Fifty Plus (50+) - Bicyclist Kills Pedestrian

I also posted this article in A&S but do it here as well since the responses are generally more rational and congenial here. Also, the deceased is in the 55+ category. From my local news paper the Honolulu Star Advertiser April 2, 2012:


Bicyclist kills pedestrian, 80
An 80-year-old woman died early Sunday morning after she was struck in a Hotel Street crosswalk by a bicyclist who ran a red light, police said.
An Emergency Medical Services spokesman said the woman sustained head injuries Saturday alter falling to the pavement and was taken to the Queen's Medical Center
in critical condition. She died of her injuries
at 2:21 a.m., police said.
The woman had been walking north in a crosswalk on Hotel Street when she was hit
by the bicyclist, who disregarded a red signal while traveling east on Hotel Street, police said.
Hawaii News Now, citing the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office, identified her as Dionicia Leoning.

Hang him.


(I'm fairly close to being serious)

That's really sad. Unfortunately, the way a lot of people ride around my town, I'm surprised I don't see more stories like that in the news. I've been nearly run down walking in a crosswalk twice and had wrong way bike riders nearly take me out on a couple of occasions when riding, one of those times the guy had blown through a red light at the same time. A couple of years ago, I put a post in the commuting forum about some observations I made in my town. It's the long one about half the page down. Things haven't changed much in the last couple of years.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/597050-quot-How-do-We-Get-Bikers-to-Obey-Traffic-Laws-quot-%28Article%29/page3?highlight=survey

Run a light or stop sign and kill someone, then it's vehicular homicide. What you are driving or riding doesn't enter into it.

I hope the next of kin find the perp and slap him with a huge wrongful death lawsuit. This amazingly common idea that cyclists should be exempt from stop lights is just wrong!

I hope the next of kin find the perp and slap him with a huge wrongful death lawsuit. This amazingly common idea that cyclists should be exempt from stop lights is just wrong!
I agree that cyclists should obey all traffic laws. However, it is my experience that most folks ride like they drive. When I see a cyclists blow through a stop sign, I'm thankful he/she is on a bike rather than driving several tons of steel in that manner.

Just yesterday while walking to my local grocery store I watched a motorist go through a stop sign at 30 mph in a 20 mph zone. Cross traffic has no stop at this intersection, but one-half block up the road I watched a car blow through that stop sign at 30 mph. But for the timing (about four seconds off), this could have easily been a fatal situation for at least one of the scofflaw motorists.

There is considerable evidence that large segments of the human race is functionally stupid. This condition pertains across the economic/educational spectrum.

Guys who blow red lights (and don't even slow down at stop signs) are not "cyclists" in my book. They are peds on bikes. Critical Massholes.

Luis

How fast does an 80-year old woman walk anyway? I can't believe she just suddenly sprang out there in front of the cyclist, without giving him a chance to react. How many kinds of stupid must a guy like that be?

This is a very sad story with ironic features (i.e., a "man bites dog" story). Usually pedestrians, bicyclists, and other
motorists suffer serious injuries when a motorist runs a red light or stop sign. In this case a cyclist allegedly ran
a red light and killed a pedestrian.

This case highlights why cyclists are considered (by all the state motor vehicle codes I know of) to be riding on
"vehicles" and are obligated to follow the "rules of the road." That includes obeying traffic signals and signs, and
yielding the right of way to pedestrians and those on other vehicles. In most cases the cyclist who ignores the
rules of the road will be exposed to the risk of injury/death when he experiences an "accident." In this case it seems
to be that a pedestrian got the worse of the "accident."

This cyclist would certainly be subject to a civil "wrongful death" lawsuit. Since he violated traffic codes, he could also
be subject to a criminal charge of "vehicular homicide" or at least "negligent homicide." If he happened to be intoxicated
at the time of the "accident," he could face additional criminal charges of DUI.

How fast does an 80-year old woman walk anyway? I can't believe she just suddenly sprang out there in front of the cyclist, without giving him a chance to react. How many kinds of stupid must a guy like that be?

