August 28, 2024 /
bikinginla / Comments Off on Update: Man riding BMX on sidewalk killed by wrong-way, hit-and-run driver in South LA’s Florence-Firestone neighborhood
Nope.
Nothing suspicious here.
A man was struck and killed by a wrong-way, hit-and-run driver while riding his bike on a South LA sidewalk early Thursday morning.
According to Fox-11, the man was riding on the 7900 block of Alameda Street in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood just after 1 am Thursday, when an unknown driver jumped the curb on the opposite side of the roadway, traveling against traffic, and striking the victim on the sidewalk.
The driver sped off following the crash, leaving the victim, who hasn’t been publicly identified, to die at the scene.
Video from Fox-11 shows the victim’s blurred body lying on the sidewalk, next to his backpack and cellphone, with his BMX bike in the street nearby.
There’s no description of the suspect vehicle at this time, let alone the person behind the wheel.
But considering that the driver struck someone on a raised sidewalk, on the opposite side of a two-way street, it suggests they may have lost control at high rate of speed, or while driving distracted or under the influence.
Or that the crash may have been intentional.
Hopefully we’ll learn more soon.
This is at least the 35th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the tenth that I’m aware of in Los Angeles County.
Thirteen of those SoCal deaths have come at the hands of heartless cowards who didn’t have the basic human decency to stick around afterward.
A year and a half after Matt Keenan was killed while riding his bike in Mission Valley, Melissa Gonzalez was sentenced for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
Not the felony she should have been charged with for driving on the wrong side of the street around a blind curve. Let alone the distracted driving charge she likely deserved.
The kindhearted judge took pity — not on Keenan’s widow, or even his toddler son who will grow up without father, but on the woman who killed him.
In addition to four lousy days in jail, Gonzalez received a single year probation, 150 hours of community service, and had her license suspended for three years, as the judge bizarrely ruled she didn’t deserve a punishment that would wreck her life.
Never mind that she wrecked the lives of Keenan’s friends and family. Let alone literally wrecking, and ending, Matt Keenan’s.
If you ever wonder why people keep dying on our streets, this is exhibit A.
We can only hope San Diego voters will remember this one when the judge comes up for re-election.
Police are looking for a flatbed truck with a white cab, and a distinctive yellow logo on the passenger door. Not to mention the heartless coward behind the wheel.
As always, there is a $50,000 reward for any fatal hit-and-run in the City of Los Angeles.
Thanks to KCAL-9 anchor Jeff Vaughn for the heads-up.
You must assert your voice when you are talking to someone who approaches you in sketchy areas, because strangers don’t really come up to you to have a friendly conversation about the weather like we do in Australia. In America some people might come up to you to try to come up. #streetsmart#streetsmarts#safety#safetyfirst
Always helps to have co-workers nearby if you get run down by a drunk driver. Especially when they’re paramedics.
A Denver paramedic who was struck by a suspected DUI driver while riding his bike home from work says two of his co-workers happened to be responding to a call nearby and saved his life. @DenverChannelpic.twitter.com/I8aDO8MSNh
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
Police arrested a Denver man who rode his bicycle into a car wash to fatally shoot a driver who had just pulled onto the lot, and injuring the car’s passenger; he fled the scene on his bike before changing clothes twice in a homeless camp, hacking off his hair, and hiding in a hole under the train tracks.
More on the Florida crash that critically injured Dartmouth football coach Eugene “Buddy” Teevens, who was run down by a driver while riding home from a restaurant with his wife in St. Augustine; police reports blamed the victim, saying he didn’t appear to have lights on his cruiser bike, and was crossing the state’s coast highway outside of a crosswalk or designated crossing area. Even though bike riders aren’t expected, let alone required, to use crosswalks.
A nice three day weekend with my wife was, if not ruined, at least darkened by a road raging woman who nearly ran us down making a left turn as we crossed the street, less than a block from our home.
She somehow took offense when I objected to the way my wife, dog and I nearly became roadkill, screaming that it was our fault because we hadn’t been paying attention.
Which was true for the dog, anyway.
Never mind that a) we had the right-of-way, b) she started her turn after we were already crossing the street, and c) she neglected to use her turn signal, which might have tipped us off.
But in her mind, we were 100% at fault.
Just another reminder that cars can turn people into monsters.
And that we’ll never have safe streets until our elected leaders have the courage and political will to actually do something about it.
