Advocacy & Safety - And here we go again, Jason Alexander hits 14-year-old cyclist

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/actor-jason-alexander-hits-teen-bicyclist-in-midcity.html

The funny thing is the comments section, as usual:





This is the EXACT reason that bike riders should NOT be in the streets with cars! If there is a bike lane that is one thing...but in the street competing with cars..NO!

Hope this kid and Jason are ok!

Posted by: Rosee | April 27, 2010 at 12:26 PM


First off, if Rosee's mindset is that other vehicles are "competing" with her vehicle for the streets instead of all sharing it together, I really wouldn't want to be biking or driving anywhere nearby.
Second it was a 14-year-old kid. Even assuming he was at fault, what does this mean? If a just licensed teenage driver made the same mistake are you going to pull all drivers off the streets?

There seems to NEVER be a citation. Glad the kid is in stable condition. But come on. Let's write some citations already.

My dog jumped the fence today. Cost me $15 over at the city animal control when we went to retrieve him. Seems fair to me. But hit a cyclist? Meh. They shouldn't be competing for the road. :/

I mean, didn't Jerry always have bikes in his apartment....?
http://www.notempire.com/images/uploads/seinfeld-set-2009.jpg

I didn't see in the article an explanation of how the accident happened so it may be that Alexander didn't do anything to be cited for.

An odd thing -- Alexander was also in a comedy show where his character was based on Tony Kornheiser. That is, of course, of no consequence, but it is an odd coincidence.

My dog jumped the fence today. Cost me $15 over at the city animal control when we went to retrieve him.



That happened to me last year and it cost $130. My dog was there all of three hours.
Sucks to live in an expensive area with a bankrupt government.

On the original topic, hope the kid is alright and the driver is cited, if appropiate. It seems that citations don't happen enough.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/04/actor-jason-alexander-hits-teen-bicyclist-in-midcity.html

The funny thing is the comments section, as usual:



First off, if Rosee's mindset is that other vehicles are "competing" with her vehicle for the streets instead of all sharing it together, I really wouldn't want to be biking or driving anywhere nearby.
Second it was a 14-year-old kid. Even assuming he was at fault, what does this mean? If a just licensed teenage driver made the same mistake are you going to pull all drivers off the streets?

I have to admit that when I saw the name Jason Alexander, that my first thought was of the actor. I hope that the kid is doing good, and that if upon investigation that if the driver is found to be at fault that he does get a citation.

In a way, I guess a good thing by being hit by a famous person is that you know they've got the money to pay for medical expenses, pain and suffering and bike repair if they are found to be at fault.

If he is at fault hopefully he'll pay up without dragging things out.

Does anyone know anymore about the crash?

This is worse than when Elaine hit Ping when he was delivering Kramer's big flat noodle.

There seems to NEVER be a citation. Glad the kid is in stable condition. But come on. Let's write some citations already.

Heck, why don't we just start citing drivers before they even leave the driveway. They're in a car, they must be guilty.

I'll bet his lupus was acting up & affected his driving....




.....not that there's anything wrong w/that.

I hope this child is okay. But Jason Alexander did the responsible thing, he stayed around until police and paramedics showed up and took full responsibility for the accident (something your auto-insurance company will tell you never to do). I'm sure his auto insurance company will pay the bills for that injured child. But also give Jason Alexander a thumbs up for doing the right thing after the accident instead of fleeing off like so many other cowards do.

Good on "George" for doing the right thing, but I still wonder about the details of the incident. Was this a salmon cyclist or did Jason just drift or what? What exactly happened?

The most logical thing to do in this case is wait for the facts.

Why is this an issue - it appears to be an accident, he stopped to render aid, he owned up to responsibility, the child appears to be getting the proper care - should be case closed.

Toooooo many anti everybody on here, sometimes....

Why is this an issue - it appears to be an accident, he stopped to render aid, he owned up to responsibility, the child appears to be getting the proper care - should be case closed.

Toooooo many anti everybody on here, sometimes....

Cause and effect data can help eliminate similar collisions in the future.

And here's yet another "intelligent" comment posted by somebody on Jason Alexander's IMBD message board.


Motorists should have no responsibility to those on bicycles...It's not his fault some people have no concept of danger...

Since you titled the thread "Here We Go Again............" are you implying Jason Alexander had previously hit a cyclist? Or was it just a lame attempt to somehow sensationalize what will probably turn out to be an inadvertent minor incident?

Lame attempts to stir the pot do little to promote bicycle safety.

Heck, why don't we just start citing drivers before they even leave the driveway. They're in a car, they must be guilty.

My post stemmed from the feeling that for whatever karmic reason, I'm sure that I would get a citation in any similar case, were I the driver. And I'm not talking about the fame of the motorist in this case.

I can't help but hold my experiences with drivers as an urban bicycle commuter up next to all the articles I read about motorist/bicycle accidents-- and I say again, it seems that there is never a citation.

I'm far from an expert on the percentage of multiple vehicle crashes that result in citations, but my impression is that citations must me more common when it's car vs car than when it's car vs bike-- because I hear of former, but rarely the latter.

Pure conjecture, which is why my post used the word "seems."

Bayesian logic. :D

Wilishire blvd, the one street I can walk to from my home and spend a day counting how many cars ran the red light. At the same time, road conditions suck on Wilshire so maybe the kid did something sudden, assuming he was on the road and not the sidewalk.

Since you titled the thread "Here We Go Again............" are you implying Jason Alexander had previously hit a cyclist? Or was it just a lame attempt to somehow sensationalize what will probably turn out to be an inadvertent minor incident?

Lame attempts to stir the pot do little to promote bicycle safety.

No, and if you read it that way I wasn't doing my job. What I meant by "Here we go again" were the comments in response to the accident, not the accident itself. Jason may be completely in the right and the bicyclist may be in the wrong, or vice versa or something in between. But in the eyes of the commentators the bicyclist is guilty of using the roads the only belong to motorists. It's not guilty until proven innocent. It's guilty until proven guilty.

No, and if you read it that way I wasn't doing my job.

Fair enough

I hope this child is okay. But Jason Alexander did the responsible thing, he stayed around until police and paramedics showed up and took full responsibility for the accident (something your auto-insurance company will tell you never to do). I'm sure his auto insurance company will pay the bills for that injured child. But also give Jason Alexander a thumbs up for doing the right thing after the accident instead of fleeing off like so many other cowards do.

I knew Jason Alexander as a teenager, lost contact with him after high school, and this is exactly the thing I would expect him to do, he was a nice guy back then, seems he still is.
Bu the thing I remember most was the license plate on his fathers car when he retired, FTA. I asked "Mr. Greenspan, what does that stand for?" He just look at me and said "Them All".

This article passes for journalism because one of the elements of the story involves a celebrity.

This is not a story about a bicycle accident. This is a "human interest" aka - fluff piece about a celebrity having an auto accident.

Please, people get your priorities straight.


News Flash:


Midwest man takes forum users to task for not understanding focus of newspaper article.

Richard Cranium, a regular contributor to the "bike forums" Internet message board, chided users about their lack of sophistication when it came to reading about cycling accidents in the news.

In particular Cranium pointed out that "cyclists" are almost never the actual "subject" of a given news piece. Cranium went on to post a "news like" message himself, just to demonstrate what a "hard news" story looked like in print. Other forum users were not amused and summarily ignored Cranium's rhetorical self-indulgent rant.

End of story.......