Another cyclist dies
 

Sounds like this one was a very unfortunate accident, seems the cyclist got in some gravel and lost control. This road is very busy and pretty narrow for a cross valley arterial. http://www.kirotv.com/news/17504133/detail.html

I drive dump trucks a lot at my work and I always fear for something like this. I usually slow down very much and then go around the rider. If there is on coming traffic I will wait till they pass before I pass the cyclist.

So young. Very sad.

http://www.kirotv.com/2008/0918/17505922_240X135.jpg

It only takes a second to lose everything. Life is strange.

Wow. He is lucky he didn't get crucified.

If I get killed-I want it to be really really fast. No trying to breath and what not. Just fast. If an officer arrives and sees me all laid out on the road-I want him to shoot me and relieve the pain.
Death is a strange thing

A paved road with enough gravel on it to cause a cyclist to lose control and crash, then he gets runs over by a truck carrying.....gravel. Very ironic and sad! At the very least, it sounds like somone needs to do a better job of keeping their gravel off the street. Either the homeowner with the gravel drive, or the gravel trucks driving through there dropping rocks all over the place need to clean up their act (or both).

In my experience, dump trucks with gravel travel together. I wonder if a preceding truck spilled some gravel causing the fall. Yeah, I read about the driveway but I'm skeptical about that. If I saw such a driveway, I'd give it lots of room.

Yeah, it would be ironic if it weren't a causal relationship - the gravel's there because of those damned trucks. I hate those things, especially with their cute (and legally meaningless) "not responsible for debris dropped on the road" signs.

This is yet another reason why I like commuting on wider tires. Little more stability when you hit some road crud.

Don't let the wide tires fool you. Marbles are marbles in a corner. My greatest concerns for random road dangers include gravel. Much more so on my M/C.

And yeah, gravel trucks ARE responsible for what comes out of their cargo bins. Locally, they couldn't even be persuaded to stop at stop signs for years despite several T-bone deaths per year. Truck drivers paid by the run seem to be at the bottom of humanity pool IME.

This is my biggest fear as a driver. I have confidence in my driving and my biking abilities, but it's others that make me nervous...especially a cyclist losing it and taking a dive under my front tire as I drive by.

There's a lot of gravel at the corners around our house. The reason is that people take the corners too fast and cut them, and they wind up pulling gravel up out of the shoulder and onto the road; before long there's a 3-inch pile of gravel in the road. I take a snow shovel out every month or so to the corner near our house and push it all back in, but as long as idiots keep cutting the corner, the gravel will keep getting out on the road.

The only serious accident I have had was due to sand on the road , blown there from the adjacent gravel road and corralled into one spot by passing cars, just right for me to hit it while cornering.

crash
 

I ride this area every week on my way to work in Sumner. Very unfortunate. I've often thought about shoulder hazards and my inability to avoid them. I usually just take the lane and force autos to pass me or slow down until they are able. Of course, riding on roads with a decent, clean shoulder is what we all look for but its not always possible. I don't think most auto drivers and many cyclists are aware of why some cyclists don't ride in that 'hazard zone' all the way to the right side of the road..............this unfortunate incident explains it. I'd like to see the county make wider shoulders when repaving. I know it will be costly but as the use of the bicycle increases we will need to adapt out road systems to accommodate.

This road was supposed to have been widened 5 years ago but as usual the money never materialized, there was a new bridge built over another road on the east side of the valley and a new highway built as part of the same package. Stewart was to be widened to 4 lanes but as I wrote above for some reason the county and state and fed never came up with the money. Maybe this will jump start them or we could blame it on Tim Eyman like the govt. does for every road project shortfall around here.

Gravel, rocks, glass, nails, scrap wood, snow, ice, car parts, roadkill, sand, oil, water, potholes, suicidal animals, etc are all part of The Road. You have to expect them at all times. One of the many reasons to never exceed about 20-25MPH on a bike.

bummer
 

It seems like there is a whole bunch of inefficiencies connected with road building/maintenance unless its a private contractor doing it but its really expensive either way. I've taken to riding wider tires at lower pressures and since I seldom average over 18 mph I feel relatively safe but.........you never know. I guess its part of the risk we take. I don't figure the dump truck driver to be at fault. These guys pass me every morning and they nearly always swing wide to pass and generally seem to be conscientious about their driving. I don't think he could have avoided the cyclist. Its simply a tragedy.:(