A 76-year old woman riding a tandem bike with her husband was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Long Beach Sunday afternoon.
And police investigators apparently couldn’t hesitate to display their windshield bias.
According to a press release from the Long Beach Police Department, 76-year-old Long Beach resident Gaylin Reese and her husband were riding their tandem in the bike lane on eastbound on 2nd Street near Marina Drive when they allegedly sideswiped a car around 12:24 pm Sunday.
Police report there was heavy traffic at the time, and all the cars were stopped when they somehow a) left the bike lane, and b) hit the side of the car with enough force to knock both riders off their bike.
Sure, that seems likely.
Both victims were taken to the hospital, where Reese died on or before Tuesday; her husband, who hasn’t been named, was treated for minor injuries.
Investigators are also quick to absolve the driver of any responsibility for the collision, observing that they may not have even been aware of the crash. Which is certainly what their lawyer will claim now, even if the driver is found.
Police also note that both victims were wearing helmets, which clearly didn’t do any good in this case. There’s no word on whether Reese even suffered a head injury, or if she died from other causes.
What seems far more likely than the official police version is that Reese and her husband were riding in the bike lane when the driver became impatient, and tried to pull into the bike lane to get around stalled traffic.
Something we’ve all seen countless times before.
They then hit the Reese’s bike with enough force to knock them both off, resulting in significant injuries to Mrs. Reese.
And unless the suspect vehicle was a large truck, it strains credibility to think the driver would have been unaware of the impact.
Yes, it’s possible that the collision occurred exactly as the LBPD investigators describe it.
It just seems pretty damn unlikely.
Anyone with information is urged to call LBPD Collision Investigation Detail Detective Joseph Johnson at 562/570-7355, or call anonymously at 1-800/222-TIPS (8477).
July 13, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on More on Fountain Valley hit-and-run, Boerner pulls Stop As Yield bill — again, and this is who we share the road with
This is the face of hit-and-run.
It’s not often that we learn what happened to a crash victim after the initial news stories.
If it even makes the news, that is.
But we’re learning a lot more about the bike-riding victim of a Fountain Valley hit-and-run driver, who barely survived the initial impact.
They place the crash at 10:30 pm on Tuesday the 4th, when Robinson was run down from behind as he was riding in the northbound bike lane on Bushard Street.
A crowdfunding campaign started by the victim’s family to help pay his medical expenses reports Robinson’s heart was ruptured when he was literally run over by the driver’s SUV, surviving only because one of the first people on the scene had medical training.
He was rushed into surgery, where doctor’s were able to repair his heart, despite suffering an injury with a less than 1% survival rate.
They add this about his ongoing injuries —
Caysen was in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator. Drs weaned him off, and he had surgery for a compound fracture of his tibia. Caysen still needs surgery for the 4 facial fractures. Today Caysen had unidentified pain in his shoulder and wrist, and Drs are looking into additional broken or fractured bones.
According to his family, Robinson is facing a long road to recovery.
Police are looking for the driver of a possible 2014-2019 Toyota Highlander. Anyone with information is urged to call the Traffic Bureau with the Fountain Valley Police Department at 714/593-4481.
The crowdfunding campaign for Caysen Robinson has raised nearly 80% of the $50,000 goal — an amount that is likely to barely put a dent in the hospital and therapy bills illegally left on his battered shoulders by the heartless coward who left him lying broken in the street.
So if you’ve got any extra cash lying around, they could certainly use the help.
Photo from the GoFundMe page for Caysen Robinson. Thanks to Bill Sellin for the heads-up.
And yes, that’s the same Tasha Boerner who pledged to introduce a bill mandating licensing for ebike riders; we should have more on that tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a number of bills were passed out of committee in the state Senate, including —
AB 645 creating a speed cam pilot program in six California cities, including Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale;
AB 413 mandating daylighting at intersections to improve safety;
AB 825 to legalize sidewalk riding anywhere in California that lacks good bike infrastructure (and no, sharrows aren’t “good” bike infrastructure);
AB 7 requiring transportation and highway planners to align their work with the state’s climate goals;
and AB 610 to create statewide a youth transit pass program.
