The article at "Floridatoday.com" describes the "bikes run into a car" incident" as occuring in an urban neighborhood. IF (and only IF) FTC is correctly describing the facts, the behavior of the cyclists was outrageous, and they have no one to blame except themselves.

A group of up to 40 cyclists are racing through the neighborhood in a pack through the neighborhood at speeds of up to 30 mph to 35 mph. According to FTC, the driver was pulling out of an apartment driveway, and the bikes ran into his car. Neighbors said that the view from the driveway might have been blocked by parked cars on the street where the apartment driveway is located.

When I ride near apartment houses, I know what I'm going to see coming into or across the street: kids, toys, moms pushing strollers, grannies on walkers, and vehicles entering and exiting driveways. And, on a street with parked cars, I know the kid, mom or grannie is most likely to pop out from behind that parked car just as I ride by.

So, the combination of residential neighborhood, apartments, and park cars means I need to ride at about 10 mph or 15 mph. At that speed, I can watch what is going on, spot the ball that rolled into the street, and know that a kid will be following that ball, and adjust according, even if that kid is just ten or fifteen feet in front of me.

At 30 mph, even if the "lead" bike had seen the car leaving the driveway, he was unlikely to be able to stop or avoid the car. And, the guys who where riding in 10th, 20th, 30th, and 40th positions probably never saw the car at all. When the first bike went down, the second bike plowed into him, and so on, and so on.

If there is something dumber than riding in a pack of 40 guys going 30 mph through an urban neighborhood, I don't think I've heard of it. Who knows how accurate the press reports actually are? But, if the press is reporting the facts correctly, these cyclists were cruisin' for a bruisin'.