To qualify, participants can make no more than 300% of the federal poverty level (FPL).
The base incentive will be $1,000.
Participants can get an additional $750 toward the purchase of a cargo bike or adaptive bike.
People whose income is below 225% of FPL or who live in a disadvantaged community can qualify for an additional $250, so the maximum incentive amount is $2,000.
Incentives can be applied toward sales tax, as well as the purchase price.
Incentives will be applied at the point of sale.
All three classes of e-bikes can qualify for incentives.
Used bikes will not be eligible.
Incentives can be used to buy e-bikes from local bike shops or online retailers with a business location in California.
Adaptive bikes can include tricycles. CARB plans to keep the definition of adaptive e-bikes as broad as possible.
Keenan was riding his bike to the movies in Mission Valley when the driver, who hasn’t been publicly named, let alone shamed, rounded a corner on the wrong side of the road and hit him head-on.
His confessed killer is copping a plea to misdemeanor Vehicular Manslaughter with Gross Negligence, with a three-year license suspension and not one day behind bars.
Let me repeat.
A lousy license suspension — not even revocation — and no jail time at all. For needlessly killing another human being, while likely driving distracted.
According to the organization, Keenan’s wife Laura has become one of the leading voices for safer streets in the nearly year and a half since his death, and deserves the support of the entire bicycling community in calling for the judge to add additional penalties, like community service and probation, at the sentencing hearing.
According to the BBC, the protestors based their LTN complaints on the difficulties they could pose for motorists who could be unable to drive directly through the city. Not to mention some major climate change denial, as well as baseless claims that it would result in a “climate lockdown,” with residents required to stay at home to protect the environment.
Meanwhile, 15-minute city proposals were bizarrely accused of being a front for a dystopian concentration camp-like lockdown, with gates locking residents inside their zone, allowed to leave just 100 days a year. Along with the creation of an Orwellian surveillance state to enforce climate goals.
Consider, for instance, this speech by a 12-year old anti-Greta Thuneburg, which has been circulating in rightwing circles for the past few days. Even if it, like the rest of the opposition, is based almost entirely on baseless conspiracy theories.
And none of which actually have a damn thing to do with it, of course.
A 15-minute city simply means that everything you need for daily life should be located within 15 minutes of your home — preferably by walking, biking or taking transit.
Meanwhile, LTNs are simply designed to discourage driving through a neighborhood, to increase the safety and livability of the community.
Neither one is intended to force anyone out of their cars. And they certainly have nothing to do with a dystopian surveillance state.
Here’s how British bike scribe and historian Carlton Reid debunks the conspiracies in under a minute.
Unfortunately for us monolingual types, though, it’s in French.
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The legendary Nina Simone was one of us.
Born on this day, February 21: Nina Simone, musician (1933-2003), seen here riding with producer Mike Hurst near Buckingham Palace in 1965. Happy #BicycleBirthday, Nina!#BOTDpic.twitter.com/jeTSWJ4kPI
No bias here, either. A Florida letter writer says bicyclists are a danger to themselves and others on the road because it’s a fact that we can’t keep up with traffic flow, and it’s our fault drivers get mad about it because we shouldn’t be there into first place. Then again, it’s also a fact that people on bikes are often faster than congested traffic. And we’re not responsible for how drivers, or anyone else, reacts.
But sometimes, it’s the people on two wheels behaving badly.
SoCal Cycling discusses how to get back into bicycling after a long layoff. Kind of like the one I’ve gone through with one diabetes-related health problem after another, which has resulted in a bike that’s virtually unrideable at this point. And a rider who can’t either.
Unbelievable. Metro’s board Planning and Programming Committee rejected calls for pedestrian crosswalk improvements in Pasadena, as part of a package of multimodal projects using leftover funds from the cancelled 710 Freeway extension; advocates hope the full board will overturn the decision this week. Apparently they’ve forgotten the urgent need to improve walkability and bikeability in the face of a climate emergency.
CNN highlights ten of the world’s best cities to explore by bicycle; unfortunately, San Francisco is the only US city on the list. And needless to say, Los Angeles isn’t. Thanks to Steve Fujinaka for the tip.
It was just over a week ago that an Ocean Beach writer penned a truly awful piece blaming the victims of this year’s 13 bicycling fatalities in San Diego County for contributing, if not causing, their own deaths.
Make that 14 now.
But this time, the victim appears to be as blameless as humanly possible.
