Cyclists falls off bridge
 

Hi All,

I just read a news article about a cyclist in Idaho falling over a bridge railing and having to hang on for 5 hours before being rescued.
The disturbing part is a couple of teenage boys came along saw the cyclists and heard his pleas for help and walked away laughing ! Something like this happens all too often it seems. A person in danger in need of help is just ignored. This indicates something is very wrong with our society. I cant help but wonder how someones minds like those 2 teenagers can be so warped and sick.

Ride Safe....Dudley

5 hours!? with just his arms!?

naaa... he was riding clipless.

seriously, tho- this sounds more like urban legend than news. do you have a link to the story?

What ever happened with the bike did the two teenager walk away with the bike, that would be a double whammy, falling over a bridge and having your bike stolen wow!!!!!!:mad: :mad: and if I am that cyclist I would be really really mad

Here is a link to the story on CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/15/cyc....ap/index.html

It sounds like the guy was able to climb onto a beam and sit there and wait for help. Still trying to figure out how it happened.

Just got this in my e-mail, thought it might be appropriate in regards to reading this post:

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send along to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This "joke" today is not intended to be a joke, it's not intended to be funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" regarding the attacks on Sept. 11.Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. Being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school...the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself, and we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. We said OK.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating,
smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK.

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.

Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK.

And then, someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech. Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that encourages ****, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.

I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.", "Funny" how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

"Funny" how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. "Funny" how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing?

"Funny" how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many
on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. "Funny" how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in! Are you thinking ?

L8R

It sounds a lot like the guy was riding after dark without lights. Since that's illegal most places, I wonder if he'll be cited?

RichC

Yes, I agree, those two teenagers are idiots, but threre are millions of good kids out threre as well. Lets not forget that. This was an unfortunate incident, but lets not jump to conclusions and judge society as a whole because of this.

Further, do not ever, and I repeat this, do not ever confuse
free speech with the publishing of nude pictures of children!
Child pornography is a crime in every right minded country in the free world. Child pornograpy will never have protection under the heading "free speech."

Oh yeh, before I forget, this is a biking forum...lets leave the sunday school morality lessons and our guns for another forum.

This thread has gone way off topic....

It sounds like he fell into the water, then climbed out and hung onto one of the bridge supports. Initailly I thought he grabbed on to the bridge as he was falling and hung there. Still, that's not too fun.

I kind of have to wonder if he was riding without lights. The story says that it happened at night.

As far as the kids seeing him and walking away . . . well, I'll admit that on more than one occasion I have ignored a person ranting and raving because I assumed they were just being annoying. Now granted, this guy is at the bottom of a bridge near the water, but I have no idea what he was yelling at these kids. They may have thought it was just somebody pulling their leg. I'm not going to say they did the right thing, but I'm also not going to claim that they are indicators of a (G)godless society that is out of control.

andy

I concur on items 1 (I hope mine are two of the "good" kids!) and 2.

I disagree slightly on 3, in the sense that ethics and morality ARE appropriate topics for a bicyclists' forum, even if the specifics of any particular religious sect are not. [My personal theology follows Marcus Borg and Huston Smith, rather than Billy Graham and Pat Robertson; enough said.] In particular, we rely on motorists (and even pedestrians -- ask Pete Clark!) to behave ethically and responsibly. As users of public roads, we should meet certain moral standards, as well. As I was cycling across a bridge, a rollover incident occurred on the freeway below me. I helped the best way I could, by sprinting four blocks to the public library to phone the emergency operator (911). I am politically active because I believe we can prevent alot of death and suffering through public education, stricter licensing standards, and bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly traffic engineering.

I'm inclined to agree with Poululla. Those teenagers were stupid jerks, but I don't think that has anything to do with god, the bible, sunday school, abortions, pornography or teaching the bible in school. For all we know thoe kids were born again christians- we have no idea. Those kids weren't raised right but I don't see how it has anything to do with god, jesus, abortions or anything else- it does, however, show that parents are doing a lousy job. But this is a bike forum, and I don't believe this is the place to discuss religion or gun control.

We discuss all sorts of other stuff that isn't related to bikes but maybe wabbit has a point about 'time and place'.

Perhaps this 'thread' isn't the right place to discuss those things but I think it's like a normal conversation. You start talking about one thing and you go off on tangents then come back to the original topic.

Maybe someone should start a thread on religion in the Lounge. I'd certainly participate because I believe that no matter what the subject, God should be central. Anyone wanting to ignore such a thread could do so.

Someone could also start a thread on gun control in the Lounge. I would choose to ignore such a thread because guns aren't such an issue here in Australia and it doesn't interest me.

The thread has gone off-topic.

Please keep the conversation from straying into discussions of theology and the relative merits of one belief system over another. There is a forum for that. I would find such a discusison, providing it was civil and in the right forum quite edifying.

