road monkey

More sad news.
Rest in peace...
https://www.pressrepublican.com/homep...yword=topstory

Winter76

This is tragic that the worst punishment that the paper thinks will happen is a ticket.

CaptainTandem

I wonder about the driver's excuse. Looks like a road I wouldn't cycle on and if so, far away from that cobbled up shoulder.

flipped4bikes

Condolences to the family of the cyclist. As for the driver, don't even get me started...

bac

Too sad.

... Brad

dobber

Did we read the same article? The paper said no tickets had been issued as the investigation was continuing. You do realize that since it was a vehicular incident, the process starts with tickets. You get tickets for speeding, right on reds, failure to yield, dwi..................

So quick to darnn law enforcement.

Blue Order

I guess the warmer weather will mean more people out on bikes. I wonder if this is like the rain-- lots of accidents after the first rain, until people get used to driving in the rain.

I'd like to see the media dig a little deeper for these stories. If they consider it relevant that the cyclist wasn't wearing a helmet-- and it may be a relevant factor in his demise-- then they should also report that the cyclist died of head injuries, and what the estimated speed of impact was. As it is now, they leave the impression that the cyclist died because he wasn't wearing a helmet, when in reality his injuries may or may not have had anything to do with head injury.

Sad story for all involved. RIP.

DoYlE_RiD3r

?? I can'T believe how I'm born in this stupid society, they didn'T even gave him a ticket... there is special harness for animals in car and if you are distracted by your passengers, it's still your fault so I think that the driver, can't remember his name should be totally responsible of the accident and I don't give a f*ck if the cyclist had a helmet or not...

Gojohnnygo.

RIP Robert

Thats my local paper, The locals like to call it the press repulsive.

That section of RT22 is slated for a rebuild this year with wide 5' shoulders. It's a road that has a high rate of traffic/high speeds (at said times 5:00pm). Some sections of the shoulder just disappear suddenly are full of pot holes from lack of maintenance. I've been avoiding that road for some time now just because of this. Still it's no excuse for running someone down that dog should have been in portable cage for its own protection an everyone else.

I think they will press charges, just to have some lame judge throw them out. Not to long a go, they handed out just a 1000 dollar fine to a milk truck driver who pulled out in front of a motor bike. Killing the rider and seriously injuring his wife. The motor bike wasn't speeding or riding recklessly.

croscoe

Why is a pickup truck almost always involved? The family has my condolences.

banerjek

Statistically, they represent a huge percentage of vehicles on the road. SUVs are also very popular. If everyone drove econoboxes, they would seem to be hitting cyclists all the time.

croscoe

D'oh. Good point. Thanks.

closetbiker

I guess it depends on your perspective. When I read the story all I can think is there's a dog moving about (probably on the lap or in the way) in the cab and the drivers taking care of that. Isn't that the problem here?

A helmet has nothing to do with the collision and a helmet can't possibly help unless the truck was driving under 14 mph.

Virtually all cyclists deaths involve a motor vehicle, helmet or not. Go to a country with 90% helmet wearing rates, and I'll show you a death rate of cyclists with helmets on at 90%. If 90% of cyclists do not wear helmets, the death rate of helmetless cyclists is going to be 90%.

Most cycling deaths also involve other injuries that are not survivable. It's not only the top 12% of a head that is impacted, the rest of the body is involved.

It's an indication of how well Bell and others have managed their marketing. It's done so well, a reporter can ask questions about this story and consider a comment like that (and it is a comment, not a factor in the story) is worth the ink. That's sad.

Blue Order

Yes, that is the problem that the story identified.

The problem I had with the reporting is they state "The cyclist was not wearing a helmet" without saying more. The impression left is that he died because he wasn't wearing a helmet. Perhaps he died of head injuries, and a helmet might have saved his life. Perhaps he died of chest injuries and the lack of a helmet is irrelevant. We don't know, because the paper reports that he wasn't wearing a helmet, and leaves it to us to fill in the blanks: "A-ha! That's why the cyclist died!"

