hikeandbike

Woke up this morning and grabbed the paper before my ride. Front page story, "Cyclist struck, dies in hit - run". The cyclist was 66, from Forrest Hills and on a group ride from New York to Quakertown, PA. Very few details were given in the story but the passenger side mirror of the pickup truck was knocked off, so we can imagine what happened. The location is just five minutes from my home. It's a pretty rural area but the road is busy, a main route through this section of Bucks County. My ride plan for this morning takes me past the spot of the accident. Thought about changing that but I think I'll take the same route and stop for a prayer.
Hard to image that can happen and the driver not stop. Also hard not to take stock of the potential dangers involved in many of the actives we engage in.
The weather today is beautiful here, a little hotter than normal, holiday weekend and a great day for a ride. Be careful out there.

teachme

Tragic; but a reality we must live with in our sport of cycling. We had a hit-and-run vehicle/bicycle accident/homicide in my hometown last week. A cyclist was rearended and knocked off his bike by a pickup truck. As the biker lay in the roadway and the driver of the truck was rendering aid a second car ran over the stricken cyclist and dragged him down the road 50 or 60 yards. The woman driving the vehicle according to witnesses got out of the car looked at the cyclist pinned under her car, got back in her car backed up a few feet to dislodge the body and then left the scene. The cyclist was dead on the scene. Police are looking for the lady.

If you do get knocked off your bike,crawl, roll or shimmy your way out of the roadway. Thats the only lesson I can draw from this kaotic situation.

cooking14

my preys to they familys

Lightingguy

A ridding buddy lives across the street from where this cyclist got hit and was told by his in-laws that the rider had stopped to read a cue sheet when he was struck.

I can say the Rt 413 is an awful road to ride on, a guardrail and ditch in place of a shoulder with traffic doing 50+. No room for error or mis-judgement and not a road to cycle on if you know better.

[EDIT], to clarify that I am not blaming the cyclist, only that he had the mis-fortune to be on a road that is poorly suited to riding a bike and as a result of not living locally, had no way of knowing that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can readily see a scenario of a truck going way too fast and having little room and no time to move towards the center of the road due to approaching traffic and taking a chance that he/she would squeak by the cyclist.

I am a firm believer that all state laws should be changed to duplicate what some Euro countries have, where a motorist is assumed to be at fault for hitting a pedestrian or cyclist, with resulting penalties that mirror DUI/DWI, as well as huge surcharges to insurance rates.

Time to stop the carnage.
SB

Nightshade

Cyclist road choice aside IMO any driver that hits & runs should face a murder in the first degree charges.

MLKATO

That's a sad story. My heart,thoughts and prayers go out to this mans' family.

sknhgy 

I avoid traffic whenever possible, especially with all the texting and driving that goes on. Anymore, it's not unusual to see cars floating across the centerline or onto the shoulder as they come towards you. And that's when you're in a motor vehicle. I shudder when I go to the cities and see people riding in heavy traffic.

DnvrFox

Around here, the laws are such that if you are a drunken driver and hit someone, your penalties are less for a hit and run then for drunken driving - and those folks seem to know that, and there are more and more hit and runs.

TomD77

The only main highways that I will ride around here have a 5-6 foot paved shoulder though I constantly see people drift far past the ghost line. On occasion I've considered riding the opposite side toward the traffic.

John E

Yup -- this is why I advocate prosecuting all hit-and-runs as presumed DUIs.

ctyler

I couldn't agree more.

unterhausen

I'm not sure they weren't lost, I believe they were headed up to Noxamixon

I do a lot of randonneuring in that area, it's generally pretty nice. I wish they hadn't put rumble strips on 611 though.

Banded Krait

Cripes, I am just getting back into bicycling after 30+ years. After reading all the stories of bicycling carnage on this Web site, I am almost ready to put my new bike into storage and take up something a little less dangerous, like reading mystery novels.

So far, I have restricted my riding to paved bike paths while I build up my skills and endurance. It is stories like this one which will encourage me to stick to roads with less volume and speed when I do decide to hit the roads.

DnvrFox

We all make our "safety riding decisions" based upon our attitude towards safety, our assessment of what is and what is not dangerous, the riding environment in which we live, research, personal situation, our skill level, etc.

I am fortunate in having 100's of miles of excellent bicycle paths, most totally uninterrupted by cross roads, and generally sparsely used, especially if one chooses their riding times carefully (for example, this morning at 6am, I encountered only a few riders and walker in 1 20 mile ride, even on Memorial Day).

I did a lot of research and concluded that, while MUPS (Multi-use -paths) have a higher accident rate, these are generally minor accidents, while accidents involving automobiles are the ones that cause serious and critical injuries and death.

My personal situation, having a wife with some physical needs, and two sons with profound disabilities, also influences my "safety" decisions.

I have concluded that I will - with rare and careful exceptions - keep my riding limited to our excellent trail syatem, and stay off of roads.

I am sure others will disagree violently, but that is where I landed after considering all the factors important to me.

YMMV

unterhausen

to be fair, there are very few fatal bike accidents that we don't hear about here on BF. If BF members posted every story about a fatal car crash local to them, the server hamsters would have a heart attack after 10 minutes. Not saying that I never worry about my safety or leaving my kids without a father, but that's just as likely to happen when I'm driving in my car given the insanity I see on the road around me.