Street Pedaler

https://www.shreveporttimes.com/artic...flown-hospital

Updates from local news station to the newspaper article as of this morning (4/25/12): The 52 year old cyclist is listed in Serious Condition with a broken pelvis, cracked vertebrae, and severe head injuries (he WAS wearing a helmet). The driver was a 17 year old who was ticketed for Following To Close and claims he "didn't notice the cyclist". This is about two miles north of one of my regular cycling routes but I don't happen to know the cyclist involved. We've had about 6 cyclists go down in the Shreveport/ Bossier City area in the past three or four months with at least one fatality.

ItsJustMe

Don't forget:

"Didn't notice the cyclist" = "I am incompetent to operate a motor vehicle on public roadways."

There are no two ways about this. Road users are REQUIRED to be aware of all conditions and other users of the road. If you don't notice another road user, you're not acting in a competent manner.

Street Pedaler

+1,000

bbmike

Playing devils advocate here, if cyclist was not wearing contrasting clothing and/or did not have blinking light on than he is partially to blame.

10 Wheels

Why don'r you go visit the injured rider and tell him that.

bbmike

It's absolutely nothing personal in my post and I do not claim to know the details of the accident. I thought we are discussing road safety here? Since most do point out distracted driving as possible causes, I think it's important to point out that bicycle visibility is a significant factor as well.

If this thread is to vent out - I apologize - I'm new here.

sm1960

It's for this very reason that I ride with my rear lights all of the time. I'd like to pick up another blinky for my helmet. Why don't helmets have built in rear blinkies?

unterhausen

blaming the victim will draw criticism here. Vehicle operators are required to know what is in front of them. There is no requirement to have a safety yellow car and there is no reason why every cyclist should have to wear safety yellow clothes. The only reason we even have to consider our clothing is because people don't take their responsibilities seriously, it's not our fault if we are wearing some other clothing. Old people can't see safety yellow, btw.

Street Pedaler

I haven't seen/ heard anything about this incident indicating whether the victim had a rear blinky or not. However, neither the newspaper story nor the televised news story/ updates indicate that the victim was cited for NOT having a rear light. Doesn't prove anything one way or the other but I would caution against assuming more than is given to us in the story. The fact of the matter is that a young (read: inexperienced) driver struck a cyclist from the rear and today that cyclist is fighting for his life. It serves as a reminder that, EVERY TIME we ride on a public road, we place our safety not only in our own hands but also in the hands of complete strangers who all too often are too distracted, or inexperienced, or apathetic, or self important, blah, blah, blah for the task. PLEASE, be careful.

gmt13

This was 3:30 PM. Visibility should not be an issue.

genec

Wow, ticketed. Amazing. It does happen.

genec

Oh yeah, so they cited the driver AND the cyclist... figures.

Street Pedaler

Genec, you misread. There have been NO REPORTS indicating that the cyclist was cited.

Digital_Cowboy

Agreed, which is why several of us here have said that the police/EMT/EMS should take such statements down as an admission of guilt.

At 17 years of age, doesn't that kind of go without saying?

Agreed, which is why I think that as with certain professions where one is required to "log" a certain number of continuing education hours per year in order to meet the requirements of their license that drivers should also be required to undergo and log a certain number of continuing education hours throughout the year. If they fail to meet that requirement their license (and maybe if it get's to that point) their car is suspended/seized until they meet that requirement.

Digital_Cowboy

Hmm, considering that the crash occurred at 1530hrs how is the cyclist "partially to blame?" If there was a sudden total solar eclipse and the cyclist was riding without light and/or in dark clothing one could say that he was "partially to blame." But in this case at 1530hrs I don't buy it.

It is everyone on the road's responsibility to avoid hitting other road users. Given that the driver is 17 yrs old and is presumably still a relatively new driver his competence is a valid question.

Digital_Cowboy

As 10 Wheels asked did you read the article linked to? It's clear from the article that the crash occurred at 1530hrs. So the cyclist should have been visible at that time regardless of what s/he is/was wearing.

