Tag Archive for Jonathan Hernandez

Morning Links: Road rage death in San Bernardino, Hernandez hit-and-run trial starts, and Bahati races RAAM

It’s election day in California. So stop what you’re doing, and get out and bike the vote already.

We’ll wait.

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KNBC-4 reported last night that a bike rider was killed in San Bernardino as collateral damage in a possible road rage dispute between two drivers.

Unfortunately, the story does not appear to be online as of this writing.

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Testimony has started in the trial of Ventura tow truck driver Hermin Martin Henderson, accused of running over 14-year old bike rider Jonathan Hernandez, then fleeing the scene without stopping.

Hernandez was seen on security video running the red light while riding without lights, so Henderson wouldn’t have been at fault if he had simply stopped as the law and basic human decency requires.

Hernandez was riding to a friend’s house when he was killed; he was reportedly troubled after joining his family to mark his sister’s birthday, who had died of leukemia a few months earlier.

He was struck by second driver as he lay in the road after getting hit by Henderson’s tow truck; that driver was never found.

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South LA has a stake in this year’s RAAM.

Compton’s own ten-time National Crit Champ Rahsaan Bahati will compete in the 3,000-mile Race Across America, one of the world’s toughest ultra-endurance races. He’ll be riding to raise funds for his own nonprofit Bahati Foundation, as well as the Jessie Rees Foundation and Augie’s Quest.

The race starts a week from today in Oceanside, California and will finish in Annapolis, Maryland roughly eight days later.

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Local

Councilmember Mitch Englander is calling for an emergency moratorium on dockless bikeshares and greater regulation, after complaining about bikes being haphazardly strewn about. Because it’s just so darn hard to pick up a bike and move it if it’s in the way. And he couldn’t be more wrong about the “failure” of dockless bikeshare in China, where its overwhelming success has led to problems of oversupply as competing providers try to capture the market.

Bike SGV has a full slate of events this month.

Santa Clarita will be reviving its “Heads Up” safety campaign this summer in an attempt to educate bicyclists and motorists to improve safety. Although all the advice appears to be aimed at the people on two wheels.

 

State

An Op-Ed in The Daily Pilot says more people in Costa Mesa would bike or walk if they felt safer on the streets. In other words, pretty much like everywhere else.

A new online Bakersfield bike map hopes to pinpoint dangerous areas where riders feel unsafe on their bikes.

I want to be like her when I grow up. A 73-year old Los Altos woman is writing a book, and spending the next week riding down the coast on the AIDS/LifeCycle Ride.

As San Francisco struggles to decide whether to allow e-scooters, Wired says don’t ban them, redesign the streets to make room for them. And save the city in the process.

Sad news from Nevada City, where a 68-year old cyclist was killed in an apparent fall while riding in Bosnia with his wife and another couple.

 

National

A 57-year old widow trades her bicycle for a Harley.

A woman on an around-the-world bike ride says you have to tackle America’s greatest road trip, riding down the Left Coast on the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route.

At 106 miles, Utah now has the longest continuous bike trail west of the Mississippi.

Colorado officials plan to confront a rising bicyclist and pedestrian death toll with a social media campaign saying “Safety Starts with All of Us” on Facebook and Twitter. Sure, that will work.

This is the cost of traffic violence, as a Texas family cries out for justice, and wonders how anyone could be so cruel that they could leave a bike rider dying in the street. Thanks to Stephen Katz for the link.

A St. Louis sports reporter traded his car for a bike, and doesn’t regret it a bit despite the Missouri winters.

Two years after she was paralysed from the waist down by a distracted driver on a Bike & Build ride, and her riding companion killed, a Michigan woman is planning to use a handcycle finish the ride she never completed. The driver who hit them got just two months behind bars.

Milwaukee officials say they need more bike riders on the streets.

A Manhattan congressman is the definition of windshield bias as he blames bike lanes for traffic problems, and not the illegally parked SUVs. Seriously, some people just can’t see the traffic for the cars.

Don’t do this. A New York cyclist traveling with a group of around 12 riders crashed into a woman and a child as they were crossing the street, although it’s not clear from the article who had the right-of-way.

If you’re going to observe the annual World Naked Bike Ride — in any sense — New Orleans is probably the best place to do it.

 

International

That runny nose when you ride could be a sign of Exercise Induced Rhinitis, or EIR. Or it could be a sign that it’s time to give up that coke habit.

