Advocacy & Safety - Boise area cyclist killed Friday morning

A 48-year old Meridian, Idaho nurse and mother of two was killed Friday morning when struck from behind by an H3 Hummer while waiting in a bike lane for a red light to change. She was wearing a helmet. The police said the cyclist absolutely was doing everything right. She regularly rode the route on which she was killed. The driver of the H3, a 43-year old woman, lost control of her vehicle about 100 feet before the intersection where the victim was waiting for the red light to change. Witnesses said the driver was not talking on a cell phone at the time. The driver was immediately taken to a hospital to be tested for drugs and alcohol, but nothing has been said about either of those being a factor. The Hummer's right wheels went up on the curb, but the left wheels struck the woman on the bicycle. The driver was not able to stop until she had passed beyond the intersection. There were tire tracks on the sidewalk, but no skid marks. The incident happened at 9:55 AM. Weather was not a factor, even though it did rain at times on Friday in the Boise area. It was not raining at the time of the collision. Further details have not yet been determined. No charges have been filed as of the present.

(I did a couple of searches, but could not find a post on this from anyone else.)

I'm so sorry to hear about that, twobikes. :(

I know it is fashionable to bash SUVs are being evil, but they are. If a car rear ended her, it would likely strike her like a wedge and propel her up. SUVs have a higher, flatter profile--- and simple smash into anything they hit. It will be scary as these aging SUVs are all handed down to teenagers.

An SUV should be treated as a truck, and at the very least, require an additional endorsement on a driver license. It blows my mind how in the US, in most states, a basic license can be used to drive up to a 13 ton vehicle.

If the woman could not maintain control of her H3, then most likely she should not drive such a vehicle. Take it away from her. She's already killed once.

I concur strongly with all three replies above. I also favor pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly design of the front bumper assemblies of all motor vehicles and oppose raising trucks excessively, which endangers everyone else on the road.

Well, we don't know why she lost control yet. It's a long shot but it could have been a mechanical failure that caused the accident.
I remember reading a lot of news about H2s breaking tie rods and axles a couple years ago, so I have to question in my mind GM's quality regarding this line of vehicles.

If the woman could not maintain control of her H3, then most likely she should not drive such a vehicle. Take it away from her. She's already killed once.


even better. Take the vehicle, her drivers license, make her pay the victims family the lost wages she used to earn and make the assailant ride a bike everywhere she goes

I spoke with a sheriff's deputy from an adjoining county. He said there is a real possibility the driver of the H3 could spend a year in prison for vehicular manslaughter, even if it was unintentional. At the minimum, she must live the rest of her life with the knowledge a vehicle she was operating killed another person. When her kids and grandkids go to ride their bikes on a public roadway, she will have to wonder if someone's vehicle could do to her family what she did to someone else's. Those are some pretty severe punishments, already.

I will watch for further developments and try to post them as they become available. Anyone interested can also look for articles in the (Boise) Idaho Statesman newspaper by means of a search engine.

Local police arrested driver last night and charged her with vehicular manslaughter. While serving search warrent last night they found perscription drugs and marijuana at her residence. She came up positive for the perscription drugs in her system at the time of the accident. I don't have a link as this info came over the radio this morning.

Local police arrested driver last night and charged her with vehicular manslaughter. While serving search warrent last night they found perscription drugs and marijuana at her residence. She came up positive for the perscription drugs in her system at the time of the accident. I don't have a link as this info came over the radio this morning.

Thanks for the update. What a sad story.

Those are some pretty severe punishments, already.


Yeah? How severe are they compared to what happened to her victim?

The link:
http://www.ktvb.com/news/crime/stories/ktvbn-nov0607-cyclist_killed_arrest.1e3844776.html#

Once in a very rare while there is a tragedy which was probably indeed unavoidable by cyclist behavior. This appears to be one of those cases, though maybe monitoring (easier with a rear view mirror) while waiting for the light to change might have done something in this case. There is still the problem of deciding which way to go once you realize some drugged out maniac is careening towards you in an out-of-control Hummer. But I know I'm generally a bit more cautious when stopped at a light with no one behind me than I am after someone safely stops back there, preferably a good ways back.

My condolences to the family and friends of Sarah Howard.

This is a terrible story, and it is my worst cycling nightmare. I heard a Hummer radio ad a few months ago basically telling soccer moms that they needed a Hummer to get their kids safely to practice. It was nauseating. A Hummer is a simply ridiculous, unnecessary vehicle. Maybe this driver could have controlled her vehicle if she was driving a Hyundai.

No charges have been filed as of the present.

this is getting all too familiar.

:mad:

yeah, well in Portland we're still waiting for two truckers to be cited for the cyclist fatalities last month.

:mad:

ps, I did read the rest of the thread and decided to let my post stand, the charges seem kind of light to me. Why don't you get on HH's butt for his 'blame the cyclist' routine?

yeah, well in Portland we're still waiting for two truckers to be cited for the cyclist fatalities last month.