ItsJustMe

What about if someone is driving a car that is not in a contrasting color and gets hit from behind? Surely if the color of the vehicle in question assigns blame for a bicycle, it must do so for any vehicle?

DX-MAN

THIS! needs to be on a billboard in every city/town, across the front cover of every driver's manual, and printed across the top of the front of every driver's license issued.

DX-MAN

Glad you apologized, but really, you had it coming. No devil's advocate needed.

The accident happened in the afternoon, so the rider could have been wearing army camo and riding a bike painted in BBQ paint, and the driver would have been negligent in hitting him. Having lit blinkies in traffic, day or night, is WISE -- given the incompetence of drivers exemplified here, in this case -- but is no magic bullet.

Sad to hear Shreveport is becoming such a dangerous place....

pgerhardt

Bossier City where I lived in 73-76 while in the USAF was a great place to be a cyclist. I got in really good shape cycling to Barksdale AFB about 9 miles each way and I loved the weekend rides in the summer out in the country.

I was also hit by a car once who passed me going the same direction then turned right into me after slowing down. It bent the back wheel and the frame I was lucky and only got banged up a bit. It was also the only time that I had a pick up truck discharge a shot gun over my head while riding to work in uniform. I could not believe it!

Digital_Cowboy

I have a Planet Bike taillight mounted to the rear of my helmet. Maybe the better question would be why aren't the companies who make lights encouraged to use a universal mount at least for their taillights so that:

a) helmet manufacturers can include a mount on the back of their helmets that will accept ANY taillight
b) cyclists would be free to choose the taillight that they use instead of having it dictated to them by the helmet manufacturer

Agreed, we get enough of that from motorists, politicians, as well as the law enforcement community, we do not need it from the cycling community as well.

We shouldn't have to run head/taillights 24/7/365, we shouldn't have to wear "bright, neon" safety colored clothing. We should just be able to "jump" on our bikes and ride. Motorists have a responsibility to be aware of what is sharing the roads with them.

That being said, I have had a number of both motorists AND LEOs compliment me on my safety equipment as well as (in the case of LEOs) complimenting me on keeping in mind that fact that we are for all intents and purposes are "invisible" to most motorists. I mean as more than one of the LEOs I've talked with have said "Hell if they don't 'see' us, they aren't going to 'see' you either."

enigmaT120

Nobody understood my pet peeve against my silver CRX that I used to have. It was almost the same color as pavement. But if in broad daylight you fail to see an object in front of you, no matter the color, you aren't paying attention. Yeah, to improve my odds I run both of the Radbot 1000 rear blinkies and the generator-hub powered tail light on my bike day or night, but that doesn't excuse hitting somebody who doesn't have them.

Digital_Cowboy

Given that the crash occurred at 1530hrs and to the best of my knowledge that lights are only required after dark what does it matter if the cyclist had any lights on his bike during the daytime? Lot's of cyclist while having the mounts on their bikes remove the lights (for whatever reason) during the daytime hours and return them for riding after dark.

Digital_Cowboy

Good question, and that is basically the reason that a motorist a few years back gave for not "seeing" me, i.e. I was riding a black bicycle. And somehow in his mind that gave him the "right" to run the stop sign.

Agreed, and as several of us have said (and I have said in this thread) the police/EMT/EMS need to take it down in their notes as an admission of guilt.

Agreed, which is why along with video cameras more and more of us are riding with lights (both head and taillights) 24/7 as well as are riding with video cameras so that they have evidence of when a motorist does something wrong/illegal on the road.

Provided of course that the video survives the crash if one happens.

Street Pedaler

Cowboy, the point of the post was only partially weather or not he was using a light. The greater point was that, because of drivers such as this 17 year old kid (among others), we place ourselves at risk any time we go out on the road on a bike. The point about the light was in response to the "Devil's Advocate" post.