A lifelong Winnipeg bike rider is working to get more indigenous youth on bicycles.

The war on bike continues, as a Toronto mountain biker suffered cuts on both arms when he crashed into barbed wire that had been strong across a trail.

Toronto bike advocates worry that progress has stalled on a key bikeway, despite a city council vote to make it permanent.

A London driver observed World Bicycle Day by abandoning his car and running away after crashing into a bike rider on a designated Quietway, leaving the victim to die in the street.

London’s former cycling commissioner says bicycling improvements are sure vote winners, in the UK or the US. Maybe someone should tell that to the LA city council.

First it was a bike rider in the UK threatening a driver with a knife, now a man with a knife threatened a pair of bike riders.

A British bike advocate says their local Parliament member is wrong; it’s drivers who pose a risk to pedestrians, not people on bicycles.

For the first time, an all-women’s bike ride is rolling across the kingdom of Bahrain, complete with a sag wagon for rest and security.

A Nigerian government official marked World Bicycle Day by saying that encouraging more people to ride bicycles is one of the surest ways to minimise traffic congestion.

A Moroccan man has ridden over 13,000 miles across the African continent, only to have his bike stolen ten minutes after he locked it up outside a mosque in South Africa.

Caught on video: An Aussie bicyclist can thank a driver for his quick action in avoiding a crash, after the rider slipped when he hit a patch of gumnuts and fell in front of the oncoming car. And no, I didn’t know what they were, either.

Another bike race, another crash with a race moto. But at least this time, no one was seriously hurt.

Electric bicycles have shed their mamachari image in Japan, as “sporting ebikes” have suddenly developed a cool factor.

Tragic news from Singapore, where a 60-year old woman is on life support after a 17-year old bike rider allegedly crashed into her from behind on a shared-use path.

 

Competitive Cycling

Nearly two dozen cyclists were treated for injuries when bad pavement caused a mass crash in a Maryland bike race.

Once again, a pro cyclist has been sidelined by a collision, as Dimension Data’s Lachlan Morton suffers a broken arm when he’s struck by a driver while training in Colorado.

Amgen Tour of California winner Egan Bernal is preparing to make his Tour de France debut riding in support of Chris Froome. Assuming the doping cloud over Froome’s head doesn’t come down on him, that is.

A Cycling Weekly writer says he’d like to see a little more silliness on the pro tour.

A Wisconsin paper profiles 33-year old ultra-cyclist Brett Stepanik, the first rider to finish the 750-mile Arizona Trail Race, the 2,732-mile Tour Divide Mountain Bike Race and the 580-mile Colorado Trail Race on a single-speed bike in a single year.

 

Finally…

This story seems to be saying if you’re going to ride drunk, wear a helmet. If you ride naked with a group, it’s the World Naked Bike Ride; if you ride naked by yourself, you’re just a perv.

And no, we don’t have to accept that cars will kill anyone, with or without a driver.

 

Morning Links: Ventura hit-and-run goes to trial, Trans Am cyclist killed in KS, and world’s 1st porn cycling team

Check in later today, when we’ll have a guest post from Better Bike’s Mark Elliot, who’s almost single-handedly led the Sisyphean fight for bike lanes in the Biking Black Hole of Beverly Hills.

He reports the city council will reconsider their decision not to paint bike lanes on the soon-to-be-reconstructed Santa Monica Blvd tomorrow.

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Ventura tow truck driver Hermin Martin Henderson is scheduled to face trial in August for the hit-and-run death of 14-year old bike rider Jonathan Hernandez.

Hernandez was killed when he rode out to see a friend after an emotional family meeting following the death of his sister from leukemia.

Security footage shows he apparently went through a red light, and was struck by Henderson’s truck. Henderson left him lying in the roadway; whether alive or dead, no one will ever know.

What is known is that he was then struck by another driver who also fled the scene, and has never been apprehended.

It’s impossible to speculate whether Hernandez would have survived if Henderson had stopped and called for help. What is certain is that his choice to leave him lying there unprotected meant he didn’t have a chance.

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Tragic news from Kansas, where a 61-year old man from San Luis Obispo was killed in a collision while competing in the Oregon to Virginia Trans Am Bike Race. Eric Fishbein is the second ultra-distance cyclist to be killed while competing in the last three months, following the death of famed British rider Mike Hall in Australia last March.

Over 1,200 riders helped the annual Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay race celebrate its 25th anniversary, rolling 150 miles from Haines Junction, Yukon, to Haines, Alaska.

