Yes exactly, everyone reacts differently to various situations.Not everyone has been to urban bootcam to be properly prepared for urban warfare.

-D[/quote]

Usually 'right wing' and 'advocate of safety & biking rights' do not coincide. Either way its too bad he was killed by a car.
All I'm saying is that when you get behind the wheel of a car, you have inherent responsibilities at the helm of 2000+ pounds of steel, and striking cyclists and pedestrians is not acceptable.

Those "inherent responsibilies" are the rules of the game for all players & the bicycle/pedestrian is always going to lose the game, if there is a slip from either player.
In other words.... The 3,000+ lb battering ram is always going to win out in the field.
Acceptable or not, if one can't deal with the hazards & happenings of the game one has no business playing.

Regards,
Mr. knob

I'm a bit confused, as I usually am since I am almost always in a drunken stuper.
But I know one thing for sure. I can drive a car in the middle of the night with no lighting other than my fog lamps, and still see a dog in the middle of the road. I'm sure almost all of you can! So how could I even begin to convince myself that I wouldn't see a person on a bike, who is just a wee bit taller than a dog.

If this person really didn't see the cyclist and thought ice hit her SUV, then she needs to be driving something that allows her to actually see the road.

You are confusing "ability to see" with "notice".

Google for "inattentional blindness".

You're right.
It is a very uneven playing field between cars and bicycles, so there needs to be real consequences for cars hitting cyclists to discourage it.

What are you going on about now?
I didn't confuse anything, I said "see" and I meant "see"

However, I did confuse this budweiser crap for beer, ugh!

Google for "kiss my..." nevermind

Allow me to elaborate!

I grew up in the country. The only thing there was to do when I was a kid was to get ****ed up and do ****ed up stuff.
I'd be sloshed on whatever the old man brewed up, driving my truck 60mph on roads that were so curvey they'd make a rollercoaster look like a runway, and all of this in the middle of gods country... deer, turkey, bobcats, you name it, all over the place.
No matter how drunk I was or if I was getting a hummer while high on dope, I never hit anything due to "inattentional blindness".
One time I did take out a few hundred feet of fenceline when I passed out.
I'm a different man now though. I drink more but rarely drive, and only sober. And NO, I never got a DUI or any of that ****, I just grew up...some.

Dude. After this morning, I can vouch for driver obliviousness to having hit something at all.

I'll write a full post on this later, but I got hit today in the classic right-hook. While I was trying to evade the car turning across my path, I put out my hand and pushed off the vehicle, and I think my hip also may have brushed the vehicle, and possibly my front wheel was also turned askew by the back panel. Anyway, the contact was enough to make me fly off my bike.

The driver insisted that I'd fallen off by myself. She said she didn't feel anything, and her car wasn't scratched, so therefore, she didn't hit me. No major damage to my bike, either. I guess the soft flesh of my body absorbing the impact didn't count in her book.

Yes, the cops came and filed a report. I'm pissed because the officer asked me repeatedly if any part of my bike had hit the car, and I said "I honestly can't tell, but my hand definitely did." Now I'm feeling paranoid that it doesn't count as a crash for liability reasons unless the actual vehicle (bike) made an impact. I guess I should have just slammed into her instead of trying to not get hit. Yay, free bike, right? (never mind the neck brace, it will heal in a few months)

But the point is, I definitely got hit. And she honestly thought she was just being a good samaritan by stopping to help the cyclist who had magically been thrown off a bike for no reason. And she was surprised when I informed her that, yes, she had hit me. Hello, big vehicle? You're not necessarily gonna feel a 150lb shock-absorbent payload when it hits you at the same angle you're turning.

Just a personal anecdote, there.

But she didn't topple you over from the front, which is what I was trying to convey.
And in all honesty, she probably knew she hit you and was just doing what she could to prove to you that she didn't, as odd as it sounds.

Oh, totally. That comment wasn't directed at you. Just a general "Hey, sometimes they really truly don't know" story.

I turned right to evade, so I hit her at an angle where she might not feel my body bouncing off her vehicle from the back right panel. Honestly, it was just therapeutic to type the story.

We had a priest claim the same thing. He got probation is all.

https://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bishopobrien1.html

I wish I could find the picture of the car.

Good luck
"Innocent til proven guilty"...lol

Let's not turn this into a "Death race 2000" scenario....lol

Still doesn't make it right. If you hit something, panic and runaway it is still fleeing the scene of an accident and should be punished.

Right? i nearly fell out my chair laughing at that one.
Yes, you're right.
It would be wonderful if we lived in a perfect society ,wouldn't it?
Even with all the political correctness & whatnot going around these days, still not perfect as of yet.

From a local email list:

strangely, that makes me feel better.