Raw video from the crash site shows a crumpled red road bike in the tall weeds on the shoulder of the roadway, next to debris from the driver’s car, separated by a chainlink fence from the busy 8 Freeway.
The rear flasher on his bike continued to strobe on the broken bicycle, long after the crash.
The 25-year old driver’s car was stopped nearby, the windshield shattered over the steering wheel. Which means she had to see him in the bike lane directly in front of her if she was paying any attention to the road in front of her.
Police do not suspect intoxication; however, there’s no mention of whether she may have been distracted. Remarkably, though, she doesn’t seem to have been arrested, or even ticketed, at the scene.
Given that she was on the wrong side of the roadway, and somehow unaware of a grown man on a bicycle right in front of her car, it’s hard to imagine that she wouldn’t be criminally liable.
If nothing else, the presence of the bike lane to her left should have been a clue that there might be someone on a bicycle there, let alone that she was driving the wrong way.
Although these days, I suppose we should give her credit just for sticking around.
But the simple fact is the man on the bike was exactly where he was supposed to be, doing exactly what he was supposed to do, and lost his life to the plague of traffic violence — and an apparently negligent, if not distracted, driver — anyway.
This is at least the 48th bicycling fatality in Southern California this year, and the 14th that I’m aware of in San Diego County, which is suffering through an exceptionally bloody year.
Update: The victim has been identified as 42-year old San Diego resident Matthew Peter Keenan.
My deepest sympathy and prayers for Matthew Peter Keenan and all his loved ones.
………
Due to the time spent researching and writing this piece, and the late hour, there will be no Morning Links today. We’ll be back as usual on Friday to catch up on what we missed.
It’s been less than a decade since the disaster at the Santa Monica Farmers Market, when a confused motorist plowed through a crowd of pedestrians, killing 10 people and injuring 63.
Last weekend, it could have happened again. This time on a busy Venice Boardwalk crowded with tourists.
Fortunately, a cyclist named Kim Rivera was riding her bike north through Venice around 8:30 pm last Saturday night, making her way towards Santa Monica, when she saw a possible tragedy in the making.
As I approached one of the parking lot entrances, I saw a car driving on the Boardwalk. Right behind it, I saw a black Jeep follow the first car. Both continued driving north on Ocean Front Walk. The 1st car was driving at a normal speed (I estimate 22-25mph). The Jeep was slower. They both drove past a restaurant with people sitting outside. Pedestrians moved to the sides of the walk and were calling out “wrong way!” but the drivers seemed clueless.
A lot of people would have just shaken their heads and continued riding on their way, or stood to watch it all unfold before them. Instead, Kim swung into action to try and catch the drivers before it as too late.
I was riding right behind the Jeep. My intention was to ride up along side him and point him in the right direction, but I couldn’t safely get to the side since people were already moving to the sides of Ocean Front Walk. Soon the Jeep got a clue and turned right toward the alley.
That left one more car still threatening the safety of everyone on the Boardwalk.
The 1st car was well ahead of him. I road toward him cautiously because I didn’t know if he was drunk or what he might do next. He started to drive onto the Santa Monica Pedestrian Path that parallels the bike path, about half a car length, before stopping. He backed up and started to make a U-turn. His car was now sideways on Ocean Front Walk.
That’s when I felt it was safe enough, and rode up about five feet away, stopped my bike lengthwise along the passenger side of the car and waved my arms, yelling “No! No! You can’t drive here. No cars!” He asked where he was supposed to go. I told him this was not a street, and pointed for him to drive alongside the condos at the end there and enter the alley.
Unfortunately, the confused driver still didn’t get it.
He slowly continued to make his U-turn, so I started doing the same thing again; parked in front of him with my bike, arms waving. He pointed to the Boardwalk and asked me, “But I can go back this way?” So I said a THIRD time, “No cars! This is not a street. You could hurt someone!”
He finally ended up going where I told him and into the alley.
Disaster averted, if barely.
Overall, they didn’t drive very far on the Boardwalk. I think they entered from Rose, but there were still a lot of people there that could have gotten hurt. Especially toward the far end near Santa Monica where it gets real dark.
Next time I ride that way, I plan to stop and take a look at the entrance to the Boardwalk at Rose, and see if something needs to be done to keep clueless drivers off.
And say a little thanks that Kim was there that night to keep a minor incident from turning into something worse.
