Thank you, I thought this was that area....I should have looked on a map to be sure.

You should have singled up, signalled left and moved to the solid white line. Instead, you forced the truck to cross the solid line.

If your group was bigger and closer together, that may not have been possible and you may have been forced to take the lane. Since there were only three riders in the video and you're riding far apart, you should have gotten out of the right turn lane quicker.

agree....I was where I belonged. I shared this with the group President. We were not as we should have been. There was only 4 riders in our group this date. The truck had reason to be annoyed. Unfortunately, I am not in control of my group....club is new but organizer is experienced. She rode in first AIDS ride so has been cycling much longer than me.

i recently (July) took the LAB Traffic class.

As I said I have brought this to the leaders attention for future.

(NOTE - removed video myself for personal reasons)

Not stiff enough IMHO. As you mention, a DUI with a prior conviction would implicate Watson, a second degree murder charge, and a potential 20 year sentence. By running, he cut his potential sentence by more than half. The legislature's gotta change that. As it is now, they are giving repeat DUI offenders an incentive to flee. Maybe this victim is a high enough profile case for a local legislator to get on the stick and introduce legislation to remedy the problem.

BTW, I almost never ride in the OC, but this weekend found me riding down there, and right past where she was killed. Three lanes on either side, island in the middle, wide bike lane with perfect visibility. Just seems like a heck of an unusual place to die that way. :(

Biker395 - I am with you on that thought. I know that area well, so much space for cars and bikes it is puzzling what happened. Maybe I missed something in the posts above, but I assume the driver went way off course and into the bike lane. Makes me real nervous when riding more narrow areas - like Santiago Canyon etc.

He was almost certainly impaired. Either by being distracted (cellphone or whatever), or by drug. My guess ... alcohol.

And that is the terrifying thing. She was doing everything right and riding at a place that should have been, and still lost her life. That's the ying and yang of what we love to do, I guess. It is wonderful, but no matter what you do, the risk is always there. :(

As a professional truck driver and everyday bike commuter, I am having trouble understanding what happened in the Sarah Leaf accident. Truck drivers have a advantage of being able to see things way in advance. I have seen cyclist stay in that right turn lane just to go straight through the intersection. I always give them a wide berth for there safety and my safey and driving record as a professional. What was this driver thinking? Why didn't he see her? Was he distracted, cell phone, GPS, ? Accidents like this are totally avoidable.

The Sarah Leaf accident was some version of a right hook according to a witness. I didn't get the impression from looking at Google street view that there was any bike lane on the bridge leading up to the intersection where the accident occured (pictured below.) I don't want to speculate as to what happened but that right turn lane doesn't look wide enough for a truck/car + cyclist. It looks clear to me that you need to take the lane in this situation to be safe. That obviously doesn't prevent drivers speeding up or "splitting lanes" to get past you, and into the right turn lane, but you would prevent the classic right hook.

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