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2012/04/05/was-cyclist-who-killed-pedestrian-reckless), his Strava app recording him as doing 35 mph at the time. The intersection was at the bottom of a steep hill.

Apparently his description of the accident was.

"The light turned yellow as I was approaching the intersection, but I was already way too committed to stop. The light turned red as I was cruising through the middle of the intersection and then, almost instantly, the southern crosswalk on Market and Castro filled up with people coming from both directions, … so, in a nutshell, blammo."

rest in peace sweetheart, I hope you had a life full of love and joy

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2012/04/05/was-cyclist-who-killed-pedestrian-reckless), his Strava app recording him as doing 35 mph at the time. The intersection was at the bottom of a steep hill.

Apparently his description of the accident was.

"The light turned yellow as I was approaching the intersection, but I was already way too committed to stop. The light turned red as I was cruising through the middle of the intersection and then, almost instantly, the southern crosswalk on Market and Castro filled up with people coming from both directions, … so, in a nutshell, blammo."An 80-year-old woman walked that fast?

An 80-year-old woman walked that fast?
I read that as he was distracted making sure the motorists with the green light didn't get him and when he looked up, the crosswalk was filled with pedestrians. When he then tried to blast through the pedestrians, the 80 year old was the only one not quick enough to avoid him.

I read that as he was distracted making sure the motorists with the green light didn't get him and when he looked up, the crosswalk was filled with pedestrians. When he then tried to blast through the pedestrians, the 80 year old was the only one not quick enough to avoid him.

I guess he never heard of brakes? Not many hills here, but I've seen cyclist come down bridges at a very fast speed and have near collisions all the time. It's fun coming down a grade at a fast rate of speed, but you have to be safe while doing it. Regardless, the least charge that he should get is failure to keep a vehicle under control. Charges of vehicular homicide will require some other determining factors. In either case, there is definitely enough civil liability for the family to take him to court.

This happened on a Saturday night apparently at Fort Street Mall on Hotel Street. That date/time and location make it likely that the cyclist was a homeless person. Less likely would be a utility cyclist. Extremely unlikely are commuter or recreational cyclist.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/17307454/woman-killed-in-bicycle-crash

Fort Street Mall is an old road that has been cobble stoned and turned into a wide pedestrian mall (no bicycles allowed). The pedestrian crosswalk across Hotel Street is 40 feet wide.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Fort+Street+Mall+and+Hotel+Street,+HI&hl=en&sll=21.309589,-157.860081&sspn=0.018451,0.012274&t=k&hnear=S+Hotel+St+%26+Fort+Street+Mall,+Honolulu,+Hawaii+96813&z=21
(if you do not have an direct overhead view, pull down traffic button and click 45 degree off)

Hotel Street use to be the main Honolulu location for hookers to apply their trade. As I understand it, to move the hookers out of the area, Hotel Street was turned into a bus and bicycle only road. The lights are timed for the buses and when the Fort Street Mall light goes yellow, a cyclist does not have time to make it through the 40 foot crosswalk before the light turns red unless they are doing over 20 mph. The pedestrians often only look for buses and step into the road before their walk signal comes on. Cyclist on Hotel Street have to be extra careful to avoid hitting pedestrians.

Side story: about one month ago I had to ride down the street at about 10 mph, visually surveying environmental issues along Hotel Street. The light turned yellow right as I got to the stop line. I only made it half way through the cross walk before pedestrians stepped out and I had to stop midway in the crosswalk. Out of the corner of my eye I see a 20 something guy coming from the other side of Fort Street Mall intentionally walking right at me. He stops right next to me and gives it “Your blocking the crosswalk”. I simply told him to “Stop being stupid”. My stopped six feet of bicycle was a major issue for him in a 40 foot wide crosswalk, oh well.

A couple blocks down, it is always a challenge to avoid hitting J-walking lawyers crossing Hotel Street between their high rise offices and the court house.

