Old 12-01-09, 12:27 PM
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dougmc
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Originally Posted by Ziemas
My wife was T-boned by some idiot cyclist jamming out to music in his own little world. She screamed at him while slamming on her brakes, but of course he didn't hear her. As she was lying on the pavement with a cracked frame he took off his headphones, said 'what?' and rode away, leaving her on the ground.
The implication here is that the music player use was the cause of the accident -- though it probably wasn't. If you're screaming at another cyclist to stop, it's probably already too late. And it seems quite obvious (if he said "what?") that he DID hear her.

Odd that he hit her hard enough to break her frame -- but not hard enough to damage his own bike badly enough to have to even look for damage. Or that her frame (usually really hard to break) was broken, but she wasn't injured (if she was hurt, I'd expect that to more worthy of mentioning than her broken frame.)

It seems to me that the bigger issue is that this person caused an accident by not paying attention (this is the assumption made, though perhaps your wife caused the accident?) and then didn't even stop long enough to work out who was at fault before leaving. (Assuming that the story given is 100% accurate, of course.) Any alleged iPod use is tertiary to these two issues.

And as for this being a bike forum rather than a car forum, yes, but the situation of a car with the stereo turned up to 11 is exactly analogous -- except that he's surrounded by two tons of metal and possibly going 70 rather than 25. And most people who post here do either own cars, drive, or interact with cars (possibly with the stereo turned up to 11) on a regular basis as they ride, so comparisons with cars are certainly appropriate.

Edit: reading further into the thread, the accident was explained further -- it does sound like the accident was his fault. Still doesn't blame the iPod, however.

Last edited by dougmc; 12-01-09 at 12:31 PM.
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