Tag Archive for San Diego

Update: San Diego cyclist dies two days after dooring

September 30, 2011 / / 16 comments

This is not the way we wanted to end the week.

Early Friday morning, a San Diego cyclist died of injuries he received after getting doored Wednesday evening.

The incident occurred around 7 pm Wednesday when 30-year old Justin Newman of San Diego was riding west on University Avenue near Kansas Street.

According to the Union-Tribune’s Sign On San Diego website, as he passed a 2008 Dodge sedan parked on the side of the street, the driver opened the door into his path. He hit it and fell into the street, suffering a major closed head injury.

He was pronounced dead at 1:30 am at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego.

For a change, none of the stories I’ve seen indicate whether Newman was wearing helmet, even though this is exactly the sort of relatively slow-speed impact that helmets are designed to protect against.

And despite common perceptions that often blame the cyclist for running into a door, it is almost always the motorist’s fault when a cyclist is doored.

Under section 22517 of the California Vehicle Code, drivers are responsible for ensuring that the street next to them is clear before opening a door. And it’s been that way for nearly 50 years.

22517.  No person shall open the door of a vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless it is reasonably safe to do so and can be done without interfering with the movement of such traffic, nor shall any person leave a door open upon the side of a vehicle available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than necessary to load or unload passengers.

The driver should face criminal charges for Newman’s death under that statute, since there is virtually no way to door a rider without violating it. So it will be interesting to see if San Diego authorities, who aren’t always perceived as being supportive of cyclists, do the right thing.

Or if they say it was just another accident. And let yet another killer careless driver off the hook.

Newman was the 2nd San Diego area cyclist fatally injured in two days this week, and the 12th confirmed traffic-related bike fatality in San Diego County this year. He was also the 55th cycling fatality in Southern California since the start of the year, matching the annual total for the last two years on record.

Update: Chuck Lowery forwarded an earlier story from the Sign On San Diego site indicating that Newman wasn’t wearing a helmet when he was doored.

And that brings up a common misconception.

Bike helmets are designed to offer full head protection at impact speeds of up to 12.5 mph, and partial protection up to 20 mph. It’s highly unlikely that Newman’s head hit the pavement at a speed higher than that in a simple dooring; had he been wearing one, there’s a good possibility that he might have survived.

Where helmets offer little or no protection are the kind of high speed collisions most people wear them for. If you’re hit by a car or truck traveling at speed, a helmet may offer some protection, but it’s not a magic talisman that will miraculously protect you from injury.

Personally, I use something else for that.

And a helmet will do absolutely nothing to protect against injury to other parts of the body.

So by all means, wear your helmet; I never ride without mine. But know their limitations. Because the best way to survive a dooring, or any other collision, is to avoid having one.

My deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Justin Newman.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , ,

Update: San Diego TV station attempts to thin the herd by encouraging children to ride against traffic

August 23, 2011 / / 9 comments

Evidently, they have too many children in San Diego.

How else can you explain a news report on KFMB-TV encouraging children riding to school to risk their lives by salmoning on the wrong side of the road?

And if your child walks, rides a bike or a skateboard to school, make sure they travel against traffic and always wears a helmet.

The helmet advice is fine. In fact, helmets are legally required in California for all bike riders under 18. And walking against traffic can be good advice, although it might have been nice to encourage children to walk on the sidewalk, rather than in the street.

But riding a bike against traffic is not only illegal — bikes are required to ride with traffic — but exceptionally dangerous. While it may give the illusion of increasing safety by allowing riders to see oncoming traffic, it reduces reaction times for both the rider and drivers while greatly increasing the severity of any collision.

It’s bad enough that a local reporter got it wrong and gave children and parents the wrong advice in a mistaken attempt to improve back-to-school safety. What’s worse is that the statement came in the middle of a quote from a California Highway Patrol officer.

At best, it appears to give official support for the reporter’s error. At worst, it suggests that the officer in question is badly misinformed about bike law and safety, and offering advice that could put children at risk.

Hopefully, they’ll make a correction soon. Before anyone takes their advice.

And maybe they’ll talk to someone who knows what the hell they’re talking about before making a similar mistake again.

Update: As of 12:30 today, KFMB still has not corrected their report, despite promising several people who contacted them that they would do so. As a result, I sent them the following email.