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This is who we share the road with.
Part 1 — A 69-year old man was critically injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver in LA’s Pacoima neighborhood; the driver hit the victim as he was standing next to his car after drifting into the bike lane. As always, there is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.
Part 2 — A Pennsylvania driver faces charges for killing a 54-year old man during a New York road rage confrontation, accelerating into the victim after he got out of his truck to slash the Pennsylvania man’s tires; witnesses absolved the killer, saying he acted in self-defense to protect two young girls in his car.
Metro, LADOT, Walk ‘N Rollers and BikeLA are hosting a community meeting tonight at the Helms Design Center in Culver City to consider first and last mile connections to the Culver City Metro Station; this comes after Culver City’s newly conservative city council voted to remove the highly successful Move Culver City protected bike lanes through the downtown area. Which is probably the most I’ve ever used Culver City in a single sentence.
Good for them. Caltrans took Palo Alto residents by surprise with plans to install bike lanes on El Camino Real after repaving the street, which received a lukewarm response from local officials — but since it’s a state highway, they may be powerless to stop it. Now do PCH through Malibu, which is also a state highway.
Yosemite National Park — or Yo Semite as our former president once called it — is addressing the crushing traffic congestion caused by tourists cars by introducing a free bikeshare system.
National
I want to be like them when I grow up. An Ohio newspaper talks with a couple in their 70s who were riding their tandem home to Iowa after visiting their son in Virginia — which is nothing compared to their 4,500-mile Washington to Maine cross-country ride.
Dueling demonstrations took place between people for and against a planned road diet in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood, although only 50 people turned out to protest it. Someone should tell them that road diets and protected bike lanes have been shown to increase sales and reduce retail vacancies, while improving safety for all road users.
Tuesday’s stage victory by Bahrain Victorious rider Pello Bilbao was hailed by His Majesty the King’s Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa of Bahrain. They probably would have given him a longer title, but couldn’t think of anything else to add.
The 14-year old boy was riding north on Main Street near Adams Blvd when the car headed in the opposite fishtailed direction fishtailed and knocked him off his bike around 7:30 pm on Tuesday, May 16th.
The victim suffered a broken knee and arm, with bruises and road rash all over his body.
The incident occurred around 5 pm last Wednesday in the Lindberg Park area.
Fortunately, no one was injured.
The suspect is described as a man wearing a red sweatshirt and shorts, with a dark baseball cap and tattoos on his hand, riding a black bike.
Anyone with information is urged to call Culver City police at 310/253-6316 or 310/253-6202.
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Heartbreaking news from the Tour de Suisse, aka the Tour of Switzerland, where 26-year old Swiss cyclist Gino Mäder died after going off the road on a high-speed descent.
Mäder was found lying unconscious in water at the bottom of a ravine. He was rushed to a hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.
The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
A Boston-area letter writer says a West Roxbury group is fighting plans for new bike lanes using fear mongering over lost parking spaces, small businesses suffering, and interfering with emergency response — even though it would remove just two parking spaces, and preserve five of the six existing lanes.
In a terrifying incident, road-raging Welsh retiree threatened to kill a bicyclist at a busy intersection before physically assaulting him, then driving his car at the victim, telling him “You will die on this road today!” And even after he was arrested, demanded the cops give him the victim’s name so he could have a hit put out on him.
Houston’s mayor says violent incidents won’t be tolerated after a group of people on bikes swarmed a driver’s car, kicking a scratching it, and bashing in the windshield with a bike chain.
A writer for the Westside Currentgoes for a test ride in a Waymo self-driving taxi.However, there’s probably no truth to the rumor that the name comes because they’re way mo’ likely to run you down as you ride your bike.
