PDA

View Full Version : Pro cyclist injured in hit-and-run


anders
09-07-06, 06:15 PM
First Edition Cycling News for September 7, 2006
Edited by Hedwig Kröner
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/sep06/sep07news

Bahati injured in hit-and-run
By Mark Zalewski, North American Editor

TIAA-CREF had the biggest representation at the USPRO road nationals with fourteen starters - but they were supposed to have fifteen. Rahsaan Bahati was unable to make the trip to Greenville when he was struck by a vehicle in a hit-and-run near his home in Los Angeles.

"This woman tried to race me to the corner," Bahati told Cyclingnews. "It's just a two-lane highway ending at PCH, and I'm in the right hand lane where you can only go right and she's in the left hand lane where you can only turn left. But she turns right and I t-boned her right over the hood. Once I got to my feet she looked at me and she just took off!"

The woman was appropriately driving a Chevy Suburban. A witness did get a partial plate number and police are searching for the driver. Bahati meanwhile suffered three broken ribs, a separated shoulder and a concussion. "I had some bad headaches and I had to go back to the hospital to get a cat scan." Luckily the scan came back normal and Bahati is recovering at his home.

But like all bike racers, sitting at home is not an easy task. "I actually rode my bike on Monday and it was bad idea because I have to go over a hill to get out my house, and with broken ribs it hurts so much to breathe. I'll take two more weeks and then hopefully start training for track nationals."

Bahati has had a month of bad luck, crashing while riding in the winning break at the Bank of America Invitational, flatting in the closing laps at USPRO criterium nationals and now this. "My morale was already low and then I get hit by a car! And this is when my form is always good. But I'm not too down on myself though, it's part of bike racing."

kill.cactus
09-07-06, 09:14 PM
Man... the nerve of some people... I guess in LA anything can happen.

shakeNbake
09-07-06, 10:47 PM
I wonder where (exactly)this happens? Sounds like Santa Monica to me.

genec
09-07-06, 11:47 PM
Yup, traffic is predictable, individual motorists are not.

John E
09-08-06, 08:23 AM
I need more details. The motorist certainly committed at least three serious errors: 1) making an illegal turn from the wrong lane; 2) passing a bicyclist on the left in anticipation of an immediate right turn (specifically mentioned in the California Drivers' Handbook / Vehicle Code Summary); and 3) fleeing the scene of a collision involving personal injury. However, Bahati's description of the incident reads as though he was trying to turn left from the right-turn-only lane. If he turned right from the right-turn-only lane, how would he t-bone the SUV and go over the bonnet?

___
Disclosure: For me, this is a cautionary tale, as I often turn left from two-lane Poinsettia Av. onto Pacific Coast Highway, in Carlsbad. The left lane is left-turn-only, whereas the right is right-turn-only. I often use the wide striped zone between the lanes to launch a wide left turn around the left-turning motorists and into the bike lane, which works fine and safely for all, assuming no one in the left-turn-only lane decides to turn right.