Dear Adrienne Moore — 

I’ve heard from a number of people who have contacted you today to correct the dangerously false advice given in your report “Avoiding a big danger kids face on way to school.” They wrote you to asking that you correct the suggestion that children riding bikes should ride against, rather than with, traffic. 
This is both illegal, as California law requires that all cyclists must ride in the same direction as traffic, and dangerous because it reduces reaction time for the cyclists and for motorists rushing towards them. There is no valid authority that advices riding against traffic in the U.S.; however, the placement of the statement within the discussion by CHP Officer Brian Pennings suggests that he provided you with that information.
If he told you that cyclists should ride facing traffic, he is wrong, and this gives you an opportunity to both correct his error and inform the general public how to ride safely with traffic. If not, you have done the CHP a disservice by suggesting that Officer Pennings is unaware of one of the most basic laws governing cycling.
Your continued failure to correct this advice puts the lives and safety of children at risk. I must insist that you offer a full retraction immediately before anyone is injured or killed as a result of your error; simply correcting the story online will not be sufficient to remedy the damage that has been done.
Update 2: I haven’t received a response to my email; however, the video report has been re-edited to say that pedestrians should walk against traffic, and skateboarders and bicyclists should wear a helmet. However, the online print version of the story still has not been corrected, and as far as I can tell, no effort has been made to correct the misinformation given all the people who may have heard or read the original report.
Update 3: I received a response from Adrienne Moore, the reporter who covered the story for KFMB, who apologized for the error and said the story had been corrected. However, the online print version still has not been corrected as of 10 pm August 23rd.
Category: Bicycle Safety, Bikes & the Law / Tags: , , , , , ,

San Diego salmon cyclist killed after falling into traffic lane

June 20, 2011 / / 5 comments

A 47-year old San Diego cyclist was killed about 10:40 pm Sunday night after falling in front of an oncoming pickup.

According to San Diego’s KFMB 760, Jaime Ruiz was riding against traffic on the 1200 block of Hollister Blvd when he hit a parked car and fell into the traffic lane, where he was struck by a Toyota Tacoma driven by an unidentified off-duty Border Patrol agent. The driver was not cited; Ruiz was reportedly riding without lights or helmet.

While I often rail against press reports that insist on noting the lack or presence of a helmet in fatal collisions, this is a case where it might actually be worth mentioning — though not without more details.

Depending on the speed of the truck and how the actual impact occurred, this could be exactly the sort of slow-speed impact bike helmets are intended to protect against. Or it could be that the impact occurred at a higher speed or to other parts of the body, making the lack of a helmet irrelevant. Without more information, we’ll never know.

This is also a case in which the rider is clearly at fault.

While riding against traffic may seem logical in order to provide a better view of oncoming traffic, drivers don’t expect to see cyclists riding towards them in the same lane. It also shortens the reaction time required to avoid a collision, as well as increasing the severity of a collision by increasing the speed differential.

This is often a problem among immigrant cyclists, who are sometimes taught to ride facing traffic, rather than with it. While it may seem to make some sense on rural roads where motor vehicle traffic can be rare, it is extremely dangerous on busier streets.

It’s tempting to suspect that Ruiz could have been intoxicated — after all, most riders manage to avoid large stationary objects. However, it’s also possible that, without a light, he may not have seen the parked car until it was too late to avoid it if the street was dark enough, or could have been forced into it by a driver passing too close.

This is the 9th traffic-related cycling fatality in San Diego this year, and the 32nd in the larger Southern California area. Of those, the rider has been at primary fault in 12 of the collisions, the driver at fault in 18; the other two were undetermined.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

Victims and driver identified in San Diego bike path collision; speed may have been a factor

June 2, 2011 / / 4 comments

One was a 40-year old father of two small children; the other is a 51-year old father of a college age son. One was an executive with a bioenergy company; the other is president and CEO of the YMCA in San Diego County.

One was a bike commuter on his way home; the other an avid triathlete who rides several times a week.

Both are married; neither one knew the other.

Yet yesterday, both men were the victims of a possibly speeding driver who lost control of her SUV and ended up flipping over on the bike path they were riding on.

Now bioenergy executive Nick Venuto of Poway is dead, while YMCA CEO Baron Hederlin-Doherty is in stable condition, his body shattered with broken hips, ribs and arms, according to the North County Times.

The San Diego Union Tribune’s SignOnSanDiego reports that 27-year old Sheena Saranita was driving her Ford Escape at an estimated 65 – 80 mph when she attempted to change lanes. She overreacted after seeing a vehicle in the right lane and went off the road, climbing the 15-foot embankment, blowing through a chainlink fence and flipping over onto the bike path; her SUV landed on its side, hitting both riders in the process.