So is this an example of a rouge red light running cyclist killing people - not likely. Is this an example of a cyclist (homeless or not) and pedestrians not using the extra care that this pedestrian crossing needs - yes. Is this another example of the city not properly timing traffic lights to include cyclist and thus endangering everyone - absolutely.

Blame scale:
City 50%
Cyclist 45%
Pedestrian 5%

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2012/04/05/was-cyclist-who-killed-pedestrian-reckless), his Strava app recording him as doing 35 mph at the time. The intersection was at the bottom of a steep hill.

Apparently his description of the accident was.

"The light turned yellow as I was approaching the intersection, but I was already way too committed to stop. The light turned red as I was cruising through the middle of the intersection and then, almost instantly, the southern crosswalk on Market and Castro filled up with people coming from both directions, … so, in a nutshell, blammo."You guys are now confusing a San Francisco death with this thread that happened in Honolulu. Two different stories.

I guess he never heard of brakes? Not many hills here, but I've seen cyclist come down bridges at a very fast speed and have near collisions all the time. It's fun coming down a grade at a fast rate of speed, but you have to be safe while doing it. Regardless, the least charge that he should get is failure to keep a vehicle under control. Charges of vehicular homicide will require some other determining factors. In either case, there is definitely enough civil liability for the family to take him to court.No hills involved in the Honolulu story that this thread is about.

Thanks for giving us the full and complete story. A person should not make up there mind to early before knowing all the facts.

You guys are now confusing a San Francisco death with this thread that happened in Honolulu. Two different stories.

My bad. It's unusual to have two such similar incidents so close together.

My bad. It's unusual to have two such similar incidents so close together.Very true. When I saw the thread for the San Francisco death, I thought they got the city wrong until I read the link.

Very true. When I saw the thread for the San Francisco death, I thought they got the city wrong until I read the link.


I had just seen the S.F incident on Yahoo, and assumed that you were giving a report on it from the Honolulu source. As the Australian saying goes, Assumptions are the mother of all F.U.s

1,000 or so cyclists killed by motorists every year, and they concentrate on the few pedestrians that get hit by bicyclists. When I see what some of the pedestrians do around bicycles, it's a wonder there aren't a lot more collisions. The most common thing I see, people who don't look before they charge across a street, they listen for the cacophony of a motor vehicle, when they don't hear it they charge out. I think hybrid cars take out more then bicycles do every year, because they don't hear those either.:rolleyes:

Run a light or stop sign and kill someone, then it's vehicular homicide. What you are driving or riding doesn't enter into it.

+1 with a few minor modifications. The issue is that a life was lost as a result of the actions of another. The methods or vehicles in use are less important that the fact that laws/rules designed to keep folks safe were violated. One hopes the actions were not intentional, and one hopes that the actions will not repeat themselves by those who tend to mirror them.

1,000 or so cyclists killed by motorists every year, and they concentrate on the few pedestrians that get hit by bicyclists. When I see what some of the pedestrians do around bicycles, it's a wonder there aren't a lot more collisions. The most common thing I see, people who don't look before they charge across a street, they listen for the cacophony of a motor vehicle, when they don't hear it they charge out. I think hybrid cars take out more then bicycles do every year, because they don't hear those either.:rolleyes:

Well, actually, in this case I was rather surprised that it didn't get more coverage. We are a small state with an average of around 50 road fatalities a year, so every one usually gets pretty substantial coverage but this just warranted a few paragraphs buried in the local section. The newspaper coverage will typically say "this was the xxth pedestrian fatality this year versus xx last year" but didn't in this case. So, no, it wasn't a case of more coverage because a bicycle was involved but rather the opposite.

As for the hybrids, those pedestrians are sitting ducks for my Nissan Leaf. Actually, the ducks are sitting ducks ... for some reason I have a lot more close calls with birds when I'm driving the electric car.

Bet they mandate some noise generator so pedestrians know that an electric vehicle is approaching.

