We’ve seen a number of police chases in recent years that resulted in close calls with people riding bicycles, with riders nearly struck by fleeing drivers.
The incident began when the suspect allegedly tried to break into a vehicle near East 48th and Central Streets in South LA, and attempted to flee in his car with the owner of the vehicle in close pursuit.
The victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was sent flying through the air, landing next to his badly damaged bicycle. A witness description suggests that he likely died instantly upon impact.
The driver lost control after the crash, smashing into eight other vehicles before rolling his car, coming to rest upside down in the street. He reportedly attempted to flee on foot before being taken into custody.
He will likely face yet to be determined felony charges, according to police.
One of which should be murder.
This is at least the 14th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the fourth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County; it’s also the third in the City of Los Angeles.
And yet another tragic reminder of the dangers police chases pose to innocent bystanders.
A GoFundMe page set up by loved ones describes Monsalve Rojas as a father of five who left Colombia in search of a better life and had a dream, they said, of curing his daughter’s liver disease.
“Imagine, a regular morning now turned into a day we’ll never forget,” the campaign organizer wrote. “David touched lives in ways that words can barely capture. A soul so deeply devoted to his children.”
So far, the crowdfunding page has raised less than $700 of the modest $5,000 goal.
Meanwhile, the speeding driver who struck Rojas with her Chevrolet Suburban SUV was ID’d as 23-year old Germaine Smith.
Smith is being held on $327,000 bond after being booked for felony evading causing death, as well as additional outstanding warrants,
Anyone with information is urged to call LAPD Traffic Group Detectives at 213/486-0690; information can be provided anonymously online or by calling 800/222-8477.
My deepest sympathy for Jose David Monsalve Rojas and all his loved ones.
December 9, 2022 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Baldwin Park gets grant for new mini-park, bike rider collateral damage in police chase, and Streets For All party tonight
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Baldwin Park announced they’ve received a $761,000 grant from the San Gabriel & Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy to build a new mini-park on Maine Ave.
According to a press release from the city,
The Maine Avenue Mini-Park will join a series of new mini-parks along the soon-to-be-extended Big Dalton Wash Trail and the Susan Rubio Zocalo Park in Downtown Baldwin Park, which will come on-line over the next couple of years and promote public health, mental health, climate resilience and educational and employment opportunities for youth…
A bioswale, smart water irrigation system and stormwater capture improvements will ensure the sustainability of the mini-park. Additionally, its proximity to the San Fe Dam Recreation Area and the region’s extensive trail network support active transportation, furthering local and regional sustainability goals…
When completed, the park will include various passive and recreational amenities for the community, including 14 shade trees, an outdoor fitness area, shade structures, picnic tables, a grill, benches, accessible play equipment for kids and restrooms.
A spokesperson for the city suggests it will be great stopping point for bicyclists using the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area.
The park will be built using an additional $346,000 in matching funds from LA County Measure A. It’s expected to open to the public in 2024.
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A Koreatown bike rider was collateral damage in a police chase.
The California Transportation Commission — no, not Caltrans — is investing a billion bucks in boosting bicycling and walking with 93 projects targeted to low-income areas.
— California Transportation Commission (CTC) (@California_CTC) December 8, 2022
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No one who’s spent any amount of time on a university campus should be surprised that college administrators can’t manage to differentiate between safe, high-quality lithium-ion ebike batteries, and the fire-prone, secondhand junk ebike and scooter batteries.
Gravel Bike California grinds to the highest point in the City of Angels, at a whopping 5,079 ft.
Which sounds impressive, unless you’re from Colorado, like me.
But still.
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The war on cars may be a myth, but the war on bikes just keeps on going.
No bias here. A report from the uncomprehending National Transportation Safety Board, aka NTSB, incomprehensibly blames the victims for the meth-fueled crash that killed five bicyclists outside Las Vegas last year, for the crime of riding their bikes in the right lane of the highway. In other words, exactly where they were supposed to be. Las Vegas hospitals are about to be overrun with facepalm injuries.
Or here. A New Jersey columnist compares mandatory bike helmets to seat belts, saying he can’t understand why bike advocates would be against a helmet law, while ignoring the reasons advocates gave to opposite it. He also compares that opposition to bike helmets to opposition to motorcycle helmet laws, even they were opposed for diametrically differing reasons.
Sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
A British court dropped the charges against a road raging, 68-year old former Olympian, who called a woman fat and blind in an expletive-laden tirade, and reached into her car as she begged him not to hit her, all because she cut his bicycle off in traffic; the case was dismissed due to his PTSD resulting from an earlier crash.
