that just plain out sucks........

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"on your Left"

so far, what is the strongest sentence given to a driver hitting a bike rider in the US?
is it similar to the strongest sentence given to a driver who has provoked an accident with other cars?

Chicago last year or the year before I believe there was a driver convicted or murder, sentenced to..........

45 Years

http://www.messengers.org/news/news.chicago.html

Sad, very sad news.

Respect...I've wondered about the psychology of the road rage toward's us. Seems like most of the reports are drivers hitting cyclists riding alone, I don't see to many accidents where 2,3 or more cyclists are taken out. Almost seems like one is "ok" 2 or more crosses some moral boundary.

Greg Welch announced the somber news to most of the competitors at the pre-race meeting. He had a moment of prayer that was most tastefully done, and several age group and overall winners mentioned her in their post race interviews.
Lavaman is one of the best International distance races I have done in my 23 years of tri sport, and highly recommend it to beginner and experienced competitor. I understand the driver was a local teenage girl. My condolences to the family, and live life to the fullest. Aloha G

That's a terribly sad story.

Chappy, I've wondered what's the psychology behind the road rage shown towards cyclists? I honestly cannot understand it. I can't decide whether it's jealousy because we're getting/staying fit & healthy whereas they're stuck in a car, whether it's because we're faster than cars in traffic so they get pissed because we're making more progress, or some other reason. Car users should be grateful that there's one less driver on the road, making things easier for them, less polution and so on...

I recently read about the amount of money invested in getting adults & kids into sport here in the UK. It was something ridiculous, 2.4billion pounds for a rise of 0.3%. The number of children cycling had actually declined in the last 5 years, primarily because the kid's parents thought the roads were too unsafe. Yet the number of times I've been cut-up or almost knocked off by parents/mothers on the school run or seen the same people (parents) speeding through housing estates where children play yards away. Society really needs to come down hard on these people IMHO to get the message across.

Holy cr@p that's sad. Atleast he didn't see her get hit, that would of scarred him even more.

If I had a titanium bike I'd just ram the cars that pass me =P

"In modern life the world belongs to the stupid, the insensitive and the disturbed. The right to live and triumph is today earned with the same qualifications one requires to be interned in a madhouse: amorality, hypomania and an incapacity for thought."

-Fernando Pessoa from The Book of Disquiet, 1930.

Where does it say that this incident had anything to do with road rage towards cyclists? Since the driver was a teenager, I would guess it had a lot more to do with the driver being unable to to judge how far she was from the cyclist when passing.

I'm not condoning the behavior of drivers towards cyclists that takes place on a far too regular basis. (I keep a count on each ride of how many times I get honked at or cursed at.) But not every accident is malicious. Sometimes they're just accidents.

I agree. Nothing in the article to suggest road rage. Most of the accidents here in the past couple of years have been due to driver stupidity, carelessness or the like.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Thats true, no one knows what the girl did.

The article I linked to was to simply answer Francois' question and that was well documented.

Accidents do happen, drivers inattention or as happened here before Xmas a girl blew through a red light straight in to the side of a Jeep while on aero bars, a young girl was driving and apparently devastated and it was not her fault.

I feel we need to have car/bike safety added to each states drivers guides. Then when new drivers study for tests they will at least see the info. Before I started biking I didn't know how to approach and pass a bike correctly. Many people don't know that bikers have a right to the road. I talk on these issues one time per year on the local radio station.

I, for one, certainly didn't mean to imply that road rage was involved, but can understand how some may have misconstrued my tone in the original post, and commented to that effect. I personnally meant respect in the broader sense that we are recognized as a common and rightful occupant of road space (Except, of course, in places like Kiawah Island, SC, where I learned last week firsthand that cyclists are ALL relegated to the walking trail along with the kids on training wheels and old folks out for Sunday walks.)

Mostly I felt deep sympathy for this fellow cyclist's ordeal in not only losing his wife, but under those circumstances. I thought about the many times I could have done the same thing: stop, turn around and go check out what happened to my wife. Lucky for me, its always been a flat tire...

It scares me to ride sometimes, I try to ride outside of peak traffic hours on lightly traveled roads. Riding in groups helps out alot. I watched a guy get carried off on a stretcher yesterday because a driver was passing and turnning right at the same time. Totaly the drivers fault. Lance Armstrong made a comment one time, something to the tune about how bikers only borrow the roads. I wish more people would look out for cyclist but the sad truth is that they don't.

i'm from cincinnati and there quite a few signs around the city that have a picture of a biker and text that reads "Share the road." the roads in my part of the city are really narrow for the most part, but drivers are fairly good about working with cyclists. i now live in the west and around here there are no such signs. beyond lack of courtesy, i experience agression from drivers on almost every ride. i wonder if more cities had signs like cincinnati's things might be better. drivers might realize that cyclists have a right to the road also. it seems that a lot of the problem stems from people thinking that cyclists don't belong on the road at all. i am going to get my brother to send me a digital picture of one of the signs and take it to the local governments to see if they'll put them up. would others be interested a copy?

I was quite surprised when living on the Gold Coast in Oz to see how little respect riders had for bikers...
there have been MANY Accidents.
One top dude (not sure maybe shortis or jono hall) was attacked by a guy with a metal rod and used his bike to protect himself...
Luke Harrop last year, as Nilloc I had shit with riders in every single ride...and all this despite the fact that the gold coast has many top triathletes.

in El Paso, which would be assumed far less bike friendly we have shoulders everywhere and hardly ever trouble with drivers...

you guys can't really expect drivers to respect cyclist when they don't respect each other. Cars run each other off the road everyday, I've watched SUV's actually bump each other. Now you have a cyclist on the road, are they supposed to become better citizens? NO, they are the same a$$holes as before and now they have a defenseless victim to take advantage of.

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Olen

I have no problem educating drivers, but many cyclists need it just as badly. There's a good article on TNO about riding in traffic. The best point I think it makes is to stay in the middle of the lane. Take it all so the driver behind you has to wait for the opposing lane to clear to pass. I can't tell you how many cyclists I see trying to hug the white line on the edge of the road. That's just inviting a driver to try and squeeze between you and oncoming traffic. If he doesn't make it, he's damn sure not going to choose hitting oncoming traffic.

Sounds like this was an experienced rider so it's probably moot in this case.

You're correct, nothing to suggest that this particular incident had anything to do with road rage. My comments were more general and stem from my own experience from drivers seemingly intent on inflicting bodily harm or at the least not taking into account that their actions could result in same.