The Guardian says an e-cargo bike could be the future of carfree local transportation, but only if the cost comes down. Even though the $2,500 cost of the one she tested is on the low end for e-cargo bikes. And just a fraction of the cost of the cheapest motor vehicles.
No bias here. An op-ed in London’s liberal New Statesmancalls the 15-minute city a working-class nightmare, adding that “a car-free lifestyle is only possible for those whose profession and income permit it.” Never mind that many low-income people ride bikes and walk because they can’t afford a car.
June 15, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Man riding bike killed in April hit-and-run in Historic South Central; 8th SoCal bicyclist killed by hit-and-run drivers this year
Once again, someone riding a bicycle was killed on the streets of Los Angeles
And once again, we didn’t find out until weeks later.
The LAPD announced today that a man was killed by a hit-and-run driver over two months ago in Historic South Central.
The victim, identified as 68-year old Salvador Gonzalez Arechiga, was riding east on Adams Boulevard at Trinity Street around 3:35 am April 13th when he was rear-ended by the driver, who sped away without stopping.
Arechiga was taken to a nearby hospital suffering from severe, life-threatening injuries, where he died nine hours later.
Police are looking for two men in a dark-colored 2007 to 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe. Security video shows the driver was a Black man approximately 30 to 50-years-old, 5’08” to 5’10” tall, 200-250 pounds. He was wearing a dark jacket, blue pants with a white pattern on the left leg, a white Dodgers LA t-shirt, white tennis shoes and a black dew rag.
The passenger was described as a Black man, with black hair and a black beard, approximately 5’10” to 6′ tall, and 250 to 300 pounds; he was wearing a white hoodie with a dark logo and dark pants.
This is at least the 20th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; half of those have been in the City of Los Angeles.
It’s also the eighth fatal hit-and-run involving a SoCal bike rider this year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Salvador Gonzalez Arechiga and his loved ones.
Thanks to LAPD Central Traffic Division for the heads-up.
June 9, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Metro considers Alameda mobility options, 10th Anniversary of Finish The Ride this weekend, and writers bike the strike
Anyone who has tried to walk or bike Alameda Street south of Union Station in DTLA knows it’s just this side of a traffic choked living hell.
The options range from closing or moving offramps and widening sidewalks, to converting Arcadia Street to a pedestrian walkway and capping the 101 Freeway to create a new park.
Let’s hope our officials have the courage and foresight to make the choice that will most dramatically remake Downtown Los Angeles.
This weekend marks the tenth anniversary of Finish The Ride, which began when Damian Kevitt invited the public to join him in finishing the Griffith Park ride that was interrupted by a hit-and-run driver, who has never been caught.
More than 2,000 “cyclists, runners, walkers, challenged athletes, veterans, first responders, civic and community leaders, and safe streets advocates from across Southern California” are expected to turn out to demand safer streets for everyone.
This year’s event has been divided into two parts, with Finish The Run on Saturday, and Finish The Ride on Sunday.
You’ll also have a chance to meet two highly qualified candidates to replace Adam Schiff in California’s 30th Congressional District, in Laura Friedman and Anthony Portantino.
I’ll let the folks at Finish The Ride take it from here.
Finish The Ride (www.FinishTheRide.org) was founded in the aftermath of a vicious hit-and-run crime in 2013 that saw cyclist Damian Kevitt lose his leg after being dragged under a car from the streets of Griffith Park onto and down Interstate 5 for nearly a quarter mile. A year later, Kevitt was accompanied by hundreds of cyclists, street safety advocates, and community leaders as part of a campaign to raise awareness of an epidemic of hit-and-run crimes in Los Angeles.
Last year participants in Finish The Ride and Finish The Run demanded that Griffith Park be made safer for the tens of thousands who use it weekly for recreation and exercise. As a result, only a couple of months later, a section of Griffith Park Drive was transformed from a road into a closed pedestrian, bicycle, and equestrian path, and 4 million dollars of funding was approved for additional safety renovations across the park.