Police don’t think drugs or alcohol were factors in the collision; no word on whether Saranita may have been texting or otherwise distracted behind the wheel. However, the nature of the collision would suggest that either excess speed or some sort of distraction could have been a factor.

According to the Union Tribune,

Dr. Dave Chotiner, a dentist from Carmel Valley, witnessed the accident and was the first to render aid. He said Venuto, who appeared to have been hit first, died within minutes. Herdelin-Doherty was lying on his back about 40 feet behind Venuto.

He said Saranita was out of her SUV near Venuto and was yelling hysterically, “you have to help him.”

Both papers feel compelled to report that the riders were each wearing helmets, despite the fact that bike helmets can’t, and were never intended to, protect against a multi-ton vehicle travelling at highway speeds.

And as Hederlin-Doherty’s injuries make clear, helmets can do absolutely nothing to protect against injuries to any other part of the body.

Don’t get me wrong.

I’m a firm believer in wearing a helmet every time I ride. But in a collision like this, they would have been of little, if any benefit.

And whether or not the victims were wearing them is truly irrelevant in this case.

My heart and prayers go out to the family, friends and loved ones of Nick Venuto, and best wishes to Baron Hederlin-Doherty for a full and fast recovery.

……..

On a related subject, I’ve received word from a source who doesn’t wish to be identified that cyclist Richard Lauwers is doing very well, back on his bike and is now a firm believer in the power or prayer. As you may recall, Lauwers was critically injured last January when a driver went off the road and hit him while he was riding on the Huntington Beach Bike Path; the driver, Glen M. Moore of Newport Beach, was allegedly intoxicated and racing a BMW driven by Michael D. Roach.

And a memorial will be held this Sunday for Nick Haverland, the 20-year old Ventura College student killed last month in an allegedly drunken roadway rampage. Driver Satnam Singh was reportedly  involved in three separate collisions in a matter of minutes, injuring five other people.

Update: Jim Lyle forwards some good news about Adam Rybicki, the cyclist critically injured when he was hit by an underaged, allegedly drunk driver in Torrance in April. While he has been unable to respond to verbal commands, he is now moving his hands and responding to commands and questions written on whiteboard. Clearly, he faces a long road back, but this is the first news that offers real hope for his recovery.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

San Diego cyclist killed, another seriously injured when SUV flips onto bike path

May 31, 2011 / / 2 comments

At least one cyclist was killed and another seriously injured when an SUV lost control on busy highway and flipped onto a bike path near Rancho Peñasquitos in north San Diego.

Initial reports indicated that two cyclists had died at the scene; however, later reports said the second rider had been transported to Scripps La Jolla Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The collision occurred about 6:20 pm on the 56 Bike Trail, which runs parallel to the eastbound side of State Route 56 west of Black Mountain Road; the CHP called for a coroner less than 25 minutes later.

A woman driving an SUV on eastbound SR56 apparently lost control while making a lane change, went off the road, up a grassy embankment and through a chainlink fence before flipping over onto a group of riders.

According to SignOnSanDiego, both riders were in their 30s or 40s; neither has been publicly identified as of this time. Pedestrians and other cyclists reportedly attempted to aid the riders until paramedics arrived.

The driver was also taken to the hospital; reports disagree on whether anyone else was in the SUV. No explanation has been given for why she lost control of her vehicle.

There’s simply no way to protect against a collision like that. The riders should have been safe from motor vehicles on an off-road bike path; undoubtedly, they thought they were. Certainly no one expected a vehicle to fall onto a bike path — let alone at the exact moment a group of riders are passing by.

SignOnSanDiego reports that both riders were wearing helmets; if anyone ever invents a helmet strong enough to protect against an SUV falling on top of a cyclist, I hope they let us all know.

This is the 32nd cycling death so far this year, and the ninth in San Diego County since the first of the year, which includes 7 traffic deaths and one shooting.

That compares with 8 cycling deaths for all of last year for San Diego County, and an average of 6.8 over the last five years, according to the FARS database maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Thanks to Eric Bruins for the heads-up.

Update:  The Times now reports that two cyclists have been injured, in addition to the rider who died at the scene; however, they still say just one rider was hospitalized, in addition to the driver.

Update: as of 9 am Wednesday, no other source has confirmed that report, and the Times has changed the wording of the story to remove any reference to a second injured rider.

Update: both victims and the driver have been identified; speeding may have been a factor in the collision.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

San Diego cyclist shot and killed in National City area (updated)

April 30, 2011 / / Comments Off on San Diego cyclist shot and killed in National City area (updated)

It’s happened once again.

