1nterceptor

"The suggestion that Mathieu Lefevre was in any way at fault for the fatal crash demonstrates once again the lack of understanding of the rules of the road among NYPD officers, including, remarkably, members of the Accident Investigation Squad. NYPD seems to be relying on VTL Section 1123 in claiming that Lefevre should not have attempted to pass the truck on the right. But Section 1123 expressly allows passing on the right when there is enough unobstructed room in the roadway for two lanes of traffic."

Read the full article:
https://gothamist.com/2012/03/14/new_...lists_deat.php

Booger1

You sure that law doesn't mean 2 lanes in each direction? It just doesn't seem correct that you can pass on the left and right...... Sounds like you can do whatever you want......as long as you stay in your lane.

Your not going to catch me passing a vehicle on the right,even in a car,whether the law permits it or not.Nobody is expecting you to be there.There are 2 sides to a truck,the left side and the suicide.....

That's still no reason for NYPD to lie about it or have things vanish.This is very sad.....

AdamDZ

Legal or not passing a truck on the right is just dumb. I see people do this all the time when the trucks are about to turn, freaking death wish or just plain stupidity?

When I ride and see a truck in front of me approaching an intersection I slow down and remain behind the truck, even it's not signalling, just in case it decides to make a turn. But noooo, most people are in so much rush they can't risk losing 30 seconds.

Confederate

Sometimes the rules don't jive with actual safety. When the rules are wrong, do what is right.

Artkansas 

Especially when it's your last 30 seconds on Earth.

Artkansas 

I took a look at the video. It doesn't show the accident so I can't be sure. But from the looks of it, the truck had pulled left to make a sharp right turn onto a side street.

What I did see was that the truck and the car behind it had come to a stop and the bike was coming along behind them. As the truck and car started up, the cyclist appears to cranked it up to 400 watts and was passing traffic in a fluid situation.

He may be in the clear, but his judgement was definitely questionable. He should have waited a few moments before cranking up the wattage to see what traffic was going to do.

It's very sad.

AdamDZ

Dang. Yeah. For some it is

surfperch

I feel bad for his family, but I think the rider has as much of the fault in this. As for the law...I'd figure any cyclists with enough miles under their belt would at least slow down in this situation as their view of the intersection is obstructed by the truck and there was no way he could know how the situation with a stopped truck at a green light was going to play out.

Even if the law is on my side in a car vs bicycle situation I'd rather err on the side of caution and avoid the situation altogether.

Perhaps I'm not visualizing the whole picture about what happened...but each way I run it through my head I see situational awareness and caution on the rider's part would have saved his life.

BarracksSi

Most trucks making a right turn I've ever seen, especially on a smallish street like this, have to cross the double yellow in order to make the turn without the trailer tearing down whatever's posted at the corner.

No, it doesn't look like the truck had its signal on, but like surfperch said, the rider's situational awareness could have been better, too. It usually takes at least two mistakes to create a collision.

AdamDZ

Precisely. Trucks can't possibly turn as close as possible to the curb. That's just totally silly argument from people without a clue. Most of them have to move to the other lane before they can make their turn. Tractor trailers in particular often need the entire width of the street, both lanes to turn. And hello, they can't see you! These are not highway ramps, these are narrow streets with 90 degree turns. It's the way it is. I deal with this every day since I ride through industrial Brooklyn. And I see stupid cyclist behavior all the time. People just don't understand the world around them and put themselves in danger. Nobody has any common sense these days any more. Then there is crying and blaming when someone gets hurt. This unfortunate and tragic event could have been avoided if the cyclist paid attention and exercised proper caution. I never have problems with trucks. I watch them, anticipate their movement and avoid them.

CB HI

True enough the cyclist did not do all he could have for his own safety, but the cyclist did not break the law, was not the one failing to properly signal, did not hit someone and flee the scene, did not hide photographic evidence, did not make false statments about a broken camera, did not release statements of no violations, did not fail to understand the law, did not fail to do an adequate investigation and did not write reports that made absolutely no sense with the geography and video evidence.

BarracksSi

Yet, all that would not have happened in the first place if he did't try to beat the truck.

"Dead right" is still "dead", unfortunately.

AdamDZ

I don't have enough information about that accident so I'm not judging who was in the right from purely legal perspective. I'm just saying that cyclists in NYC are dumb and reckless and I'm sure this guy would still be alive if he was more careful. So what if his family wins this battle and proves NYPD wrong. Sure the cops are likely lying and they didn't carry out a proper investigation, but proving that won't bring the dude back. The point is to avoid something like this, not to prove anyone wrong after someone has died. And the cyclists have the responsibility to keep themselves safe, don't count on the cops and govt to protect you, it's in your power to keep yourself safe. That needs to be emphasized.