I want to be like him when I grow up. An 80-year old British cyclist has been banned from a grueling race because organizers think he’s too old, even though he routinely beats riders half his age.

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Local

Metro’s Metro Bike bikeshare could expand to Pomona in time for the 2018 LA County Fair.

A conservative street artist claimed responsibility for vandalizing several West Hollywood WeHo Pedals bikeshare bikes to promote alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos.

Wearing a helmet while riding your bike in Glendale could get you a ticket for a free Slurpee. But only if you’re a kid.

The LACBC’s next Sunday Funday ride will explore the controversial new bike lanes and road reductions in Mar Vista and Playa del Rey. If you support the Mar Vista bike lanes, give it some stars.

Long Beach is considering developing their own app-based bike registration program. Someone should tell them that they could just use Bike Index for free.

Elon Musk wants you to bike and walk in his underground tunnels.

 

State

A Lemon Grove woman was badly injured when she hit a pothole and went over the handlebars; because of the location on the border between the cities, it was unclear whether the pothole was in Lemon Grove or San Diego.

A San Marcos cyclist is recovering from a collision with a truck after he allegedly entered the intersection on a red light and was thrown in front of the truck when he attempted a panic stop.

A Sacramento man suffered a collapsed lung when he was hit with a rock thrown by a bike-riding homeless man as he was riding his bike home last week. Meanwhile, a Sacramento runner was seriously injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run cyclist on the same trail, who also appeared to be homeless.

 

National

British bike historian Carlton Reid, author of the newly published Bike Boom, looks at how America’s 1970s bike boom went bust.

American riot police have embraced the bicycle as a more efficient tool for crowd control.

Bike Portland looks at the ugly economics of bike crashes.

A 78-year old pastor is riding 2,000 miles from Sante Fe NM to Tampa FL in memory of his late wife.

The Denver Post talks with a handful of riders who completed the paper’s annual Ride the Rockies, finishing 447 miles with 30,000 feet of elevation gain.

An Illinois cyclist is still among the living because he happened to have his heart attack on a club ride full of physicians.

A Wisconsin man rode his bike to Louisiana to meet the man who received his daughter’s heart after she drowned in a Cancun swimming pool.

Two New York bike riders were killed by tour buses in less than a week; the latest victim was an 80-year old man riding in a crosswalk.

Caught on video: A New York bike rider is in a coma after a random attack by a man who punched him in the face for no apparent reason.

The Washington Post illustrates the history of the bicycle.

Baltimore bike advocates fear a bikelash will result in a rollback of bike lanes in the city, where the mayor has ordered a review of all bike lanes and parking spaces. The debate has resulted in dueling petitions for and against the bike lanes, something Mar Vista and Playa del Rey riders can relate to.

Virginia bicyclists aren’t thrilled with plans for a noisy, smog-choked bike path next to a new multi-lane freeway. Or they could do it right, like this new Denver to Boulder CO bikeway.

The drunk, gay-bashing Key West Trump supporter who tried to ram two men as they rode their bikes gets off without a single day behind bars. But at least he doesn’t get the hug he wanted from his victims.

 

International

Maybe pushing yourself too hard for too many years isn’t great for your heart after all.

The Guardian profiles a British baker who delivers her goods by bicycle — as long as you live within a mile of her shop. Meanwhile, the paper says the wheels have not come off the country’s grassroots cycling boom, despite problems with the elite cycling program.

The Guardian’s Peter Walker rebuts the claims that bike lanes make air pollution worse.

A 30-year old British man plans to ride the 2,000 miles from Bath to Rome standing up due to congenital arthritis in his hip.

Rather than making sidewalks handicapped accessible, Dublin’s lord mayor considers allowing people with disabilities to use bike lanes.

Roughly 1,000 Paris bicyclists staged a die-in in front of the Bastille to call for greater safety on the roads.

As expected, the Saudi Arabian driver who fatally doored a German bike rider has claimed diplomatic immunity, protecting him from prosecution and halting the investigation.

ESPN talks with American cycling champ Rebecca Rush about her 1,200-mile ride along the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to visit the site of her father’s death in the Vietnam War.

 

Finally…

If you’re going to participate in the World Naked Bike Ride, don’t do it alone. Seriously, don’t crash your bike into people on the sidewalk — and don’t punch an elderly man if you do. And don’t spit on dogs, either.

