johntrev

Berkeley cyclist captures hit and run on video.

The particularly troubling thing is this car took out two riders on a fairly straight section of wide road, while the cyclists were well to the right of the white line in a wide shoulder, and the rear rider was wearing seemingly hard-not-to-see full red kit.

Story and video at link: https://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2012/04/...n-video/?tsp=1

johntrev

See now another thread was previously started in Northern CA regional discussions...many commenters there frequently ride this road.

dynodonn 

In this case, having a cam going was a huge aid in catching the driver. The motorist probably thought that they just hit a deer.

genec

I thought this comment really hit the mark.
Clearly a full on hit and run.

Not on to a negative comment... what's with the stop sign running in the vid? If police view this are they just as obligated to ticket the cyclists as they are to ticket the hit and run motorist? I mean after all if they accept this vid as evidence, it also shows evidence of other traffic infractions, eh?

gmt13

I also questioned the wisdom of posting that part of the video. Glad both riders were (seemed to be) ok.

GamblerGORD53

That was no accident. To me it looks like there were 2 young punks in the car and they for sure deliberately rammed these fine cyclists. There is one frame where I see the passenger looking back. The cyclists were riding 100% considerately, even a bit close to the parked cars. The passing cars were having no problems at all IMO.

As for the "running a stop sign", they were doing a right hook to where the shoulder opened up to 4' again. The one I noticed, anyway.

Maybe this was backhanded retribution for the SF killing.

dynodonn 

Looks like the motorist has more than a hit and run charge to contend with.

https://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-...ht-vide/nMkPH/

My only hope is that I will never have to record a similar video.

sanitycheck

Unless the stop sign running contributed to the collision, no one is obligated to ticket the cyclists. If a witness is testifying about a serious crime, it's not unusual to ignore any far-less-serious offenses they admit to during their testimony. Otherwise it would be a lot harder to get witnesses to come forward in the first place, and to give honest testimony when they do.

Chris516

The OP made me think of what happened to me yesterday. While I was not directly involved, I was a witness to an accident.

I was 'taking the lane', in the merge lane of a six-lane divided road during the PM rush hour. All of a sudden, I noticed a sub-compact car speeding behind me, as they were changing lanes to pass me. The car was going so fast that, the right bumper of the car hit the left side of an H2 Hummer(like the one's used in Iraq) and ended up PIT'ing themself.

The driver who ended up PIT'ing himself, got a citation for reckless driving.

I was not injured or my bike damaged.

dougmc

The same policies that keep the police from acting upon reports of dangerous driving that are accompanied by video when produced by cyclists would also help in this case to keep the cyclists from getting tickets.

That said, I'm surprised they didn't just start the video clip right after the last run stop sign. It seems like there was plenty of time after that to show their proper riding (over a minute), so it's not like they had to show a stop sign being run to properly show the collision.

knurly

Turns out to be a regular drug-crazed Santa Claus on his way to be swinging a live chainsaw on the beach. Here I thought it was another grannie driving on top of the fog line trying to avoid a collision with oncoming traffic.

dynodonn 

With the video cam being able to catch a good shot of the motorist's license plate, we here a BF get to know "the rest of the story".

After reading all the comments about the cyclists rolling the stop signs, yesterday I had a young motorist try to intimidate me by pulling up very closely to my back fender while I'm in the lane and stopping at a stop sign. Then after I make a right turn, the young motorist turns right as well, and then deliberately moves to the right of the roadway, does a slow intimidating slow close pass by me, even after I moved well to the right and gave more than ample room to passing traffic.

Some motorists really dislike cyclists, especially when we operate as "drivers of vehicles", and not in a manner as they perceive we should. (gutter bunny, sidewalk riding, MUPs, trails, just out of their way, period)

Chris516

I wished I'd had a helmetcam Thursday when a driver passed the accident that happened in the next lane, hitting one of the vehicles and burning rubber.

dynodonn 

I toyed with the idea of a helmet cam, but after one commute with one of the cams mounted on my helmet,(too much like Blair Witch) I opted to mount it to the bike. In the Berkley riders case, a helmet mounted cam would likely have missed getting the motorist's license number.

Chris516

+1000

They don't care that some jurisdictions make it illegal to ride on the sidewalk. They just think they 'own the road'.

Chris516

When I am able to get one, I hope to get GoPro Hero2 with the Chest Strap. While having the camera mounted on my chest instead of my helmet won't provide as much of a 'camera eye' view by not viewing where my head would be turned, it will catch the actions of the motorist in front of me.

K'Tesh

This is the kind of thing that prompted me to get my GoPro (and I still want more... helmet and rear, to go with my handlebar mounted one)

Crash happens around 2:40 into the video... thankfully the cyclists weren't seriously hurt.

What I couldn't determine from the video was if any motorists stopped to render aid.

I'd hope that the first car past would follow the running driver and provide that info to the police, subsequent motorists stop and render aid.

honey locust

"Medaglia, the registered owner of the car filmed by the bike cam, called Oakland police after the crash to report that his car had been stolen, investigators said."

Lol this guy thought he was being slick.

The suspense of watching that video from the beginning killed me, but yeah I expected to see a car drift like a half a foot into the other lane and slightly clip them. That dude was pretty much fully in the other lane, that had to be intentional, or he is an incredibly horrible driver. I really need to get a cam.

Pedaleur

I like the poster who comments that the cyclist never once looks around, not realizing that the camera is obviously attached to the bike and not the helmet.

CB HI

Fox News has shown the video.

cranky old road 

The NBC Today Show aired the video this morning.

PatrickGSR94

Oh dang! Just saw the preview on the Today show opening sequence (they haven't run the story yet) and then got on BF to find this thread. That was definitely an Acura Integra 3-door hatch. Probably some ricer kid trying to act bad@$$ or something.

Paul Barnard

I am glad they caught the jerk responsible for this. I have a few comments to share. The cyclists running the stop sign is a non-issue. They were traveling slowly and did a right turn into a protected side lane. Comint to a foot down, complete stop wouldn't have made their right turn any safer. From what I saw, I would try my best to avoid the road they were on. With the cars parked on the side, they moved in and out of traffic, which while is courteous to motorists, is somewhat risky. They rode through the door zones of the parked cars which is stupid. They probably did it to try not to squeeze the motorists. All that said, there is no way to protect yourself from a driver like this. No amount of cooperative behavior and no amount of careful attention to road choice can mitigate driving that is that bad.

genec

Yeah the ironic part is the cyclists did everything THEY could to stay out of motorists way, but motorists didn't do everything they could do to stay out of the way of the cyclists.

dynodonn 

Given enough media attention, it would be interesting to see if there were other cyclists around the Bay Area that might come forward, and had any type of incidents involving that type of vehicle.