According to a report by the non-profit Streets Are For Everyone (known as SAFE), the City of Los Angeles saw a record 312 fatalities last year, most of them pedestrians, and tens of thousands more seriously injured. The primary factor in all these collisions was reckless speeding. SAFE has been involved in a massive state-wide campaign to educate about and advocate for the need to reign in reckless speeding to save lives. Part of this campaign has demanded that legislators pass AB 645, a pilot program that would allow the limited use of speed safety cameras in school zones and on the most dangerous roads in 6 cities across the state. Over 1800 have signed a petition to demand that legislators support AB 645. As a result of this campaign, AB 645 just passed the Assembly with overwhelming support (58 to 7).
This year’s Finish The Ride and Finish The Run event brings together people from all walks to continue the call to demand that roads be made safer and reckless speeding be addressed as the public health crisis that it is.
Finish The Ride and Finish The Run is now in its 10th year and will be held over two days – runners and walkers on Saturday and cyclists on Sunday. On Saturday, there will be the usual 5K/10K run/walk and half-marathon run. On Sunday will be the usual 15-mile, 25-mile, 35-mile, and 50 miles rides. New additions to this year’s event are the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council 1K Kids Run and a Puppy Run on Saturday and the Bahati Foundation Metric Century on Sunday.
Saturday, 10 June 2023 – Finish The Run
(1200 runners and walkers expected)
Time: 7:30 AM Griffith Park Half-Marathon starts
8 AM Finish the Run Opening Ceremony with Civic Leaders and other Victims of Traffic Violence speaking (All other events depart following the opening ceremony)
Where: Griffith Park, Crystal Springs Area
4663 Crystal Springs Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Who: Asm Laura Friedman
Councilmember Nithya Raman
Damian Kevitt, Founder of Finish The Ride/Finish The Run and Streets Are For Everyone
Cindi Enamorado, sister of Raymond Olivares, who lost his life in February 2023 at the hands of a driver engaged in street racing.
————
Sunday, 11 June 2023 – Finish The Ride
(800 cyclists expected)
Time: 7 AM Olympic Silver Medalist Nelson Nails leads the Bahati Foundation Metric Century and Andrew Jelmert Half Century Ride
8 AM Finish the Ride Opening Ceremony with Civic Leaders and other Victims of Traffic Violence speaking (All other events depart following the opening ceremony)
Where: Griffith Park, Crystal Springs Area
4663 Crystal Springs Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Who: Senator Anthony Portantino
Damian Kevitt, Founder of Finish The Ride and Streets Are For Everyone
Curtis Townsend Sr., who lost his wife, Trina Newman-Townsend, in a hit-and-run on Christmas Eve in 2022.
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Seen on the street: A WGA writer bikes the strike.
David Drexler shares video showing the full length of the new Mark Bixby bike/ped path on the International Gateway Bridge, taken on last month’s opening day.
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Gravel Bike California accepts the challenge of biking the Desert X biennial art installation across the “vast & sandy” Coachella Valley in a single day.
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A UC Davis bike rider is on the hunt for a hit-and-run e-cart driver.
And yes, it’s legally hit-and-run if you just cause someone to fall, even without making contact.
Ocean City, New Jersey tabled plans to ban ebikes from the city’s boardwalk, instead creating a committee to study the issue. If they’re anything like Los Angeles, having a committee study something means no one will ever hear about it again.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Pasadena is launching its own ebike rebate program on July 1st, with rebates up to $1,000 for city residents. Meanwhile, Los Angeles hasn’t even discussed any program to get motor vehicles off the streets, with ebikes or otherwise.
Laguna Beach is requiring students to complete an ebike safety course in exchange for a permit to park their bike on campus. Which is a great way to discourage bike commuting, and force people without permits back into cars.