And how did it take this long for someone to found the world’s first all porn cycling team?

 

Weekend Links: Driver charged in death of Ventura teen, Tour de France mourns, and stupid criminal tricks

Five months after he died, Jonathan Hernandez may see partial justice.

The tow truck driver who struck the 14-year old boy and fled the scene, leaving him to die in the street after being hit by a second vehicle, has been charged with felony hit-and-run; he also faces a misdemeanor charge of concealing evidence.

Unfortunately, the second driver, who also fled the scene, has still not been found.

Fifty-one-year old Hermin Martin Henderson pled not guilty to the charges; he faces up to five years in prison if he’s convicted.

Ironically, if he had simply stayed at the scene after the February crash, he probably wouldn’t have faced any charges, since security video showed Hernandez running the red light just before he was struck by Henderson’s truck. Unless he was under the influence, of course.

And Hernandez might still be alive.

Meanwhile, Henderson and his towing company, along with the city and county of Ventura, face a civil suit filed by the victim’s family.

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The Tour de France was in mourning Friday, following the Bastille Day attack in Nice. The race went on under heightened security as the riders competed in the time trial.

Not everyone believes Froome should have kept the yellow jersey after Thursday’s Mt. Ventoux debacle, though.

And the dark side of bike racing gets the HBO treatment, as Andy Samberg plans a mockumentary focusing on doping in the world of professional cycling.

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Local

Metro hopes to spur development of bikeable, walkable communities within a short walk of the Orange Line in the San Fernando Valley.

CiclaValley invites you to come out for LA’s own version of the Hell of the North, at Sunday’s SoCal GRAVEL Trofee #3: LA ROUBAIX v2, starting at Golden Road Brewing.

Disappointing news, as the annual Brentwood Grand Prix bike race won’t be held this year. However, the 55th edition of the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix will roll as scheduled, bringing California’s top racers to SoCal on August 7th. Thanks to Lynn Ingram and David Huntsman for the heads-up.

 

State

Police once again arrest a bike-riding suspect in the attacks on five homeless men in San Diego; a previous suspect was released after police concluded he couldn’t have done it.

A Palomar College English professor wrote a book about the 3,145-mile cross-country bike trip he took between two unrelated bouts of cancer.

Now that’s more like it. San Francisco police throw the book at the accused killer of a bike rider in Golden Gate Park three weeks ago; the 19-year old driver is booked on suspicion of murder, burglary, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and hit-and-run causing injury or death, as well as two traffic violations .

 

National

The rich get richer, as Portland proposes a complete network of bikeways crisscrossing the city.

A Wisconsin driver wasn’t texting when he swerved onto the shoulder of a highway and slammed into a woman riding her bike; just looking down to read papers as he drove.

A blind, 79-year old Michigan man plans to ride 100 miles to raise funds for breast cancer research by riding stoker on a tandem bike.

The lawyer for the stoned Kalamazoo MI driver who killed five cyclists last month says he never meant to hurt anyone. Oh, well if that’s the case…

Your next ride through a Manhattan park could be underground.

A Charleston SC letter writer aptly notes that the so-called bike lobby is just people looking for a safe place to walk and ride.

New Orleans considers turning several streets into bike boulevards. Something that was supposed to happen here with the network of Bicycle Friendly Streets included in the 2010 Bike Plan, but hasn’t. And from the looks of it, probably won’t.

 

International

A Toronto writer says the conflict between drivers and bike riders will only end “when sharing the road is not seen as a war… and a bicycle is as common a sight on a road as a car.”

Kindhearted Ontario residents pitch in after a disabled man’s three-wheeled ebike was stolen from his backyard.

A new British study suggests that bicycling may be the best way to lose weight.

New Zealand advocacy groups join together to call for Vision Zero in the country, along with a safe, sustainable, healthy and fair transport system for everyone.

It’s official. The world record for riding around the world now belongs to a Kiwi cyclist, with a time of 123 days, one hour and six minutes.

A Chinese man and his dog rode over 43,000 miles through 23 countries in Asia, Europe and North America to promote protection for stray animals, visiting over 100 animal shelters along with way.

 

Finally…

Caught on video: This is why you need to pay attention when you’re riding, or the tabloids will call for your head. No, seriously. if you leave your bike behind when you steal a car, don’t go back to get it the next day.

And if there’s already a warrant out for your arrest, don’t ride you bike to the police station when playing Pokemon Go.

Especially not in your pajamas.