Do I have this right...the cyclist was clocked at 35mph going through an intersection at Market & Castro in SF? What's the speed limit for SF streets, and that street in particular? Is it somewhere around 20-25mph? If so, the cyclist was exceeding the speed limit, which would make him subject to a charge of negligent vehicular homicide, regardless of whether or not he "blew" the traffic light. The cyclist claims the light was yellow when he entered the intersection and turned red while he was in it. The technical meaning of a yellow light is "clear the intersection," not "procede with caution" as some folks believe. That means you should either not enter the intersection (if the light is yellow when you approach) or you should get to the other side of it if you are in it when it turns yellow while you are in the intersection... Many traffic lights in SF have red-light cameras. The duration of the yellow light varies, but is up to 2-3 seconds. The cross traffic light is supposed not to turn green until the through traffic signal turns red, and often there is a 1-2 second delay added as a "safety feature." I wonder if there is a traffic cam recording of this accident. Unless the cross-traffic pedestrians were jumping their own green light, this cyclist has absolutely no excuse for what he did.

I read the SF Chronicle article, and was appalled at the glib, insensitive, self-serving, and frankly narcissistic comments attributed to the cyclist.

This is terrible. I blow stop signs all the time, but never when anyone, vehicle or pedestrian are around. So sad for both parties but the cyclist has to pay.

Need to separate out the 2 accidents referenced here. Some are confusing the Honolulu and the San Francisco accidents.

Bill

Either case is a tragedy. I almost got run over by a cyclist running a red last week when I was pushing my baby daughter in her stroller. Got so mad about it I briefly wished I'd pushed him down.

Even in NYC with all those bike messengers and new cyclists the number of peds injured by cyclists is close to insignificant (per capita) and the number killed by cyclists is close to non-existent. Motorists kill hundreds (thousands nationally) of other motorists a year, and dozens of cyclists and peds, but no one suggests "hanging them". Of 21 cyclist deaths by drivers last year only 2 were prosecuted. The cyclist is always wrong. If that woman had been killed by a car she would have been cited as a factor in the accident and the driver would only face criminal prosecution if they were simultaneously speeding and blowing a red. Either alone would carry no criminal penalty or otherwise bear negatively on the ped/cyclists death. These bike/ped accidents are truly one in a million. Tell the truth, that cyclist that you saw blowing the red, he was bombing the red that you were stopped at, not the green that you were proceeding through! I never blow red that has active cross traffic, that is just crazy. Only a small portion of cyclists are that ninja.

More of you should actually ride your bicycles in traffic. Really. Try it. You'll be finding ways to be more efficient in no time. I pick up 15 to 20 minutes each morning and evening by the judicious timing of lights and the almost complete disregard of stop signs. I am not about to apologize to cyclists for this behavior. I've never come close to hitting or killing anyone and I've given someone a bit of a scare only a couple of times. In 20 years of near daily riding. I've not come close to being hit in an intersection I was active in. The few times I have been in hazardous situations was when I was flat-footed and unable to quickly take evasive action because I was on a loaded tandem. I'd like to see cyclists be cut a little slack by the general public in general and by fellow cyclists in particular. Coming from NYC the riding style I have developed is jaw droppingly outlaw in this part of the country. I find my fellow cyclists model bike riders. Candidates for cyclist sainthood. Listen to a talk show where the topic is cyclist behavior and you would think that cyclists in Portland are ninja hoodlums that mindlessly slaughter innocent pedestrians on a daily basis. I submit that there is a huge disconnect between the actual amount of outlaw behavior on the part of cyclists and its impact on society and the public perception of said behavior.

H

Either case is a tragedy. I almost got run over by a cyclist running a red last week when I was pushing my baby daughter in her stroller. Got so mad about it I briefly wished I'd pushed him down.

See... this is exactly what I'm talking about. Were you or your daughter actually harmed? Upset, yes. Frightened, yes. I agree, it shouldn't have happened. How many times have you had to scamper out of the way of an aggressive motorist? Did you want to "push them down"? Of course not. But the cyclist incites a physical response. Why do you think that is?

