Originally Posted by
idoru2005
I was being facetious...
From the comments on the OC Register story, I just learned the rider was not a "roadie". An eyewitness says that the bike was a hybrid or mtb. Not saying that roadies are more responsible or more safe when it comes to riding. But one thing I have noticed about hybrid or mtb riders is that they are more likely to be doing things that are generally considered to be unsafe, like riding on sidewalks and riding on the wrong side of the street. They are more lackadaisical and lax about taking things cautiously. There are absolutely no details about the accident mentioned in the article, so we don't know if that's the case here.
Also from the comments he was Mormon and had done his mission which generally means riding around a lot on a bike because they can't drive while on their mission. We can't know that for sure what his experience level was, as you said, but he probably wasn't a total newbie.
Based on the comments of witness and what I saw of the car and scene, I feel that he outright ran the red light because he was distracted or miscalculated when running a yellow. He was hit at speed, but my comment about high speed is probably misleading. It has hard enough to throw him into the air so that he landed on the roof of the car. I'm not sure at what speed that would happen.
What a tragic accident.