Nonsense. Helmets are designed to protect in low speed impacts. What's impossible is to extrapolate from that standard the statement that "a helmet can't possibly help unless the truck was driving under 14 MPH."

Change the word "helmet" for "VC" and you could be that other guy...

Blue Order

What I mean is I'm not going to get sucked into arguing someone's personal agenda in a cyclist death thread. I thought we'd put that demon to rest the other day.

Jeprox

RIP, Robert J. Rabatoy.

Having a dog where it can distract a driver is the same as a driver using a cellphone when the vehicle is in motion. Any form of distraction is dangerous while driving. It is the driver's responsibility to rid himself of any distractions within his control even before putting the key in the ignition. Being distracted by his dog, and consequently killing someone should be a felony.

closetbiker

No one is getting sucked into anything if they don't want to. You certainly aren't. There's a separate thread for that argument.

You're right, there needs to be more info and there isn't, it's quite likely there were other injuries that make the point moot and we're left with an impression that can't do a thing for understanding what the problem was and most likely leads away from understanding and prevention of the same thing happening again.

They might as well have printed, "the truck was not equiped with an anti-lock braking system"

It's a sad story that had no reason to mention the lack of a helmet on the cyclist. By mentioning it, the impression is that the cyclist was partially at fault for his death, when it's never been a manafactures, designers, or testers claim that bicycle helmets are made to protect in collisions with motor vehicles.

*and how is it that bringing up limitations of something, is anti-something? You're not arguing that virtually every death of a cyclist involves collision with a motor vehicle, are you? Over the last 20 years my province has seen an increase of helmet wearing from 1% to over 70%, yet in the 10 years before our mhl came into effect and the 10 years after out mhl came into effect, there have been the same amount of deaths to cyclists. Virtually all just as this story describes. A motor vehicle/cyclist collision*

bhtooefr

They have dog seat-belts for a reason. Or, at the VERY least, have a passenger that can control the dog.

tomg

your point is well put!

sad event...

Gojohnnygo.

So I took a ride out there today. I found the spot were this happened by finding the white road flares residue they used to close the road down. I think I found the location off the impact judging by the broken glass and plastic. It's about 300' from the top of a small descending hill with about 4" of not ridable shoulder. The shoulder is full of drop offs and pot holes. The speed limit is 55 MPH. I doubt the driver was traveling that speed. I seen no skid marks from a vehicle on the road. I'll see if I can get some pics of the view traveling north.

It was one somber moment and a bit unnerving standing there on the bike next to the spot of impact.

hotbike

The automakers have not applied the technology of Rack & Pinion Steering to pickups.
As a result, pickup trucks veer and drift all over the road.

shortbus901

Stories like this are what keeps me from riding on the road around here. I've read all the arguments as to why it's safer etc. but all it takes is a ring from a cell phone or a bad song on the radio; one moment of inattention on the drivers part at the wrong moment and you're done. RIP...

alanbikehouston

In my neighborhood, pickup trucks are about 20% of the vehicles, and represent about 80% of the incidents where a driver comes over to try to clip me with the passenger door mirror. About twice a year, I'm pushed over the curb by a pickup truck.

I've also had drivers of pickup truck swerve to hit me, miss, and go around the block and make a second attempt. The "second attempt" group usually has two or three young guys in the truck, and usually has a "KKK" flag on the rear window and a "GW2004" bumper sticker. Half-witted white trash.

I started keeping a u-lock on my handlebars. When a truck comes back for a second attempt, I rap the passenger door window with the u-lock and ask the boys to get out for a "friendly" talk. For some reason, when they see the u-lock, they just hit the gas and take off running.

rabidchicken

I used to work for the local EMS/FIRE 911 system and never realized how many motor-vehicle vs bicycle accidents occurred everyday. I think we would average 2-3 a shift every day. Probably 2 fatalities a week county wide.

closetbiker

In BC (population about 4 million) there are about 900 claim based motor vehicle/bicycle collisions each year. Cyclist deaths average at 6 per year.

Pedestrians average 1800 collisions with mv's and average about 60 deaths per year.

Where's the bigger problem in BC?