease of getting — and keeping — a drivers license; as Traffic-meister Tom Vanderbuilt put it, a license is too easy to get and too hard to lose.

As John put it in his email,

I’ve read enough news accounts (and your blog as well) to know how it’s going to go. People will say it was an “accident,” when really it’s an artifact of our society’s treatment of driving as a birthright. We hand out drivers’ licenses like banks used to hand out credit cards, and we never seem to take them back.

Let’s remember that we still don’t know the details of either incident, and no one has yet been ticketed or charged in the Calabasas collision — even though it’s easy to infer what probably happened in Calabasas.

But as a society, we have to do something to regain the long-forgotten sense that cars are dangerous machines that must be operated with extreme care, rather than the casual carelessness far too many drivers adopt behind the wheel.

And that there are some people who simply shouldn’t drive, because of declining capabilities.

Or their own actions on the road.

My condolences to the family and friends of Doug Caldwell, and best wishes to Scott Evans for a fast and full recovery.

Category: General / Tags: , , , ,

Cyclist killed yesterday at Canoga and Sherman Way

August 17, 2010 / / 3 comments

At yesterday’s Bike Summit, Mayor Villaraigosa began the meeting with bad news, saying that a cyclist had been killed in the San Fernando Valley earlier that morning.

After scouring the news feeds for the past day without finding any mention of a bike collision — let alone a fatality — I reached out to the LAPD’s bike liaison Sgt. David Krumer for whatever information he might have.

According to Krumer, a Hispanic man in his 20s was riding west on Sherman Way at Canoga Blvd. A truck traveling south on Canoga was preparing to make a left turn onto eastbound Sherman Way. The truck driver had the green light and was waiting for some pedestrians to finish crossing the street.

According to several witnesses, the driver pulled forward once the intersection was clear, just as the rider rode through the red light. Unaware he had hit anyone, the driver continued down the street after running over the cyclist, returning to the scene once he was flagged down several blocks later.

Evidently, the death of a single rider in the valley doesn’t merit a mention in the local media, even when the Mayor himself makes the announcement in a room full of reporters.

But take this as a warning. Red lights exist for a reason.

Bikes are required to stop for red lights in every situation, just as drivers are. While it’s never smart to run a light, it’s especially dangerous when other vehicles are present.

The saddest part is, this tragedy was entirely avoidable.

Yes, the driver should have looked to his left, where he may or may not have seen the rider in time to avoid the collision. But evidently, the cyclist gambled with his own life.

And lost.

Thanks to Sgt. Krumer for the information.

Category: General / Tags: , , , ,
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