dynodonn 

There is always someone trying to go faster, and I said that 60mph is not unattainable, but much more difficult to sustain. Now pave those gravel sections , and 60 mph travel speeds will be a thing of the past with now even high speeds being attained.

EriktheFish

You're right, here's the email address: dpartsch@justice.com

You sound like the County Attorney and his reasoning for dismissing the case. A cycle is a cycle, no matter it's configuration. Calling an adult trike a "contraption" does not take away a driver's responsibility to not rear-end humans on a public roadway. The C.A. said this, according to the article: "Otoe County Attorney David Partsch said he didn’t find a crime occurred...", yet Nebraska Law says this:

Nebraska statute 60-6,133 (3) states that "The driver of a vehicle overtaking a bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility device proceeding in the same direction shall exercise due care, which shall include, but not be limited to, leaving a safe distance of no less than three feet clearance, when applicable, when passing a bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility device and shall maintain such clearance until safely past the overtaken bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility device."

Yes, it is a tragic event for the cyclist and for the elderly woman that killed him. But I think many are getting worked up because of the County Attorney's perceived "blame the victim" viewpoint. It is ironic that he spoke to "other drivers" that declared they had "not seen the cyclist" all the time and "everyone knew he was gonna be hit one day". So every driver in this tiny rural area was apparently aware of this cyclist being out on the roads, and knew of him because of the unusual shape of his vehicle and probably his 8 foot flag, and yet when someone turns him into roadkill the attitude is he deserved it and lets just move on.

dynodonn 

I'm not really worked by the DA's comment or the judicial outcome, I'm more worked up about this state's DOT's autocentric mindset, in their posting a speed limit of 60 mph on a two lane roadway, that would only rate a 45 mph speed limit at the very most in my area. Even our state's two lane highways, with wide shoulders and turnouts, only rate a 55 mph speed limit.

benjdm

Because he wished to travel. The same reason she was on this sort of road with such a motorized vehicle.

KD5NRH

It's easier that way. Ever tried to hit stuff that's beside you?

himespau 

The attitude evidenced by the statements of the County Attorney are the part that get me the most. I'm not sure why that bothers me more than the fact that a man is dead, probably because I'm very self-centered and I can see the same thing happening to me and my wife/family having to deal with similar comments.

KD5NRH

Old pic; they've done away with day/night split limits. Also, generally a 70-75mph two-lane road will have enough shoulder to pull entirely out of the driving lane while still on improved surface. This and the ones with the fog line actually partly in the grass usually top out at 65mph unless they're truly in the middle of nowhere and dead straight. Can't speak for non-interstates in far west Texas where the 80-85mph highways are, since I was just passing through most of that on the main roads. (Though zipping past a state trooper at 80mph still feels weird.)

genec

Yeah... lot harder to do...

KD5NRH

In fairness, though, most of the stuff I hit is behind me...or if not, it is shortly after I hit it.

Recumbent Ron

I live about 60 miles from the accident and took pictures of the crash site on May 1st. According to historical weather reports, the weather was the same on the day of the accident as the day I took the pictures and I took them around the same time of day. One view is placing my trike, with flag, on the highway to show it's visibility. The other is from a quarter mile away with an arrow (and oncoming car) to show the visibility the woman had from that distance as she approached. I have sent these to the Otoe County Attorney and have asked, due to the high visibility of the cyclist, if he has or will be having her visual acuity examined. I also obtained the accident report and it states the impact of her vehicle threw the victim 30 feet to the right of the road into a ditch, so I assume she was moving at a high rate of speed with no attempt to slow down. There were no skid marks, but with anti-lock brakes these days, there might not have been.

I am concerned that the attorney based his decision on statements from other drivers who were not at the scene of the accident, but had encountered the victim on possibly different roads and different vehicles under different weather conditions.

10 Wheels

Good Pics..Thanks

rumrunn6

what if the driver hit a pedestrian? a smaller harder to see target?

10 Wheels

Texas Highway, TX FM 2004

mconlonx

Doesn't need to be bike lanes. How 'bout just a 2-3' shoulder, ala Complete Streets?

dynodonn 

A minimum of a 5 foot shoulder would be more adequate, 2 to 3 feet doesn't leave much room for error on both parties part, if anything, start on roads that link two communities and to a major highway, such as the highway that the cyclist, in the OP article, was hit on. A serious rethink on the current speed limit, on the road in the OP, is also in order.....give motorists a 60 mph speed limit, and speeds of 5 to 10 over the limit will be the norm.

rydabent

Those two pictures tell the whole story!!!! Again I say that it is totally insane the County Att hasnt filed charges!!!!

genec

Believe it or not, your quarter mile away pic says it all... to my eyes, there is nothing there.

So the driver is looking down the road, decides it is wide open (doesn't see a thing) and then proceeds to text... at 60MPH, the driver is moving at 88 feet per second... a quarter mile is 1320 feet... which at 60 MPH is covered in 15 seconds. If the driver looked up, in say 10 seconds... There is now 440 feet to the cyclist... or less than 5 seconds time for the driver to mentally shift from texting mode to realize there is something in front of the vehicle... to understand there is something in front of the vehicle and to go into evasive action mode.

No brake marks, no other signs of a need to swerve... 5 seconds to figure it out... And that is at 60MPH...

Anyway, that's my speculation.

Disclaimer: I wasn't there, I don't know what happened, I am just guessing.

rydabent

In your example, if the driver was texting, that would make it negligent driving that lead to death, and should be charged.

mconlonx

How so? What is the definition of "negligent" driving in that state? How does it differ from existing laws, if any, regarding "distracted" driving?

rydabent

You must be a lawyer to split hairs like that. No matter what you call it in that case stated, the driver would be doing somethng wrong, and it ended up with a person dead.

mconlonx

Not a lawyer, but too many technical legal terms are thrown around here in a general sense. And the "split hairs" differences matter greatly when considering charges and punitive measures.

genec

Yup, but the problem is that few police departments will pull a warrant to check the phone records, and instead just consider the cyclist "in the wrong" for riding a bike on high speed roadways. Even if phone records are pulled, and unless there was a text actually sent or received moments before the collision, then the driver can just say... "I didn't see the cyclist...." and that is enough.

genec

Even getting that is laughable... such a proposal was through around here several years ago for the back country county roads as part of a larger issue of making loops for those roads so there were alternate escape routes for folks during "the fire season."

The notion of wide shoulders was shot down instantly... home owners didn't want to pay for it and instead just chose to complain about cyclists "using their roads."

ItsJustMe

3 foot shoulder IS a bike lane here; in fact we have some newly built road with a paint line 3 feet from the right and bike symbols in it. 3 foot would be luxury on most roads. There's no way. NO way you'd ever get them to do that. 90% of the roads around here have the white line on the crumbling edge of the pavement.

kickstart

I often see such accusations of bias on cycling and motorcycling forums, but I have yet to see any factual evidence that its true.