Day 202 of LA’s Vision Zero failure to end traffic deaths by 2025.
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This is who we share the road with.
After getting kicked out of an East Hollywood nightclub just before closing time for fighting, a man is accused of intentionally driving his car into a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk, injuring at last 37 people — seven critically.
Twenty-nine-year old Fernando Ramirez was then pulled from his car and beaten by members of the crowd, before getting shot in the ass by someone, who the police are still looking for.
Now it turns out Ramirez has an extensive criminal record, with at least 11 felony and misdemeanor busts dating back to 2014 including arrests for violent assaults.
One of those resulted in a conviction for a hate crime after Ramirez sucker-punched an employee at a Whole Foods Market in Laguna Beach, telling an officer it was because the man was Black, and “he hated all Black people,” although the conviction was later overturned on appeal.
But maybe it’s time we ask why people with a demonstrated history of violence are allowed to continue operating a potential multi-ton weapon of mass destruction.
Because until we take cars away from violent felons just like we do guns, tragedies like this will keep happening.
Even the corgi honored a request from the family of Blake Ackerman that everyone wear Hawaiian shirts to the vigil for the fallen bicyclist to remember his love for the islands. Photo by Damian Kevitt,
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WeHo Times continued their coverage of the ghost bike and vigil for Blake Ackerman, who was killed at Fountain and Gardner in West Hollywood on July 10th.
Ackerman’s fiancé Victoria “Torie” Ball was there representing the victim, since his family chose to mourn in private, in what Streets Are For Everyone founder Damian Kevitt described as “a very emotional time for the family.”
The website reports that West Hollywood Mayor Chelsea Byers and Councilmembers Danny Hang and Lauren Meister attended, along with Culver City Councilmember Bryan “Bubba” Fish.
Unfortunately, no representatives of the City of Los Angeles chose to attend, even though the dividing line between the cities is literally the curb on the north side of the street, with Fountain in West Hollywood and the sidewalk in Los Angeles.
According to Kevitt,
“They (Ackerman’s family) thanked us for the work we’re doing–not only remembering Blake, but making sure this moment leads to real change. It’s about more than what happened. It’s about preventing future tragedies.”
Mayor Byers echoed that sentiment. “We’re here holding a vigil for Blake, who died on Fountain Avenue while riding his bike, and we’re vowing to fight for safer streets in West Hollywood and across the region,” she said. “I’m grateful that a council member from Culver City joined us tonight–it shows this is a regional issue. We’re all fighting for a future where people don’t have to risk their lives just to ride a bike.”
Amen to that.
A poster for another fatal hit-and-run was posted across the street from the Ackerman vigil and ghost bike, for a crash less than two weeks earlier, and just block away.
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Um, okay.
“Remember the Alamo” will soon take on a whole new meaning, after the Texas historic site “officially acquired the original screen-used stunt bike” from the 1985 film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
The iconic red bicycle, one of several made for the film, will be permanently displayed in the future Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, currently scheduled to open in Fall of 2027.
You can just imagine the lessons learned by future school kids as they admire memorabilia from Alamo legends Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis, and yes, Pee-wee Herman.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No surprise here. A New York bike rider was injured by a turning driver on a street where New York’s mayor cancelled plans for a road diet and protected bike lanes to appease his wealthy campaign donors.
No bias here. A self-identified London “cyclist” says he looks at Lime bikeshare ebikes with the same contempt as London cabbies look at him, because they litter the street corners and clog the bike lanes — and the sidewalks, apparently. Meanwhile, Electrek says if you think ebikes are bad, just wait until you learn about cars.
But sometimes, it’s the people on bikes behaving badly.
Seriously? A Staten Island writer blames a jeep driver for blowing a stop sign and nearly hitting a kid as he rode his bike off the sidewalk, but says the child on the bike bears responsibility for not stopping or wearing a helmet. Even though a) riding on the sidewalk is legal for kids there, and b) a bike helmet wouldn’t haven’t prevented a crash.
