trek1

Not sure if anyone has heard about this yet, but Jason Lummis (Bells rider) was hit by car while riding from work Wed evening out in the Dexter, Michigan area. Keep your eyes peeled for a Ford truck/SUV with a missing passenger side mirror. Here is a link to the story:

https://www.wxyz.com/dpp/homepage_sho...r-hit-and-run-

Penalties are not severe or enforced nearly enough to make a difference for the next biker/pedestrian to be mowed down by a non caring motorist.

Please say a prayer for Jason that he will ride again someday soon, and the person responsible is caught!

UnsafeAlpine

Nice car ad before the video.

Here's hoping for a quick recovery and the ****er is caught.

ghettocruiser

Raced a few times with Jason, back in the day, he's insanely fast, get well soon man.


Hit from behind by a pickup truck.... This is just the same ritual over and over again.

madpogue 

Eek, my wife and I used to ride those roads when we lived in Detroit; she had some land out that way. I reckon the traffic has intensified in the 20 years hence.

IIRC, MI law is like WI; leave the scene when there's a serious injury, it's a felony. Hope the 5-Oh is treating it as such. The mirror reminds me of an incident that happened here a few years ago. Pedestrian killed, hit-and-run, mirror broke off. The cops narrowed down the make, model and range of years, and just started going through registrations of such vehicles in the local area. Found a car with a missing mirror, the stub of which matched the found mirror like a jigsaw puzzle piece.

Chris516

Penalties are never severe enough. The lives of cyclists are repeatedly marginalized. When a cyclist dies, society is quick to respond to the death, by judging a cyclist as a second-class citizen not deserving of the same respect as a motorist.

Digital_Cowboy

That must of have taken some leg work on their part. I'm guessing that the defense lawyer tried to argue that the mirror came from another vehicle and that comparing the brake marks wasn't an accurate way to identify the vehicle. . .

Digital_Cowboy

Yep, sadly we can thank the courts and states for that as related in this article from the magazine Bicycle Times: Incivility: How Lawyers and Legislators De-Valued Your Life.

Which on the one hand I can kind of understand how and why it was done, but with more and more cyclists hitting the streets bicycles and cars really need to be viewed as equals in the eyes of not only the law but the court system if both the laws and justice is to be fair and in the case of justice for Lady Justice to remain blind.

Someone in another thread suggested that as soon as anyone is involved in any sort of crash be it car v. car, or car v. bike, or car v. pedestrian that the driver of one, both or all cars involved should automatically have their license suspended pending the investigation. Maybe that will help to reinforce the seriousness of driving. Add to that that LEO's should NOT make statements to the press how they don't expect there to be any charges filed. They should answer with something like this:

"At this time there have been no charges filed, but we are awaiting the results of a full investigation before that determination can be reached."

or

"This is an ongoing investigation and we are not at liberty to discuss it."

But they should not be saying that there won't or probably won't be any charges filed. As given that in more and more states they are passing a 3' law, it is safe to presume that if a motorist has hit a cyclist that they have violated that law at the very least. But again sadly as other's have said we probably won't see that happening unless and until some judge's or high ranking politician's family member getting hit and injured or killed while riding a bicycle.

And even though I know that we shouldn't read (or at least allow ourselves to get worked up over) the comments that are posted to the various articles dealing with car v. bike crashes. I have to admit that it does piss me off when I read comments about how the cyclist "got what s/he deserved" for "daring " to ride on the roads where only cars "belong."

madpogue 

Not an overwhelming amount of work, and it was a felony case (as this MI one is, I'm sure). They enlisted the help of a local car dealership on the make/model/year/color match (IIRC, it was a color-keyed mirror).

The driver was seen, drinking, at a restaurant a couple of blocks from the scene just minutes before the crash. And if the defense had claimed it was a different car, the prosecution would have called an "expert witness" to testify that the odds against there being another mirror broken off in a way that fit exactly as it did are overwhelming, more than the number of that model of car that were produced. It was as substantive a piece of material evidence as a ballistics match.

Digital_Cowboy

That's good to hear. What was his sentence?

madpogue 

Her. 76-year-old woman; lost her driving privilege for life, a year of in-home electronic monitoring, 7.75 years probation. No fine, no jail time.

Yeah, the sentence could've been more severe. But the key is, the authorities took the investigation seriously, like a felony, which is exactly what it was. And given the seriousness of the injuries in this MI case, they should treat the investigation just as seriously.

ItsJustMe

I work in Dexter and ride through it daily. I'll keep my eyes peeled. And maybe start wearing my camera.

Roughstuff

We need to hire DEXTER for this case. THE CODE has been broken.....

roughstuff

Digital_Cowboy

That's good to hear, and it is a start. You are right, any and all crashes between any sort of motor vehicle and a bicycle/pedestrian should be investigated seriously. Regardless of how severe the injuries are or if anyone died or not.

Especially given the number of people who are lost on the roads annually. Did she have to do any community service? Granted at her age I'm sure she'd be limited in what she could do, but she could still do some form of community service.

DX-MAN

Read some of the (same old shee-yite) comments after the article... I'm about tired of these people who think cyclists who ride the road get what's coming to them for "being so foolish/silly/stupid/crazy/whatever". Two-legged sphincters.....

trek1

Unfortunately he/she can get a Ford mirror and put it on themselves without ever going to a body shop.