Thread: Cyclist killed in SLC - hit and run

This shit's gotta stop. Brutal description of the accident.

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_264101509.html

sigh, just when I was getting over the bicycle/auto rage thread.

yes, it definitely sounded like a bad HIT & RUN. High speed & violent. but the guy turned himself in earlier today.

note though that it was LATE AT NIGHT - so visibility may have been a factor, no mention of a light on the bike, but there's very little info on the accident in general.

horrible. I'm involved in a charity that funds scholarships for the Sudanese "Lost Boys" and these guys have had an incredibly rough time of it. Very sorry to hear about this. At least the guy turned himself in.

wow . . . he flew HUNDREDS of feet?!?! how fast was this guy going?

Man, that's sobering. I happened to switch on "Cops" by accident a couple of weeks ago, and caught this footage of a guy on a bike being hit by a car. It was nasty.

Makes me wonder if I'm completely insane for road riding at all...

Heh...turned himself in after a sufficient amount of time to sober up...what a fuckin' coincidence. Maybe it was just a BAD coincidence of timing between the two...but the time gap makes you wonder.

So sad.

I got 15-20 feet out of a nearly head on with a bus with a relative speed of around 30mph. It must have required some serious speed or the dar undercutting and catapulting the biker.

A truely unfortunate occurence. Skiingbear brings up a very good point about sobriety, and I'm curious to know if the rider had any kind of lighting or refelective items on their person.

A co worker's car was TOTALLED by a pickup truck as he was leaving work. But, get this - he was hit from behind as he was MOVING (about 35 miles an hour)! The guy in the pickup just kept on going, after he hesitated a little. The cops found him because his license plate was on the side of the road, but he was at his parents, WHO FUCKING COVERED FOR HIM by telling the cops he started drinking when he got there. They didn't even arrest him or charge him with DUI. I predict that within the next year he will seriously hurt someone with his car, maybe a cyclist.

Originally Posted by Pope Benedict XVI

horrible. I'm involved in a charity that funds scholarships for the Sudanese "Lost Boys" and these guys have had an incredibly rough time of it. Very sorry to hear about this. At least the guy turned himself in.

Sorry for the thread hijack, but possibly a tiny world moment.... do you know Eileen and Bob Hopper? They live in Park City and are friends of mine... they also do similiar work...

So sorry to hear about this. Makes me terrified to ride on the road. I'd rather face the rocks on the trail any day than a car.

Originally Posted by watersnowdirt

So sorry to hear about this. Makes me terrified to ride on the road. I'd rather face the rocks on the trail any day than a car.

Seconded. Sad story to hear.

Some bikes are very poorly equipped. But the KSL video shows what looks like a white light on the bike. According to the report, the cyclist was hit right under a streetlight. Even if the bike had a taillight and reflector, if the cyclist wasn't wearing bright clothing, an unobservant driver might not have seen him until too late - especially if the driver was moving too fast, which is typically the case at night.

The driver will probably get a more severe punishment for leaving the scene than he will for killing the cyclist.

fugg that sucks.

I knew a guy who was basically a moving neon sign - reflector vest, reflective clothing, reflectors ALL OVER his bike, HID headlight, strobing rear lights - he still got run down by a drunk asshole (in a parking lot, none-the-less). Road riding at night is suicide. IMO there should be ZERO tolerance for DUI -.0001% should get you thrown in jail.

Hmm. That's me. I recently got nicknamed "Christmas Tree."

Originally Posted by Jer

IMO there should be ZERO tolerance for DUI -.0001% should get you thrown in jail.

That isn't the problem. The problem is that drivers who kill cyclists, for whatever reason, are barely punished. Usually they get some fines and community service.

In fact, the punishment for DUI is usually worse than the punishment for killing a cyclist.

Wasn't a hit and run but, last week about two miles from my house a guy riding a bike got killed and a guy on a motorcycle got severely f'ed up. Turns out the guy on the bike was on the wrong side of the street going down a hill at about 35 mph and a Suburban swerved to avoid him as he went down and took out the motorcycle head on. The motorcycle proceeded to flip over the Suburban and land on the guy riding the bike. The Suburban was doing nearly 70 in a 30 mph zone and the bike had to have been doing over 50 (no skid marks for the cops to measure). So who's in the wrong here?

Originally Posted by gravitylover

Wasn't a hit and run but, last week about two miles from my house a guy riding a bike got killed and a guy on a motorcycle got severely f'ed up. Turns out the guy on the bike was on the wrong side of the street going down a hill at about 35 mph and a Suburban swerved to avoid him as he went down and took out the motorcycle head on. The motorcycle proceeded to flip over the Suburban and land on the guy riding the bike. The Suburban was doing nearly 70 in a 30 mph zone and the bike had to have been doing over 50 (no skid marks for the cops to measure). So who's in the wrong here?

The suburban, of course. If the bicycle was going that fast, he was going downhill, so the Suburban must have been hauling ass way too fast uphill. Anyway, 10 points penalty for driving a Suburban.

Originally Posted by gravitylover

...So who's in the wrong here?

The bicyclist and the Suburban driver. a) I don't tolerate speeding SUVs in any way, especially 70 in a 30 zone, and b) I think bicyclists that ride on the wrong side of the street generally deserve whatever comes to them.

I'm always amazed at how many cyclists I see riding on the wrong side of the street (typically it's not serious cyclists, they're generally smart enough to ride with traffic)

What if the motorcycle had been doing 30mph and had been a few feet further back up the road or could possibly have had time to avoid the whole thing, he's got to be in the wrong too. I also think the guy on the bicycle had probably just swung wide around the corner a few feet and wasn't really going much over the speed limit (if at all, how do you figure out how fast a bike is going?).

Another cyclist hit and killed by a truck, this one here in Maine. Hit by a garbage truck at 6:00 a.m. -- the same time that I was out riding singletrack in the woods away from roads. The mtb pack I nightride with goes through that area at least once a week. The news website lets readers post comments; this one really gets to me:

What an awful accident. It's dark at 6:00 a.m. now, so I'm puzzled why a bicycle would be on the road anyway. They're difficult enough to see during the day.

This is why I stick to singletrack, and am always looking over my shoulder when I'm on road.

KB of Portland, ME
Oct 4, 2006 12:04 PM
What an awful accident. It's dark at 6:00 a.m. now, so I'm puzzled why a bicycle would be on the road anyway. They're difficult enough to see during the day.

why should cars be on the road that early??? WTF

That kind of mentality is....well