Yeah, my riding policy is to keep myself alive and in one piece. I call it defensive riding: be aware of your surroundings and stay out of harm's way no matter what. I yield to anything that's bigger than me even if its driver is obviously braking the laws and I have the right of way. I don't wear headphones so I can hear what's going on around me, I have mirrors and hi-vis gear, I eliminated all distractions, I pay attention to my surroundings, I don't try to be cool and hip and I don't mess around with vehicles. I don't want to get hurt, period. That's my #1 priority. Everything else is secondary. If more people acted like this we'd have a lot less ghost bikes at NYC intersections.

boro

Lots of stupid things are legal.

It was implied by the NYPD that he was doing something illegal, which is apparently incorrect with the evidence presented. But given the way that the family was treated and how the NYPD handled the case from the beginning, I think this comes down to a technicality - obviously they completely mishandled things.

But the refusal to believe that the cyclist did anything unsafe is a political refusal, not a critical one. It's still part of the tragedy.

Pass flat-deck trucks on the right at night all you want... I'm hanging back.

GamblerGORD53

I agree that the police here were total jerks about withholding evidence from the greiving parents, as usual.
What this video shows, is that the trucks front wheels had been turned right already.
The driver didn't signal and therefore deserves blame, but only for that reason. That bump in the dark could have been the curb.
The moral of this and many other similar sad stories, is NEVER filter a truck. If there isn't a law, then there needs to be, real soon. What the OP said makes no sense.

ckaspar

I never realized how much looking around I do until I strapped a GoPro on my helmet and watched the video. My head is on a friggin swivel. I have only just started riding regularly but when I was younger I "commuted" to elementary school everyday. It all came back real quick. I never push the issue when I am unsure if the situation. Sad for the rider and his family.

BarracksSi

My guess as to what you were thinking before pushing "play": "This will be neat, I'd like to see what the traffic looks like. Maybe I could speed it up and post it on Youtube."

And after pushing "play": "My God, I'm getting seasick... Hey, there's the Starbucks that I pass on 3rd aven... red light? Oh yeah.."

ckaspar

Kinda. I was more planning on recording all my rides then splicing together a montage of "interesting" situations and sights. But ya. The Post Press Play moment was a little "bobble heady".

AdamDZ

Yeah, same here: my commuting videos are un-watchable due to my head movements and general shakiness I tried mounting the cam on the bars but the shaking is even worse.

Mos6502

Frankly if a truck has to cross the double yellow to make a right turn, it should not be making that turn. Not only is it illegal, but it's just stupid and I don't know why anybody should have to put up with somebody doing something unreasonable and dangerous on a public street.

If you can't make the turn properly, you can't make the turn period. But we're so used to drivers being thoughtless that we simply accept their bad driving and lack of judgement and disregard for the rules of the road and safety of others as "necessary".

Not saying that that happened here, but I don't get why we excuse stupidity and corner cutting and general fncking things up for the sake of convenience like this.

You wouldn't excuse somebody driving a 14' tall truck under 12' tall bridge, if only because the physical problem is visually demonstrated in such an obvious and captivating way, so why would you excuse somebody taking a truck with a huge turning circle around a corner where there's not enough room to legally accommodate that turning circle? If it doesn't fit it doesn't fit. Period.

BarracksSi

You must not spend much time in a city.

AdamDZ

Then you would have to ban all the trucks fro NYC and most other cities. That's just not reasonable and I'm sure there is a clause allowing for this, even city buses have to do that.

Rwebb

Having been a commercial driver, i agree that he shouldn't have made that turn. Legally speaking. Having said that, neither of them were paying attention or this would not have happened.

Mos6502

What exactly is unreasonable about that? New York banned streetcars using overhead wires (oh the horror!) so they found an alternative (underground conduits). If they could do that for the safety of the city, what's so outrageous that they require trucking companies comply with common sense and existing laws?

There is absolutely nothing unreasonable about it at all, in fact it is considerably more reasonable than letting drivers cut corners by taking routes that cannot accommodate them, and using trucks that are too big for the job. Convenience and penny pinching does not trump every other issue in the universe.

AdamDZ

City economy needs trucks. I'd love to see trucks banned in the cities, if anything for their noise, but it's not happening.