Early Friday morning, 21-year old Jordan Hickey was shot and killed while riding his bike in the Lincoln Acres neighborhood of National City, just southeast of downtown San Diego.

The shooting occurred at 12:30 am on the 2800 block of Grove Street. When police arrived, they found Hickey lying on top of his bike, fatally shot at least once in the upper body. No explanation yet on the motive for the shooting.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the sheriff’s department at (858) 565-5200, or the homicide detail at (858) 974- 2321.

Remarkably, this is the third fatal shooting of a cyclist in Southern California this year, and the fourth since December.

Update: According to the Union-Tribune’s Sign On San Diego website, Hickey did not drive due to developmental disabilities, and rode his bike everywhere. He was returning home from visiting his girlfriend, and was just minutes from the apartment he shared with his mother and brother when he was shot. 

“He was just at the bottom of the hill,” his mother said. “He was almost home….”

She said her son “lived in his own world,” and was kind and caring. “He did not believe me when I told him that there are people in the world who would hurt you,” said Hickey, a single mom who has raised her sons on her own.

The story quotes his uncle, John Hickey, describing Jordan as artistic and gentle, someone who “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

John Hickey said he was angry that this could happen to his nephew, who “never smoked, never did drugs, never drank” and who had “no malice toward anybody.”

Authorities still haven’t identified a motive; it doesn’t appear that he was robbed, and unlike the other recent bike-related shootings, there doesn’t appear to be any suspicion of gang violence.

Category: Injuries and Fatalities, Violence & Crime / Tags: , , ,

Breaking news — Cyclist killed in San Diego area

March 6, 2011 / / One comment

In what’s shaping up as a bad weekend for SoCal cyclists, a male rider was killed in the San Diego suburb of Lomita Sunday morning.

According the local NBC affiliate in San Diego, the collision occurred on the 8000 block of Skyline Drive at around 7:30 this morning. According to the report, the driver of the van remained at the scene.

That comes just 12 hours after last night’s hit-and-run in Ventura. No further information is available online yet on either collision.

However, it does serve as a reminder that while warmer weather brings more cyclists out onto the streets, drivers may not be looking for us yet.

So use extra caution out there.

Update: According the Lemon Grove Patch, the victim was a Hispanic male in his 50s, whose identity has not yet been publicly released. He was reportedly riding west on Skyline Drive when a van driving in the same direction veered to the right and struck the curb before hitting the cyclist.

According to a police spokesman, the driver of the van is currently considered the primary cause of the collision.

Update: The cyclist was identified as 73-year old Ignacio Manriques Sanchez of San Diego; the driver does not seem to have been publicly identified.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , ,

Victim and driver in San Diego street sweeper death identified; it just gets sadder

February 15, 2011 / / 6 comments

I often complain about the lack of information about bicycle collisions.

Usually, we’re lucky if the story merits a few paragraph’s in the paper. A bare description that a motor vehicle hit a cyclist, or the other way around; maybe the name of the victim and the driver. Sometimes not even that.

Then there are times when the press does its job, and we learn about the victim and the driver.

Too often, it just makes the whole story that much more tragic.

That’s what happened today in the sad, infuriating case of a San Diego cyclist killed when the driver of a street sweeper fell asleep behind the wheel last Friday.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the victim, Suntat Peverley, was a lab tech who had worked for UCSD Medical Center for the past 10 years. A popular lead phlebotomist with the Internal Medicine Group, he leaves behind a wife and two children.

Meanwhile, 77-year old Fred Franklin Fuller wasn’t just the driver of the street sweeper, he also owned the company. After sweeping parking lots for 33 years, he’d turned the business over to his son, but started driving again after his son died just three weeks ago. Tragically, Fuller’s wife also died about the same time.

Not surprisingly, he told police investigators that he hadn’t been sleeping well lately.

Fuller shouldn’t have been behind the wheel. Not at his age. Not in his physical condition. Not in his emotional state, after suffering two tragic loses so recently.

Maybe he thought working would ease the pain and give him something to do; maybe he felt like he didn’t have any choice.

There seems to be no question that he was at fault. The only question is what the consequences will be, whether he’ll be charged, and if he will be able to live with what he’s done after suffering so much tragedy already.

We know what the consequences were for Peverley. His wife will have to go on without the love and support of her husband. His children will grow up without a father.

This whole case is just too heartbreaking for words.

