NYC rider hit by van on video

[n0dice]

My 2c:

I work as a messenger in Toronto which gets completely gridlocked as well and I'm going to have to say cyclist was at fault. The van doesn't appear to change direction at all until after the guy is hit. I certainly don't see anything to suggest that it was trying to change lanes or make a turn.

His lane positioning is peculiar. I usually leave the intersection between the two lanes as he does, so as to allow cars to turn right, but I always get back to the right immediately. I'll often start to sweep towards the right a second before the light turns green to allow myself to get over if I'm unsure of whether or not the car in the right lane is turning (many don't signal properly). I don't see any reason why he'd remain there though, unless (and this is my best guess) he was trying to cut across to get to a building on the other side of the street.

I think what may have happened is that he was doing just this and he either lost track of where the van was, thinking he had cleared it, and then tried to make his way to the other side of the middle lane at which point the van hit him from behind.

Perhaps New York roads are completely different from those I ride on, but I don't really ever see messengers stay in between lanes unless they are trying to get to the other side of the street or to make their way up the stack of cars when traffic is backed up (which it is not here).

[uprightbent]

I'm glad he's not seriously injured.

But I'm less symathetic to anyone riding with headphones in dense urban settings.

[hotbike]

Yeah, the van was in the second lane. The bike messenger should've could've been centered in the right lane, and there would've been no contact.
Headphones while in the street are stupid.

He's lucky he didn't get killed.

Commercial van is likely loaded with supplies, over 7,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.

As for the camera being there, I don't think it was staged. It's Times Square in New York City. One of the most recognizable landmark photo scenes in the world.

[hotbike]

I think I see the problem. The right lane has a dip in it (potholes in New York can swallow a truck)

.If you look again at the first five seconds of the video, there are two cars in the right lane,just before the impact, and they both bounce like crazy.
The cyclist went around the pothole and got hit by the Consolidated Edison Van.

[The Human Car]

I think I see the problem. The right lane has a dip in it (potholes in New York can swallow a truck)

.If you look again at the first five seconds of the video, there are two cars in the right lane,just before the impact, and they both bounce like crazy.
The cyclist went around the pothole and got hit by the Consolidated Edison Van.
Good point. It also looks like the cyclists is filtering between the first and second lane at the light but that is really hard to tell from the video.

[old scratch]

there are almost literally always cameras in times square, news crews doing stories, mtv, whatever. the camera there is not suprising at all. especially where that camera was, there is always some stupid show interviewing people on the street or something there.

[Bklyn]

Dobber, do you watch a lot of "Jackass" or something? You must have crazier friends than I do. No way on earth is that staged. I work right off Times Square, and you would not believe the number of tourists I see just blindly aiming their video cameras at . . . nothing, taking footage of, like, the Gap, or the Toys R Us. What are you filming? I always wondered. Now I know.
Judging from the angle, it was taken by one of those teenagers who comes to Times Square, finds it to be just a mall filled with other tourists, sits on the median strip where the Army recruiting office is and consults the map. Camera was on, apparently.
Second, yes, probably the messenger's fault. But there's not enough information for us to judge. Whoever saw the pothole is probably right. There was probably something wrong with the right lane for it to be empty. In New York, you always leave yourself a bail-out space. This guy waited too long to take it.
As for rolling over his bike twice — the driver must have panicked. I think he maybe thought of bolting, but he saw that he wasn't going to make the light.

Now, what else can we judge without any factual basis?