Another two tragedies, its getting bad out there...
 

A well respected cyclist in KC bought a nice road bike for his granddaughter to share the enthusiasm of riding.. and were murdered by a idiot driver the other day.

KC will miss them greatly.

If you are in or around next Saturday we will be holding "another" ghost bike ride to honor them.

also here is a pretty good article about the situation...

http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/225988.html

yikes. that's awful.

That is horrible but reading that article I dont know it just seems out of touch.

"In other words, the person behind the wheel simply didn’t notice two bicyclists until it was too late.
That’s the part that causes cyclists to shudder"

How much of a cycling paradise is KC that people who have ever riddin their bikes outside of their own backyard shudder at the thought that motorist are inattentive?

This reminds me I still gotta go down to the PD to file an opens record claim on a recent bike accident here. A young driver had run down a cyclist at the worst intersection of my route. I get reminded everytime I'm on the road that motorists don't expect, or want, me to be there.

Oooof. Man that's just plain crap - RIP. :(

Holy ****. Larry died? He was a great guy. I never got to meet his granddaughter, but this whole thing is a shame.

Mike Hendricks does a hell of a job memorializing any cyclist who dies in Kansas City. It's nice to have someone who mentions the tragedies in the editorial section, even if they don't happen to make the rest of the paper.

You also have to realize that Mike's writing to the average joe who spends 7 hours a day on his couch, the type of idiot who's more likely to hit a cyclist rather that be the cyclist that gets hit.

My Condolences. I am a Grand Father and this is a horrible tragedy... either way.

It causes cyclists to shudder because it's something that we personally have no control over.
If visibility is a problem, then we can use lights/reflective material to be more visible. If the road is too narrow, we can lobby to have it widened, or take another route. If our own skills are an issue, then we can practice emergency braking/avoidance.

Apparently, nothing we do can stop the occasional motorist from mowing down cyclists on a wide road with perfect visibility.

Rip Larry and Sierra Gaunt.

Wearing reflective clothing would prevent motorists from hitting cyclists? I don't think so. The Arizona State Police sued Ford Motor Company because of the large number of officers who were injured or died when a motorist would rear-end a Crown Victoria, and the Crown Victoria would explode into flames due to a faulty gas tank design.

When did such accidents occur? The police car would pull over a speeder. The officer would park on the shoulder of the road, his stobe lights blazing. And, someone would plow into the back of the police car. This particular event has occured scores of times in the State of Arizona, and has happened hundreds of times around the USA.

And, what do the drivers say? "I was changing a CD....I was dialing a phone number....I was getting a Pepsi out of the cooler...I was talking to my kid in the back seat....I was dozing off a bit...I was looking at a road map..."

The deaths of cyclists caused by being rear-ended by motorists are NOT the fault of cyclists who did not wear reflective clothing. They are the fault of motorists who do not take seriously the obligation to keep their eyes focused on the road directly in front of them, and their obligation to focus 100% of their brain on driving.

And, these deaths are the fault of a legal system that gives drivers a ticket for killing people, instead of the years in prison that they fully deserve.

My dad was a professional truck driver. His truck did not have a radio, or a cb, and his telephone was always off. He would not talk with his co-driver while the truck was moving. He felt strongly that a driver must have 100% focus on the road at all times. He had an accident around 1948, where his truck skidded down a hill in the rain. Over the next 45 years of driving 100,000 miles per year (over 4 million miles total) he never was involved in another accident.

The problem is not unsafe cyclists. It is unsafe drivers.

what a tragedy.

R.I.P.

I agree with you. The reason this type of accident, which is due to total inattention and incompetence on the part of a driver, is so scary is that no change in personal behavior will help protect you from it.

I think that increasing visibility will reduce accidents in general, but it wouldn't have prevented this one.

Sad story. Poorly written article.

I feel bad for the people that died but I wouldn't call it "murder".

Godspeed to the fallen.

Exactly.
When will America start adressing things that really matter instead of bombing mythical foes?

apparently never


once again, my condlences to the friends and families of these people. it's very sad.

This is why I spend most of my time riding trails, usually off-road.

On my fixed gear road bike I stick to the beach trails and low-traffic streets.

thats great and all, but I ride my bike for transportation, and unfortunatly I am not always going to the beach. To me statements like yours validate bicycles as toys that don't deserve to be on the road, which is a shame.

RIP to the granddad and his granddaughter...too much of this is going on. So many people treat driving in such an offhanded manner. I don't know how we are ever really going to get the message out.

Terrible, terrible tragedy. There are a frightening number of similar threads right now. :(

Thats how i feel. I mean if the death of people doesnt get the message out what will?
Nothing?
Damn this place is ****ed up.

What a ****ing waste.

This is the **** that makes me paranoid at times when I should have nothing to worry about. I've been criticized by non-cyclists and motorists for riding too aggressively in some situations, and I offer this as evidence of why I will continue to ride as aggressively as necessary to stay out of harm's way in the midst of inattentive, impaired, and malicious drivers.

^word^ like you own the place, just like they drive it.

the only reason **** like this happens is because enforcement is lax. but hey, it's america, we do what we want... blah ****ing blah.

you know what? people need to held responsible for **** like this. but because it involves a car, those investigating it will probably be lenient, since "everyone drives a car," and it could have been them that hit the cyclist... sigh.