Just being a moderating influence here...

a2psyklnut:

I'm not going to waste the time writing a full rebuttal to your post, which I find very disturbing and incredibly disgusting. I find it completely ridiculous to blame humanity for all the bad things, and give some invisible sky-pixie credit for all the good ones. We are responsible for all the things that go on in the world, both good and bad, and it's our choices that determine the ratio.

So back to the topic at hand....

The report says "He said that he had been yelling for help all night and had even been located by two juvenile boys, but they would not help him," Sheriff's Deputy Ben Sterling said in a report filed Tuesday.

It depends on how 'juvenile' the 'juvenile boys' were. It seems they were probably jerks who just left him there but it may have been that they were too young and didn't know what to do.

Either way, I bet that cyclist is going to be keeping an eye out for them next time he rides through that area.

Whenever people are cold and indifferent (an everyday event, sad to say, but people are also warm and considerate everyday,)
it brings to mind everything that's wrong with the world. Truthfully, much is wrong with the world, but there is good too. It all boils down to individuals like us who are making daily decisions, for good or ill.

Needless to say, I'd have helped this poor man.

That's because we're cyclists. It's in our nature (or culture) to be helpful-if you see another cyclist having trouble, looking lost or with an injury, we tend to stop and ask if everything's OK, since we'd like it if someone did the same for us. OF course, cyclists can be jerks and reckless and ignore etiquette, but generally, seem to be of the Samaritan bent. I can be pretty certain that those two ******* were not cyclists.

I might get in big trouble for this but I also help motorists. :eek:

A couple of times over the past few months I've stopped to help push broken down cars out of the way of busy intersections. Their owners were amazed that anyone would stop.

I was also very pleased a couple of nights ago while trying to fix a flat, a cyclist stopeed to see that all was OK.

Yes, I agree with you that this is a bike forum, but what the 2 kids did has something to do with the society and the human race in general, the world is getting out of hand with all that media influence and also because of our own personal human imperfections ... things like that. :(

You won't feel safe cycling in a society like that! Won't you? :confused:

But I do feel pity for that guy hanging there for few hours! That must be a horrible and unforgetable experience for him.... :crash:

The kids might have no idea about saving the cyclist but couldn't they just call for help with their mouths or handphones/public phones? :confused:

It also happen in Singapore before, the cyclist was in an Island off Singapore called Pulau Ubin, she was a student with the school excursion but it ended up dropping into the sea when she lost control of the rented bike. It was a tragic death case.

If only the cyclist is more properly orientated to the terrains and with proper supervision or help, "such accidents" might not even occur in the first place.

Cyclists > Do take care when cycling in cities and high terrains...
Uncertainties always occur in every part of every lives
(regardless of whether you're a cyclist, conservatists or risk taker) ;)

I have had a good nights rest, and thought about this thread agian.....

There is a time and place for everything. - I will not enter a meeting at work which is discussing new techniques in digital sound processing, and start rambling off about cycling... It would be inappropiate and most likely boring and of no value for those there.

Cheers !

:beer:

I know i'll lose alot of popularity with this... but i dont think i was popular to begin with.

yalls response to what a2psyklnut posted has alot to do with what the post was trying to say...

Exactly!

I don't really give a rat's ass if you agree with me or not! That's great if you do and great if you don't.

I will continue to express my opinions where and when I feel they are appropriate. If Joe or other forum moderators feel it's inappropriate, they will be removed and I will not be offended.

But when I read that 2 young boys ignored cries for help, my immediate response is, "How could they do this?" Then I read this e-mail about 5 minutes prior. Wow, coincidence? I don't think so!

!Regarding time and place, I felt it was the EXACT TIME AND PLACE for my post to MAKE YOU THINK! That was what I was trying to get across!

Poullula, others and I have different philosophies, I feel that's what makes this world great. Just don't tell me I can't speak my opinions, yet expect me to read yours.

This is an open forum about cycling, and as many discussion develop, there are many deviations. I felt this was EXACTLY appropriate. If you disagree, fine. Ignore it and move on! Don't give me any b.s. for it! That's usually what I do to other replies I don't agree with.

L8R
Still here and still expressing my views!

a2psyklnut
I may not share religions with you, nor may
I share opinions with you, but I do share
an appreciation for being able to express
opinions on this board.
I would be saddened to find that the
boards were censored to the extent that
posts that are considered by some to be
not appropriate for forums were blocked.

Marty

I would have pelted him with rocks and stolen his bike. He he he he ....... No realy, so the point is the moms should have aborted the little turds? Surely such people shouldn't breed.

You guys cant just sympathize for the biker because he's a cycalist though! Who knows what could of happened anyways...maybe he rode past the kids and flicked them off or made some a$$holish comment like "enjoying the walk?"...

I see some cocky cyclists sometimes, i'd understand tossing em off a bridge.