H

See... this is exactly what I'm talking about. Were you or your daughter actually harmed? Upset, yes. Frightened, yes. I agree, it shouldn't have happened. How many times have you had to scamper out of the way of an aggressive motorist? Did you want to "push them down"? Of course not. But the cyclist incites a physical response. Why do you think that is?

H

Well, actually cars that **** with me usually get slapped and their drivers yelled at. They typically don't blow through red lights without even slowing down like a lot of cyclists (or maybe it's the same few over and over again) I deal with on a more or less frequent basis. Sure I filter. I'll occasionally run a red (after stopping) if I know the area and there's no cross traffic and it gets me out of the way of cars behind me. And the occasionally rolling stop, sure. But asshats that don't slow down, blow into intersections making cars that have the right of way slam on their brakes to avoid them? We need a few more cops to start issuing them tickets. And yeah, in Boston at least, they're a pretty regular thing. Usually kids in their 20's who somehow think the laws don't apply to them because they're on a bike.

Jerks are jerks regardless of whether they are on foot, in a car, or on a bike.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a cyclist get hit by a truck due to his own actions (no injury due to the relatively slow speed of the truck). I went back to see if the truck driver needed a witness to verify the stupidity and total disregard for the rules of the road by the cyclist!

I grew up in SF and now live in marin. I have seen this many times, bike riders don't think the rules apply to them.

I once saw a guy waiting at a stop ligt with me on a bike. He got tired of waiting and just started riding through the red light. Funny thing was we were both standing next to a Sheriff patrol car. the sheriff pulled him over and wrote him a ticket. It was like the twilight zone of something.

About 6 months ago in Capatolia a kid hit a senior crossing the cross walk and took her out. He was 13 I think. So now when I am crossing a crosswalk I keep my eyes pealed for bikes and cars.
Liam in Marin

See... this is exactly what I'm talking about. Were you or your daughter actually harmed? Upset, yes. Frightened, yes. I agree, it shouldn't have happened. How many times have you had to scamper out of the way of an aggressive motorist? Did you want to "push them down"? Of course not. But the cyclist incites a physical response. Why do you think that is?

H

Isn't the point that we are traffic? When we fight for infrastructure and road rights isn't that one of our battle cries? If so why should it be ok to blast a red on my bike and not a car, truck or motorcycle? when we get hit by cyclists running lights and stop signs, going the wrong way or on the sidewalk it is like getting shot by friendly fire in the military. You expect it from the enemy but not when you get shot in the back. I agree we get little respect from motorists and not much more from the police but that doesn't give us an excuse to ignore the rules.

I submit that there is a huge disconnect between the actual amount of outlaw behavior on the part of cyclists and its impact on society and the public perception of said behavior.

H
I would guess that that disconnect comes from the fact that almost all Americans do almost all of their travel by car (or some gigantic approximation of one), thus anyone on a bike is the "other". Our national addiction to cars is so bad that the median distance of a car trip is about two miles, which only takes 25 minutes to walk. No wonder almost two-thirds of Americans are obese, according to recently published data.

There weren't any traffic laws until the users of automobiles began slaughtering people with their toys. Perhaps there is an historical rational for variations in the vehicle code for human-powered devices.

See... this is exactly what I'm talking about. Were you or your daughter actually harmed? Upset, yes. Frightened, yes. I agree, it shouldn't have happened. How many times have you had to scamper out of the way of an aggressive motorist? Did you want to "push them down"? Of course not. But the cyclist incites a physical response. Why do you think that is?

H

Whether or not she or her daughter were harmed is not the point...they could have been harmed by the cyclist's negligence, and yes, it was a frightening experience. I understand her getting angry and wanting to respond aggressively (which you call an incited "physical response"). Frankly I think that such a response would be incited in many pedestrians (and cyclists or other motorists) who experience near misses with an automobile driven by a negligent (or worse) driver.