Colorado officially announced their new program to provide ebike rebates for residents earning less than 80% to 100% of their county’s median income. Just the latest city, state or province to provide ebike rebates before California’s vastly underfunded, fomerly-first-in-the-nation program gets off the ground — which should finally happen soon.
Huh? A Columbus, Ohio TV station says many people are priced out of bicycling by the high cost of bikes, even while mentioning a nonprofit shop that sells refurbished bikes for around a hundred bucks. Seriously, cost should never be a barrier to bicycling, when there are countless options for low cost bikes. Or even free ones like the one above.
The victim, described only as a possible minor, died at the scene. The station reports a bicycle was lying on the sidewalk afterwards, next to a tent in the street covering the victim’s body.
Unfortunately, that’s about all we know.
There’s no word on how he may have been killed, or any description of a possible suspect.
Assuming this was a hit-and-run, there is a standing $50,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the driver for any hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles.
This is at least the 19th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; four of those have been in the City of Los Angeles.
It’s also the eighth fatal hit-and-run involving a SoCal bike rider this year.
The suspect vehicle is described as an older model white Nissan, with likely with damage to its front end, hood and windshield from the impact with the victim.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Detective Juan Campos at 213/833-3713, or email 31480@lapd.online. Or call the Central Traffic Division Watch Commander at 213/833-3746 after hours or weekends.
As always, there is a $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious, but not fatal, injuries in the City of Los Angeles.
There’s always another side to the story, even when everyone has already taken sides.
It’s been clear for some time that we’ve only heard one side of the story about the white New York hospital worker filmed in a viral video trying to wrest and whine a bikeshare bike out of the hands of a Black teenager.
The woman, who has become infamous as the Citi Bike Karen, has spoken through her attorney, who claims he has receipts showing she rented the bike she was trying to claim.
She’s raised over $124,000 from people who thought she was unfairly accused of racism.
Now the family of the teenager she was trying to take the bike from is finally speaking out for the first time. According to them, the 17-year old boy’s life and family have been in turmoil since the incident.
They explained that as the son of low-income, West African immigrants on public assistance, he was entitled to discounted 45-minute bikeshare rides, after which the rate increases.
The day of the incident, he and his friends rode from his home in the Bronx to visit friends in Harlem. After 45 minutes, he re-docked the bike to reset the clock, before setting out again at the reduced rate.
Which is when he claims his life went to hell.
He says the hospital worker approached the group as they briefly rested with the bikes, asking each one in turn if she could use their bike. Each boy said no, because they were about to take them back out again.
So she stepped onto the bike anyway, using her phone to scan the bike’s QR code as he held onto the handlebars, and tried to take the bike out of his hands.
It was 7:24 p.m., and that is when the boys began recording…
Michael insisted Sarah Jane Comrie knew he was planning to use the bike. He said she asked him and his friends to use theirs, and they all informed her they were using the bikes and would be leaving shortly.
He said she seemed annoyed that they wouldn’t willingly give up their bikes to her. He also said he believes she wanted that bike as opposed to the others that remained docked in the rack because he had one of the newer e-bikes.
The rest of the interaction plays out in the video. Sarah Jane Comrie, dressed in scrubs bearing the NYC Health + Hospitals logo, removed her work ID badge from her neck, placed it in her bag along with a brown paper bag she was holding and began screaming for help.
Proving once again there’s always another side to the story.
We have no way of knowing who is right, or exactly how the events played out in the minutes before the camera was turned on. But the incident offers a Rorschach Test for today’s America, as people on both sides of the political divide quickly chose sides.
A white woman received over a hundred grand, while a young Black man has his life upended. Although a crowdfunding campaign started yesterday has raised over $37,000 for his legal fees in less than 24 hours.