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Local
Once again, the LAPD failed to use their hit-and-run alert system, and waited months to tell us a man in his 60s was severely injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver, while riding his bicycle in LA’s Pico-Union neighborhood in the early hours of May 28th; there is a standing $25,000 reward for any hit-and-run resulting in serious injuries in the City of Los Angeles.
State
A 17-year old San Diego boy suffered a fractured left femur and shattered left ankle when he was right-hooked by a driver while riding in a crosswalk in the Fairmount Village neighborhood Saturday afternoon.
A 73-year old man suffered an open leg fracture when he was run down by a driver while biking in San Diego’s Point Loma Heights Thursday.
The founder of apparel brand Cherry Willow just finished a 715-mile ride from Sacramento to San Diego to raise awareness and funds to fight homelessness and food insecurity.
National
The Verge says 24,000 batteries sold with cheap ebikes have been recalled because “the US can’t get its shit together” and regulate them properly.
Thirty-one members of my old college fraternity are riding across the country from San Francisco to Washington DC to raise awareness for people living with disabilities.
That’s more like it. A New Mexico woman was sentenced to ten years behind bars for the high-speed crash that killed a Las Cruces man riding a bicycle while she was driving drunk and stoned.
He gets it. The county attorney for Leavenworth, Kansas says “When you see a cyclist, even if you’re in a rush, don’t let it crank your gears. Respect their space.”
Nelson Vails, 1984 Olympic cycling hero and the first Black man to win an Olympic medal, says he likes RAGBRAI, aka the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, because it’s just a relaxed ride, and not a race.
Two New York woman are facing charges for fleeing on foot after racing their car off a bridge at a high rate of speed, and crashing into a 55-year old man out for his usual morning bike ride, along with a 63-year old woman just sitting on a bench, killing both, then crashing into a police van with enough force to knock it into a jewelry store. The family of the bike riding victim, who was known as an advocate for safer streets, said “It’s devastating to know he was killed doing something he loved.”
International
A Ukrainian soldier will spend the next 61 months behind bars for stealing a bottle of whiskey from a store in Odessa, along with a bicycle worth the equivalent of $119; he was also fined the equivalent of $845.
Despite suffering a disabling brain injury seven years ago, a 65-year old New Zealand man has set off on a ride around the world, saying “Either you master your disability or it masters you.”
Competitive Cycling
Belgian cyclist Tim Wellens won Sunday’s stage 15, becoming just the 113th rider to take stage wins in all three Grand Tours, while Tadej Pogačar continued his march towards a fourth Tour de France win.
US champ Quinn Simmons says he was in position for the win on stage 15 after a 33-mile breakaway until a race moto interfered with the finish, implying he might have done better that finishing 21st in a mass sprint otherwise.
More proof cyclists are tough, after Julian Alaphilippe popped his shoulder out crashing his bike on stage 15, popped it back in, and still finished just off the podium — even though he thought he won, except a) two riders finished far ahead of him and the rest of the peloton, and b) Primož Roglič knocked him off the podium in a photo finish.
That came just a day after Alaphilippe made headlines for snatching a cardboard sign out of a spectator’s hands and stuffing it inside his jersey as protection from the cold.
Two-time world champ and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel was just one of several riders to abandon the Tour, complaining that his body wasn’t responding to the demands of the race.
A Tour de France spectator was knocked down by the driver of the INEOS-Grenadiers team car during Saturday’s 14th stage; INEOS directeur sportif Oliver Cookson, who was driving the car, was fined 5,000 Swiss francs — the equivalent of $6,200 — and given a yellow card for the crash, even though he was driving in the middle of the road.
Finally…
That feeling when grandma doesn’t want you riding that damn BMX anymore. Or when you’re still wanted in Belgium for using a forged Tour de France press pass, after retiring as road manager for the Clash.
No, literally.
3:18pm La Costa Avenue / Carlsbad
byu/MusicMan559 insandiego
Thanks to Phillip and Ellectrek for the heads-up.
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Be safe, and stay healthy. And get vaccinated, already.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
