sotramk

https://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/4688136

Please be careful riding into a sunrise or sunset.

B. Carfree

Nearly three-quarters of a century since the development of polarized sunglasses and people are still using, "The sun was in my eyes" as an excuse and getting away with murder? Time for some updating of both the training of our motorists and the laws regarding consequences for reckless behavior, like not equipping oneself with appropriate safety equipment.

enigmaT120

Going too fast for the conditions, though the sunglasses you mention might make it possible to safely go a little faster.

sotramk

Seems kind of late in the afternoon/evening to be riding while on a tour.
She was about a mile and a half from the small town of Genoa.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all involved.

DX-MAN

We had several of those in NE IN in recent years; never anything more than a ticket.

I agree that "sun was in my eyes" is no excuse. Can't see? Slow the F down.

Chris516

Another idiot motorist who's excuse will be bought verbatim, without proof or investigation. If Ms. Gagnon had been driving a motor vehicle and killed in an accident, there would definitely be an investigation. But kill a cyclist with a motor vehicle. Any fine that might be given for killing a motorist, could be used for banquet, because cyclists' don't matter to law enforcement.

sotramk

Did you even read the article???
The Highway patrol closed the road for four hours conducting their investigation.

agent pombero

Would a Dinotte daytime flash have saved her? Prayers to her family. Shame on the driver for not slowing down for these conditions...

mtbikerinpa

I'll second that. Daytime flashers at all times, especially daylight...

dougmc

Polarized glasses don't fix the sun in your eyes. They can reduce somewhat the glare of the sun bouncing off something at a low angle of incidence like water, snow, the road or your hood, but they're not any more effective than non polarized lenses at stopping the light coming straight from the sun, which is typically most of "the sun in your eyes" while driving under most conditions.

Sunglasses do help, somewhat. Polarized sunglasses (of the same darkness) can help a tiny bit more, but the improvement over non-polarized glasses for driving is small. But ultimately if the sun is in your eyes and you can't block it with your visor and it's so bad that you could miss a cyclist -- it's time to stop and take a fifteen minute break from driving. And yes, most drivers don't do this, which is why we occasionally have tragic stories like this one.

Hyperbole. Murder requires intent and they generally don't want to hurt anybody. They just don't realize just how much their vision is impaired.

Of course, in that vein, I guess sixty years ago people didn't realize just how much a few drinks would impair their driving either, which is why it was generally seen as no big thing.

Chris516

While I am not a betting man. I bet you, that the 'investigation' will not find the driver at fault in any way.

10 Wheels

I run two of them...This pic was at sunset.

eja_ bottecchia

From my travels to Bowling Green, OH, I am familiar with that stretch of road. Heavy traffic plus narrow shoulders is not a safe combination.

RIP young lady!

agent pombero

Nice, that is very bright.

B. Carfree

I completely disagree with your assessment of the value of polarized sunglasses. A huge percentage of the sunlight that interferes with my vision when driving is the polarized light that is reflected off the ground. I'm not looking UP into the sky, I'm looking lower than horizontal as that's where the action is. Of course, that's only my experience, but it is backed up with several million miles of commercial driving.

As far as dealing with those circumstances in which the sun is low on a pancake-flat horizon (not very common in the west), yes, of course one must lower one's speed to deal with reduced visibility. If the maximum safe speed under conditions is 0 mph, that obviously requires motorists to pull over until conditions improve. Wouldn't it be nice if people actually followed the basic speed law?

mtbikerinpa

One of my pet peeves that people don't always pay attention to is cleaning the windshield on the inside. Major glare inducer. There have been some moments with such glare the only answer(not my car) was to lean out the window. Makes you wonder sometimes...

dougmc

I was thinking about this more, and I can see situations where the glare of the sun reflected off the ground would be substantial -- but it would require generally flat and clear ground.

Around here, there's rolling hills and trees and buildings and such, and so cases where you can see the sun when it's only a few degrees above the horizon are rare, and when you can you're probably on top of a hill so there won't be too much glare off the ground. For example, 10 Wheel's picture seems pretty typical of "driving into the sun" around here -- no significant glare off the ground, so polarized sunglasses won't really help more than regular sunglasses.

But if you live somewhere it's flat and uncluttered I can see the ground glare being a significant part of the problem, and so the polarized sunglasses may help more than non-polarized ones. That said, you're still going to see at least as much light that's not polarized (straight from the sun) as is polarized (from the ground) so it's not like they fix the problem -- they just improve it somewhat.

If the sun is low and right in front of you with no obstructions, you may need to slow down or get off the road completely, even if you've got polarized sunglasses. Alas, drivers almost never do this -- they just drive on, figuring they can see well enough. And they may even get away with it much of the time -- but not all the time.

Of course, as cyclists you need to be very aware of that. If you can't see because of the sun, the guy behind you probably can't either (though a car's visor often fixes it when the sun isn't *too* low) and it's time to get off the road and take a break. But you also need to be aware of it if you're riding perpendicular to the sun across an intersection -- a driver might not see the red light and might not see you, even though your vision is fine.

gcottay

Thanks for the reminder.