KevinSCo

Another fatality that shouldn't have happened. I ride up and down Temescal several times a week. It has a bike lane in both directions and a wide shoulder. There is no excuse for this "accident."

https://www.smmirror.com/articles/New...icyclist/39151

Jed19

Sad to read that the idiotic driver had been drinking.

My condolences to James Rapley's family and friends.

Garfield Cat

The dead is from Australia and the editor of that story is from Australia.

vol

"...Rapley had flown from Chicago to Los Angeles a day before his flight home for Christmas because he was nervous that bad weather would delay his plans. He hired a bike for a day when he was struck in the Pacific Palisades." Just all the more SO SAD!
More here with pictures

Pamestique 

How do you know the driver was drinking?

calamarichris

It's stated in the story, Pam.

It's no consolation, and it doesn't excuse the 19 year old drunk driver, but at least he had the character to remain at the scene.
I get furious when they flee the scene like this scumbag Julianne Elyse Thomson who fled after killing 64-tear-old Arthur Jacobs near my home. I think about him every time I ride by the spray paint on the bike lane.



Or scumbag Joseph Ricardo Fernandez, 46, who fled the scene after running down Jim Schwarzman a few miles away. And cleverly turned himself in the next day when sober, and got a slap-on-the-wrist.

peckma

This blog post has some additional info about the incident: https://bikinginla.com/2013/12/22/bre...fic-palisades/

Towards the end of the post, the author writes that the victim's father states that he had been told by the police the driver had been drinking.

A tragedy either way.

TrojanHorse

I like riding in the mornings because one would ASSUME you are less likely to be hit by a drunk driver. The kid was only 19 too!

That sucks but I do appreciate the kid sticking around to take his medicine. It won't help anybody but a little personal responsibility goes a long way these days.

calamarichris

I fear it won't, and they'll make exactly the wrong kind of example of him.
What kind of defense is, "Your honor, at least he didn't flee the scene of the accident, like everyone else does nowadays?"

And the lowlives (lowlifes?) who flee will continue to get slapped on the wrist, because, hey, at least they were sober by the time they turned themselves in, right?

I'm not suggesting the kid should get off because he didn't flee. But as long as there is incentive to hit-n-run, people will continue to do so. And sometimes, it even opens up the opportunity for getting away with only a little ding to your conscience. (Hopefully.)

And another thing: do you think Arthur Jacobs would have only gotten 6 years if he'd killed Julianne Thomson and then tried to run?