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Local
Curbed’sAlissa Walker writes about LA’s outgoing Climate Mayor, who’s leaving the city’s broken sidewalks just as bad as when he found them, if not worse — thanks in part to his habit of getting distracted by shiny objects like a potential presidential run that never launched, and a nomination to be ambassador to India that crashed and burned. Eric Garcetti could have been a good mayor, if he had actually been interested in doing it.
A 44-year old man was seriously injured in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood Thursday evening, when his bike was left-crossed by a pickup driver while allegedly riding in a crosswalk against the Don’t Walk signal. Although once again, it depends on whether there were independent witnesses to the crash, or if police are relying on the driver who hit him.
A Paso Robles woman faces six years behind bars for pleading guilty to DUI after crashing into several parked cars while driving with a blood alcohol content of .30 — three and a half times the legal limit. She apparently hadn’t learned her lesson about drinking and driving, despite receiving an early release from prison for a ten-year sentence for the drunken, hit-and-run death of a bike-riding Cal Poly student in 2017. If there were any justice, she’d have to serve the remainder of her original sentence, consecutively with the new term.
Apparently, you can make an illegal U-turn while driving on the wrong side of the road, killing a British motorcyclist, then flee to the US under the cover of diplomatic immunity, and still walk without a single damn day behind bars, like the wife of an American diplomat/spy did in the death of 19-year old Harry Dunn.
Life is cheap in the UK, where a driver walked without a day behind bars for the hit-and-run crash that left a bike-riding man barely conscious and struggling to breathe; he later told investigators he thought he hit a traffic cone. Trust me, if anyone runs me down, they’re going to hear enough choice words to know exactly what they hit.
Nice. Dublin, Ireland opened a new community bike hub, providing free use of adaptive bikes for people with disabilities or mobility issues, a project to repair old and unused bikes to donate to community members, and bike repair and safe bicycling courses for kids.
For the first seven months of this year, it was one of the safest places to ride a bicycle in Southern California, with just four deaths.
Even though just one is one too many.
Yet the county has doubled that total in just the last ten days, with the latest death coming yesterday in Carlsbad, where the victim was collateral damage in a police chase.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified, died at the scene, while both the 28-year old motorcyclist and his passenger, a 22-year old woman, were hospitalized with serious injuries.
There’s no word on when or where the pursuit started, or how fast the motorcyclist was going at the time of the crash.
However, it raises inevitable questions about the wisdom of police chases that place innocent people at risk, and whether a parks cop was properly trained in how to conduct a chase.
Anyone with information is urged to call Carlsbad Police Investigator Adam Bentley at 442/339-5559.
This is at least the 58th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the eighth that I’m aware of in San Diego County.
It’s also the 4th bicycling death in the county in the last ten days, and the second in Carlsbad.
Catcott was reportedly moving from the bike lane to a turn lane when he was run down by the fleeing motorcyclist, and succumbed to blunt force trauma.
The paper reports Carlsbad Police referred questions to State Parks officials, who said there “is no new information to share with the public” ten days after the crash.
Not that they’re trying to cover their collective ass or anything.
My deepest prayers and sympathy for the Brad Allen Catcott and all his loved ones.
My apologies for yesterday’s unexcused absence, once again.
The assorted health issues stemming from my diabetes, and the many and varied meds to treat them, conspired to knock me on my ass all Tuesday night and most of the following day.
One more reminder that diabetes sucks.
Virtually all my health problems are the result of doctors who insisted I’d never get diabetes, despite a family history on both sides, allowing it to go undetected for as much as 20 years.
So if you’re at risk, get checked. And don’t believe anyone who insists your bicycling, lean build and/or healthy diet means you won’t get it.
Then do whatever you have to do to avoid it.
Because trust me, you don’t want this shit.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
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Los Angeles TV viewers watched live Tuesday evening as a car theft suspect led police on a high speed chase before briefly driving on the Westside’s Ballona Creek bike path.
He then abandoned the allegedly stolen van to run across the 90 Freeway during rush hour traffic, and apparently made a failed attempt to buy, beg or steal a man’s bicycle back on the path.
All in vain, as it turned out, as the bike rider refused, and police tackled the man in a grassy field shortly later.
Albuquerque Police said Crane allegedly shot the man in the foot, heated a metal pipe and threatened to burn him in the face, and shoved an object up his nose, KRQE reports. Crane allegedly spray-painted a cross on the man’s chest and threatened to shoot him.