Sometimes, I really wish I didn’t know the details.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,

San Diego cyclist killed by sleeping 77-year old street sweeper

February 13, 2011 / / 22 comments

Just a week after San Diego cyclist Ben Acree was killed in a highly questionable collision, another San Diego-area rider has been killed in truly horrifying incident.

The still unidentified 44-year old San Diego-area cyclist was riding in a marked bike lane on Genesee Ave near Clairemont Mesa Blvd Drive in the Clairemont neighborhood at about 5;20 pm on Friday. According to police reports, a 77-year old street sweeper operator fell asleep at the wheel, drifted into the bike lane and struck the bike from behind.

Clearly, there are still a lot of questions to be answered. Not the least of which is why a 77-year old man was operating heavy equipment like that — in rush hour traffic, no less.

I don’t know if the driver will be held accountable.

But I’m pretty sure the person who put him there should be.

Update: The victim has been identified as Suntat Peverley of Mira Mesa, just north of the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. My condolences to his family and loved ones.

And once again, the press feels a need to note that the victim in a bicycle collision was wearing a helmet, as if that means it wasn’t his fault he was killed. What part of he was run down by a street sweeper don’t they get? In a situation like that, a helmet isn’t going to make a bit of difference — and clearly, it didn’t.

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , ,

60-year old cyclist killed in San Diego; police and press fall over themselves to blame the victim

February 5, 2011 / / 53 comments

Excuse me if I’m a little livid.

But once again, a cyclist has been killed. And once again, the police — and the local press — have fallen all over themselves to blame the rider.

Let’s start with official version first.

Around 11:50 am Saturday, a pair of cyclists were riding in a designated bike lane on eastbound Friars Road in San Diego, near the off-ramp for the northbound I-15 freeway. The riders attempted to cross the off-ramp; one made it, one didn’t. The victim was described only as a 60-year old white male who lived with his wife in San Diego.

According to some reports, he was hit when he attempted to ride in front of a truck; according to other reports, he hit the side of the truck and fell beneath its wheels.

No, he didn’t.

There are very few cyclists anywhere who don’t have a healthy respect for — if not fear of — large trucks. The chance that anyone would actually ride into one is somewhere between slim and none.

Then there’s the comparative speeds. The rider would have likely been travelling at somewhere around 15 – 20 mph, possibly a little more or less, while the truck would have been exiting a major freeway at highway speeds.

So who exactly hit whom? Saying the bike hit the truck is kind of like saying you hit Mike Tyson’s fist with your face.

Meanwhile, according to the San Diego NBC station, a spokesman for the police suggested that the cyclist was clearly at fault.

“It appears at this time, that the bicyclist traveled in front of the truck violating his right-of-way and was struck by the commercial vehicle,” said San Diego Police Lt. Dan Christman.

Maybe it’s me. But one of us seems to misunderstand the most basic concepts of right-of-way law.

I was taught that merging traffic must yield to through traffic. Which means, unless the intersection was clearly marked to the contrary, the cyclists should have had the right-of-way, not the truck.

There is nothing in the law that says that the larger vehicle — or the faster vehicle — has the right-of-way.

Then, in an astounding demonstration of failing to understand the most basic traffic concepts, the officer points out that the bike lane the cyclists were riding in stops just before the off ramp, then begins again in the far right lane on the other side of the junction.

So what, exactly, were the cyclists supposed to do when the bike lane ended? Magically levitate to where it starts up again?

Or maybe they just weren’t supposed to be there in the first place?

As the satellite view clearly shows, cyclists using the bike lane have no choice but to ride across a busy, high-speed off ramp, hoping against hope that exiting drivers will yield to them.

Maybe the police should try riding across that off-ramp themselves.

So rather than the fault lying with the cyclists, it would appear to be a case of exceptionally poor road design, combined with the driver’s failure to yield to oncoming traffic — in this case, a bike. And an investigation by a police department that could use a little more training in the rights and responsibilities of cyclists.

I hope his family has a very good lawyer.

It looks like they’re going to need one.

Update: The victim has been identified as Marberry Ben Acree of San Diego; his brother-in-law writes to note the family is still in shock, as would be expected, while friends express their grief.

A couple of the news reports indicate that satellite photos show the bike lane runs along Friars Road as the off-ramp merges with the through lanes. I relied on Google’s satellite photos because I’m over 125 mile from the scene of the collision; there’s no excuse for any San Diego-based station relying on satellite photos instead of taking news van over there to look at the damn road themselves.

A man was killed; isn’t that worth a little actual reporting?

 

Category: Bicycle Safety, Injuries and Fatalities / Tags: , , , ,
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