Advocacy & Safety - biker hit in denver critical mass

this happened last month. the man hit is a messenger here in denver. here's the article about it:

http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/12007/index.php

pax
aaron

The rider should still be able to make a civil claim for damages.

Wow! That really sucks. I can't believe someone would do that. I'm not too sure of what critical mass entails, as I thought the roads were purposely closed so that stuff like this couldn't happen by accident. Maybe I'm wrong. An example needs to be made of that motorist though, no matter what the surrounding circumstances.

Wow! That really sucks. I can't believe someone would do that. I'm not too sure of what critical mass entails, as I thought the roads were purposely closed so that stuff like this couldn't happen by accident. Maybe I'm wrong. An example needs to be made of that motorist though, no matter what the surrounding circumstances.

You might look at the source. It is not a 'neutral' news source by any means. And the roads are far from closed.

Pretty thin story. Not enough there to form an opinion.

That can lead to a critical injury.

Independent Media Center.....hhhmmm.....


was intentionally assaulted by an angry motorist


It was clearly an act of road rage and aggression to this person

"To this person," eh?



and the motorist walked away unpunished

Well, it's obvious the motorist should have drove away instead.....

The rider should still be able to make a civil claim for damages.
In the right circumstances, he could be awarded a lot of money. A cyclist in Georgia a few years back was awarded $6,000 after being intentionally hit by a piece of candy bar thrown from a moving vehicle.

Independent Media Center.....hhhmmm.....





"To this person," eh?




Well, it's obvious the motorist should have drove away instead.....


no, it was very! obvious to all of us that the rider was hit on purpose. we had all the lanes blocked on 18th st (one way st). people behind us were not particularly happy about that. first, we had a car drive up on the sidewalk. that driver nearly took out a light pole and two cyclists. the driver that did hit a cyclist was in a mini-van. he did try to speed away, but 3 messangers rode after him. several of us got his licence plate number and called the cops. the cyclist who was hit stayed at the scene along with 2 or 3 others while the rest of the ride continued. after the ride was over, i went back to check on the hit cyclist to see what the story. after an hour, the cops still hadn't arrived. i heard later, that the driver in question was given nothing even resembling a ticket/warning/citation or the like. the cyclist was repremanded for being in the street. what really stucks is the bike that got trashed was a really nice guerciotti track bike.

we had all the lanes blocked on 18th st (one way st). people behind us were not particularly happy about that.

Of course they weren't happy, isn't that only the whole point of CM?

While what happened (if the story is in fact accurate) certainly isn't justified by any stretch of the imagination, perhaps incidents like this one will help CM participants to the realization that intentionally antagonizing motorists is just plain dumb.

-B