This difference of intent and scale is worth dwelling on because it is why the comparison is so misguided. The U.S. Department of Transportation has estimated 475,000 households containing one million people were displaced due to highway construction from 1957 to 1977. That is the equivalent of displacing the entire population of modern-day Austin, Texas. Likewise, a Los Angeles Times analysis found that an additional 200,000 people have lost their homes due to highway construction since 1990. To the best of my knowledge, there has not been a single housing unit destroyed or person displaced to build a bike or bus lane anywhere in the U.S. On these grounds alone, it is simply absurd to compare urban highway construction to bike and bus lanes. Projects of such vastly different scopes and scale deserve different approaches and mindsets.
But there is another good reason to reject this comparison, one that is equally revealing about the biases of modern transportation officials. Reynolds asked, “What makes us so confident we know best?” Another way of asking this is, what makes us so confident we know bike and bus lanes are better than masses of parking and multiple travel lanes for private cars for everyone?
The answer is: we’ve got the receipts. In this case, decades of scientific study and experiments carefully tracked and evaluated by local departments of transportation.
The sheer absurdity of Reynolds’ comments, coming from someone who should surely know better, is appalling.
It also explains why so little was done to improve LA streets while she ran the department. And why we shouldn’t hold our breath for any major innovations coming from her new position as Metro’s Chief Innovation Officer.
Unless maybe her chief innovation is even more pointless, never-ending public meetings.
He’s also one of us, regularly taking part in the annual 545-mile AIDS/LIFECYCLE ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which benefits the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
However, Ratevosian faces stiff competition from Burbank Assembly Transportation Chair Laura Friedman, California State Senator Anthony Portantino, and former Boy Meets World star Ben Savage, among others.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on rolling.
An award-winning British TV producer, writer and comedian was fined the equivalent of more than $1,200, plus another $1,250 in court costs and victim surcharge, for flipping off a bike cam activist when he was caught using his smartphone from behind the wheel of his $173,000 Aston Martin.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
After a Seal Beach letter writer complains that it seems petty to ticket a pair of senior citizens on a tandem for rolling a stop sign, a cop explains that bicycles are treated as vehicles in California, and bike riders have to obey the law, too. Even laws that most drivers don’t. Which is one more argument to pass the Stop As Yield bill in the state legislature, and get Governor Newsom to sign the damn thing this time.
A 28-year old Kentucky man is dead after a pickup driver crashed into his bike; police excused the crash because glare from the setting sun kept him from seeing the victim. Never mind that the correct course of action would have been to pull over to the side of the road until he could see, before he killed anyone.
This is who we share the road with. A 32-year old Philadelphia woman faces murder and vehicular homicide charges for a December hit-and-run crime spree that killed on man and injured two other people; she is accused of hitting three cars and a scooter rider, then crashing into a bike rider before fatally slamming into a man walking in a crosswalk, and fleeing from all three crashes.
Bicycling says the colossal amounts of elevation gain in the last few stages of the Giro will make the final days of racing a slugfest. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t appear to be available anywhere else, so you’re on your own if the magazine blocks you.
May 24, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on 23-year old man killed in South Park hit-and-run last month; police looking for silver 2008-2013 Mercedes
This is what keeps me up at night.
Too often, we may not learn about the things that happen on our streets until weeks later, if at all.
That’s what happened in this case, when a man riding a bike was left to die by a heartless coward in LA’s South Park neighborhood over a month ago.
And we only learned about it today.
According to a press release from the LAPD, a 23-year old man was riding west on 43rd Street at Main Street around 10:40 pm on Thursday, April 13th, when he was run down by a driver headed south on Main.
The driver fled south on Main without stopping, leaving the victim, identified as Iomer Samuel Cruz, fatally injured in the street.
There’s no description of the suspect; police are looking for a silver 2008-2013 Mercedes Benz C230 or C330.
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Central Traffic Division Officer Balderas or Detective Campos at 213/833-3713; after hours or on weekends call the Central Traffic Division’s Watch Commander at 213/833-3746.
As always, there is a standing $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the driver.
You can find security cam video of the crash here. I’m not posting it because it shows the actual impact, so be sure you really want to see it before you click on the link.