They reportedly were looking for someone they said owed them money. But they’re likely to get long prison terms, instead.
And yes, this is why you should always meet prospective bike buyers or sellers in a public place.
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Here’s your chance to weigh in on a safer Glendora Ave.
Learn how to fight for, and implement, effective Vision Zero programs.
The Vision Zero Cities Pop-Up conference provides deep dives into some of the most pressing issues on our streets. Following two tracks and taking place online, attendees will learn both design and advocacy best practices to affect real change. https://t.co/lI3W18PIT3
KCET highlights 12 bikeable spots to explore in WeHo’s Rainbow District, aka Boystown, viewable along the bike lane on Santa Monica Blvd. Some I didn’t even know about, like the Door’s offices and rehearsal space, where Jim Morrison laid tracks for L.A. Woman.
An Ohio bike shop got a stolen BMX bike back when the owner’s mother called the mother of one of the suspected thieves, asking for her son do the right thing. Which in this case, meant buying it back from the person he sold it to before he could return it.
The Virginia Senate approved measures requiring drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders when they can’t give a three-foot passing distance and allow bicyclists to ride two abreast, but punted on adopting the Idaho Stop Law.
About damn time. Thirty-three year old former bike messenger Ayesha McGowan has joined Liv Racing, achieving her high-profile goal of becoming the first Black American woman to compete on the World Tour, just six years after first taking up the sport. Once again, read it on Yahoo if Bicycling blocks you.
Making the case even more bizarre, police booked the driver on posthumous criminal charges for causing the crash. Which presumably means, if convicted, he could face eternity behind bars.
Unfortunately, the Indian press frequently uses the same terms for bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles, so we have no way of knowing what the victim was actually riding.
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Sometimes it’s the people on bikes behaving badly.
A Vancouver bike rider demonstrates why you shouldn’t fly off a sidewalk and try to beat oncoming traffic.
A new official Los Angeles art project will place up 100 rainbow halos to honor traffic victims. While it’s important to remember victims of traffic violence, wouldn’t it be better to fix the damn streets so we don’t need the halos in the first place?
An Indianapolis bike rider says he appreciates the city’s new bicycle network, but he’s had it with people driving in bike lanes. Not to mention drivers who start on the green bike signal, rather than the regular traffic light.
A writer for Jalopnik says Vision Zero is the wrong goal; instead of responding to traffic deaths, New York should focus on “unleashing the joy of riding a bike to make a better place to live, not fighting the fear that riding a bike may entail.”
A woman survives the death of her pro cyclist husband in a racing crash, only to find love with another cyclist; Astrid Collinge married Belgian cyclist Louis Vervaeke this year, three years after her then-husband Antoine Demoitié was killed by a race moto during the 2016 Gent-Wevelgem.
A police chase has turned deadly in Loma Linda, as a Loma Linda bike rider was run down by a suspect fleeing from San Bernardino sheriff’s deputies.
According to a notice released by the department, deputies were attempting to serve a domestic violence warrant on 37-year old Eric Tafoya of Rancho Cucamonga at a residence on Benton Court in Loma Linda this morning when they saw him leave the home.
As he approached the intersection with Anderson Road at 10:48 am, he smashed into a bike rider, then continued on without stopping, until he crashed into a van and fled on foot. He was taken into custody a short time later after being located by a police dog.
The victim, whose identity is being withheld pending notice of next of kin, was taken to nearby Loma Linda Medical Center, where he died at 12:18 pm.
No other information is available at this time.
There’s no word on how fast Tafoya’s vehicle was traveling, or whether the victim was struck on Barton or crossing at the intersection.
However, a street view shows a four lane street that could invite high speeds, with a bike lane on the right shoulder.
Tafoya now faces a possible murder charge, in addition to the original warrant.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Region 1 Major Accident Investigation Team at 909/918-2305; anonymous tips can be made at 1-800/782-7463.
This is the 52nd bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the sixth in San Bernardino County; it’s also the second in Loma Linda since the first of the year.
Fortunately, the rider is relatively okay; the Times reports that he suffered a broken leg in the collision.
But these chases are getting far too frequent and dangerous.
And the next person to become collateral damage may not be so lucky.
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As hard as it is for me to admit at times, there are other issues besides bicycling in this year’s race for mayor of Los Angeles. Candidate Kevin James offers a detailed position on animal issues for of us who care about the city’s four-footed residents; I’d like to see what the other candidates have to say on the subject.
