Commuting - Video: Lawmaker runs red light crashes into bicyclist

Video: Lawmaker runs red light crashes into bicyclist
Posted September 1st, 2009 by JUSTCOMEHOME

MADISON, Wis. — Video taken from inside a city bus shows a Wisconsin state lawmaker running a red light and smashing into a bicyclist.

Rep. Fred Clark, a Democrat, was ticketed by Madison police for running a red light on Aug. 18. The video was released this week by Madison Metro.

It shows the cyclist entering the intersection near the state Capitol after the light turns green. A couple seconds later, Clark enters the intersection in an SUV and slams into the biker.

Clark didn't immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday. The biker received non-life threatening injuries.

A Madison police report says Clark told an officer "I was just not paying attention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hPB9t1qCas

So, any word on the cyclists condition?

He sustained injuries but nothing life-threatening.

Q: So what's safer? Running red lights when no cars are around, or rolling through a green light without looking?

A: Look both ways before you cross the street and the question is irrelevant. A green light does not guarantee your safety in any way. Running a red after looking is safer than going thru a green without looking.

That wasnt even orange that was just an outright run.

He was distracted by something. I bet a phone was involved. I hope they check his phone records and I hope the cyclist hires the most money grubbing ambulance chasing lawyer in the state.

A green light does not guarantee your safety in any way

no, but it improves your odds.

no, but it improves your odds.

Not even one percent.

Looking both ways and proceeding when you won't get hit improves your odds regardless of the color of some silly light.

Take most traffic circles in Europe. Not a traffic signal in sight but somehow motorists and cyclists get through unharmed. How do you explain that?

I'll tell you how. Since no one is "protected" by colored lights, EVERYONE looks both ways before entering and leaving the traffic circle. Americans, apparently, are too dumb - or brainwashed - to understand the concept.

The guy was coming up on the right side of the bus...the bus was starting to roll...so he had very little time to look to his left to see this guy running the red light.

Yes, one should always look both ways on an intersection - red or green light...either way, the video is an eye opener!!!

no, but it improves your odds.

Statistically it does, clearly, because most drivers don't just charge through a red light. I think it's kind of like flipping a coin, though -- the fact that the last 99 flips came up heads has no influence on the outcome of the next flip, and the fact that the last 99 drivers through this intersection stopped on the red has no influence on whether the next one will. Assume that the driver may be distracted, lost, angry, texting or on the phone, yelling at the kids in the back seat or late for a meeting, and you're probably best off.

That SUV was coming so fast even looking both ways may not have helped. The vehicle would be too far back and with the angle of the street and pulling out from behind the bus even harder to see.

Yikes. Sometimes I'll use vehicles as shields against this sort of thing. The guy would have benefited from that. :( On the subject of colorful lights: Blowing through a fresh green can be hazardous to one's health, too.

WTF! bad accident, good news, the cyclist is was ok..

Yesterday in Puerto Rico 2 cyclists were killed by Keggers..in different countys! a sad day! news didnt cover the incident just mentioned it....VERY SAD!

Looks like the bus blocked his view. I always hate riding through lights that have just turned green. He's got a broken back and ripped lung, from what I read the other day. He only got a couple hundred dollar fine for running the red.

God, that video made me cringe.

I like to use other vehicles as sheilds in those sort of instances or i'll be off of the vehicles rear passenger side for in case they turn it depends on if I can get to a spot further up where the driver can easily see me.

Take most traffic circles in Europe. Not a traffic signal in sight but somehow motorists and cyclists get through unharmed. How do you explain that?

While I agree that a light doesn't protect you from anything, the above comparison is bunk. The explanation is simple: You can't blast through a roundabout the same way you can blow through a red light. Some phone-yapping jerk scribbling stuff on his dashboard notepad can rip through a red light at 50mph and never know it happened if there's nothing in the way; in most cases it's a straight shot right though. Try it with a roundabout and you hit a curb and end up in the grass on the circle (if you're lucky; if you're not, it's one of those roundabouts with a decorative brick planter or a fountain in it.)

The cyclist is lucky to be alive and thankfully will live to see another day. Pretty silly that the driver walks away with a red light ticket. I ran across an interesting analysis where the cyclist shares some blame. He was not in a bike lane but coming out of a right turn only lane.

http://www.dane101.com/current/2009/09/02/cyclist_and_driver_share_blame_in_hamiltonwebster_crash_but

Here is the Google Street View of the intersection.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=hamilton+and+webster,+madison,+wi&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.374125,52.470703&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&cbll=43.077442,-89.383824&panoid=oH7Hw5YddH7iZ-IT3uVidA&cbp=13,317.5,,0,5.28&ll=43.07755,-89.

Bet the driver was texting...

That's going to leave a mark!

Painful to watch, but I had to rewind it five or six times anyway... Important to see what can happen when your guard is down.

+1 to all those who pointed out that the bus blocked his view of the intersection, but blasting into a just-green intersection is always risky.

Blasting through a fresh green is OK.....if you have good sight lines.

I hope he gets a nice payday from that Ahole.

if blasting through a fresh green doesn't pucker your saddle, you're not paying enough attention to the roads around you. You really have to look or use the bus as a shield.

Passing on the right is not safe and passing in intersections is not safe.

OK, flame away!