Riders Down: Bad things happen in more than threes
Paul Andrews, BI editor | February 3, 2010 | Advocacy, Rider Down
Sometimes they bunch together by the handful. The past week has certainly borne that out. We were mildly annoyed at the Bellingham police flak who suggested, after a rider was struck by a car making a left turn in front of him, that cyclists wear bright clothing and be careful out there to avoid being hit by drivers. Our take was that's like telling a gunshot victim to watch out for bullets.
Since that accident, bike riders have been getting hit right and left…hook.
In Sacramento, a cyclist was hit and dragged a quarter of a mile by an SUV whose driver was … well, let's just say that brighter clothing and best cycling practices weren't going to help his cause.
In Los Gatos, a cyclist was killed when an SUV jumped a curb, drove along the sidewalk, barreled through a pedestrian safety barricade and continued on till striking a light post and flipping over. Apparently the cyclist, riding slowly on a sidewalk, was not behaving safely enough. As a witness put it: "I thought please let him get out of the way. But I knew there was no way. All of a sudden there was a ton of debris and dirt after he hit the guy on the bicycle."
No word on whether he was brightly dressed, which for some reason may have been considered irrelevant in the police investigators' assessment of culpability.
And what would be the advice for Jim Rogers, founder of the Tour of Nevada City Bike Shop and holder of the record for most Nevada City Bicycle Classic race competitions, who was cycling along the shoulder of Highway 174 when he was hit from behind by an SUV and killed?
Oh, OK, we've got it. The Bellingham flak left out a crucial step in his short list for cycling safety, one that would have prevented all of these accidents from ever happening in the first place. That being: Don't ride where SUVs are present.
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