This is at least the 18th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the seventh that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; just three of those have been in the City of Los Angeles.
It’s also the seventh fatal hit-and-run involving a SoCal bike rider this year.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Iomer Samuel Cruz and all his loved ones.
The victim died at the scene, despite the efforts of paramedics, and has not been publicly identified.
An anonymous caller alerted the police to the location of the driver’s car, a black late model Nissan SUV, less than a block away in an underground parking garage in the 14100 block of Cerise Avenue.
A street view shows a large apartment complex at that location, suggesting the 21-year old driver, who also has not been publicly identified, may have been arrested at his home, or visiting another person.
April 28, 2023 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Deliberate vehicular assault in Point Loma hit-and-run, CA ebike rebates, and comment on Redondo Beach Blvd plan
Tristan Gonzalez, a former San Diego police helicopter pilot and a high school mountain bike league board member — and, I’m told, a really nice guy — was riding on Catalina Blvd near Bernice Drive when he was run down by the driver around 4:50 pm.
He posted about the crash from his hospital bed, describing the suspect as a white male around 35-45 years old, wearing a lighter colored baseball cap, and driving a smaller white pickup truck with an extended cab and non-tinted windows.
He said he first encountered the driver of a white Toyota Tacoma a block earlier near Catalina Boulevard and Narragansett Avenue. He said he sensed the driver was getting dangerously close to him. At one point, he said the driver hit the handlebars of Gonzalez’s bike.
Gonzalez said he approached the truck and looked into the window. He said the driver stared straight ahead and didn’t acknowledge him.
As they both continued down Catalina toward Bernice, he sensed he was about to be hit.
“All of a sudden, I hear honking. I hear a car speed up, and sure enough, the same white truck came up alongside me,” said Gonzalez. “I just had time to look over and to see it was the same truck and to see the driver steer and turn the truck and speed right into me. I went flying and landed in the street with several injuries.”
To make matters worse, I’m told a witness pulled over to help, but accidentally left her car in drive, only stopping when Gonzolez’ helmet was wedged between the front tire, fender and bumper as a wheel chock.
He was hospitalized with a broken hip, clavicle and punctured lung. The good news is, he was scheduled to be released on Wednesday.
Police are reportedly taking the incident seriously, investigating the crash as an assault with a deadly weapon. Although it should be considered attempted murder.
A still photo taken from a doorbell video shows the white extended cab pickup.
An anti-bike member of the British Parliament called for removing a bike lane where 59 people have been injured in the past year as a result of a pale line painted the same color as a curb, creating an optical illusion; he has also used racist terms in the past in criticizing bike lanes. Or they could just paint one or the other a different color, and solve the whole problem.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
The LA Times gets it, saying walking to school shouldn’t be deadly, in the wake of the crash that killed a mom and critically injured her daughter as they crossed the street to get to the girl’s school. Then again, biking to school shouldn’t mean risking life and limb, either.
Metro says this year’s Bike Week is scheduled for May 15-19 and Bike Day, formerly known as Bike To Work Day, will be Thursday, May 18. Let’s just hope it doesn’t fizzle out for lack of interest like it did last year.
The family of fallen Encinitas bicyclist Jennings Worley have begun settlement talks in a lawsuit against Shea Homes, three years after Worley, a leading scientist working on a cure cystic fibrosis, was killed when moving truck driver right hooked him turning into one of the builder’s developments. Which raises the question of how many CF patients will needlessly suffer because he isn’t there to develop a treatment for the devastating disease.
A Spokane, Washington website says 750 bike riders have been struck by drivers in the city since 2014, along with 1,500 pedestrians, and examines what can be done to stop the carnage.
Road.ccexplains what all-road bikes are, describing them as “drop-bar bikes that are fast and capable on any kind of road surface from smooth asphalt all the way to light gravel tracks.” In other words, what we used to call a “bicycle.”