:mad:

ps, I did read the rest of the thread and decided to let my post stand, the charges seem kind of light to me. Why don't you get on HH's butt for his 'blame the cyclist' routine?

How about this....

I put you in a large truck and tell you to make a right hand turn across a bike lane. I will ride by on my bike and you see if you can "see" me.

I bet you $100 you cannot. Lets not lock everyone up who has the misfortune of driving in a city with questionable engineering abilities.

How about this....

I put you in a large truck and tell you to make a right hand turn across a bike lane. I will ride by on my bike and you see if you can "see" me.

I bet you $100 you cannot. Lets not lock everyone up who has the misfortune of driving in a city with questionable engineering abilities.
I'll take that bet.
Unlike those truckers that killed, I will put the wide angle mirror on and actually use it. Truckers here in Hawaii have seen me on wide outside lanes as well as bike lanes. But then here, they now know they will loose their insurance if they hit cyclist.

I'll take that bet.
Unlike those truckers that killed, I will put the wide angle mirror on and actually use it. Truckers here in Hawaii have seen me on wide outside lanes as well as bike lanes. But then here, they now know they will loose their insurance if they hit cyclist.

Being a trucker who hauls a 53 foot box and has been to HAWAII I woud suggust it a foolish notion to assume that truckers see you , and once they start that turn , and look away to check the other possible collision points you will most likekly be lost in that wide angle mirror.

Once in a very rare while there is a tragedy which was probably indeed unavoidable by cyclist behavior. "Very rare"? Objectively, how rare? This is the type of scenario which scares the cr@p out of me and makes me such a strong advocate of enhanced motorist accountability and education. With various drugs involved, this particular motorist deserves a long prison sentence and permanent driver's license revocation.


There is still the problem of deciding which way to go once you realize some drugged out maniac is careening towards you in an out-of-control Hummer. ... If you even have an escape route. Frequently there is no place of safe refuge for a cyclist caught literally between a rock and a hard place.

Yeah? How severe are they compared to what happened to her victim?

I think you lifted part of my comment out of context. Read the posts that came before mine and all of mine.

How about this....

I put you in a large truck and tell you to make a right hand turn across a bike lane. I will ride by on my bike and you see if you can "see" me.

I bet you $100 you cannot. Lets not lock everyone up who has the misfortune of driving in a city with questionable engineering abilities.

"I didn't see him/her" is never a good excuse.

"Very rare"? Objectively, how rare? This is the type of scenario which scares the cr@p out of me and makes me such a strong advocate of enhanced motorist accountability and education. With various drugs involved, this particular motorist deserves a long prison sentence and permanent driver's license revocation.
If by "objectively" you mean "not relative to anything", that's meaningless (do I really need to quote Einstein?). If you mean something else, what do you mean?

There is nothing objective about judging how scary a scenario is in terms of ascertaining whether it's "very rare" or not. Whether you want to talk about how rare an unavoidable crash is relative to crashes that are avoidable by the cyclist, or by how rare rides that result in unavoidable crashes relative to the total number of rides, I say "very rare" clearly applies.



If you even have an escape route. Frequently there is no place of safe refuge for a cyclist caught literally between a rock and a hard place.
But how often, out of the 700-800 cyclists deaths per year, is "caught between a rock and a hard place" what happens? And in how many of those cases is the cyclist caught after he neglected to pay attention and/or follow best practices?

Being a trucker who hauls a 53 foot box and has been to HAWAII I woud suggust it a foolish notion to assume that truckers see you , and once they start that turn , and look away to check the other possible collision points you will most likekly be lost in that wide angle mirror.I did not say I assumed they see me, that would be foolish. But truck drivers here have shown they have seen me by not making the turn as I approached and by waving their hand in their mirror for me to go first.

Would you take the bet and pocket the $100?

How about this....

I put you in a large truck and tell you to make a right hand turn across a bike lane. I will ride by on my bike and you see if you can "see" me.

I bet you $100 you cannot. Lets not lock everyone up who has the misfortune of driving in a city with questionable engineering abilities.
Hell, even cars have blindspots on the right, and something as narrow as a bicycle very easily might not be visible to a driver. I'm not trying to blame cyclists for any particular collisions mentioned by Randya, but trying to pass cars on the right at an intersection isn't by any means a good idea.

As for the issue of licensing, I agree with filtersweep. I think it's pretty insane that my D-class license permits me to drive a 26,000lb vehicle. I really think there should be additional endorsements for stuff like that. And because most SUVs are based on truck platforms, and don't have to conform to a lot of the same standards passenger vehicles like cars, some small SUVs and minivans, I personally wouldn't oppose a measure requiring an additional endorsement for those either. I think it'd be a great way to get a lot of them off of the roads.

Wow, this thread has digressed.

Wow, this thread has digressed.

About as much as Entertainment Tonight (Not Quite).

PS I'd sure love to get back to Boise and tour with some of you Idahoans. Seems silly I'm 26-50 miles out but it's a million miles away and I still haven't seen my folks new place in Nampa even.

Need a helmet too. Sad I'll never meet SARAH...