Crap. I met her briefly when she won IM Boulder and we have some mutual friends. She was super nice. This is pretty gutting.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Friends have a GoFundMe page up for Lectie: https://www.gofundme.com/lectie-altman-fund

So sad and scary. No where is safe anymore it seems. Be safe everyone and prayers for her and her family.

Very sad story. Maybe this will spur the City and County or State to finally do something to crack down on Tantalus. I think all of us who have spent time training there have stories of close calls, harassment, and outright weird and scary encounters.

I was run off the road a few years ago by a car that was racing and came up the road sliding sideways around a corner on the wrong side of the road as I was descending. There was also a cyclist that got stabbed up there a couple years ago, and a female cyclist was chased and almost assaulted last fall. Plus, at every turnoff, no matter the time of day, there are car loads of people drinking and getting high. I can only imagine the number of impaired drivers that are coming back down the hill.

It’s not a safe place to ride anymore as far as I’m concerned. Certainly not alone. Which is a drag, because it’s otherwise a beautiful road.

Here’s hoping that Lectie makes a full recovery. I hope people will consider donating to the Go Fund Me campaign. She’s an excellent athlete and a genuinely nice person.

lets keep this near the top of the first page a little longer

gofundme is doing ok but has some way to go

just donated.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Raising over $36k by almost 500 people in just 2 days is just “doing ok”?

It's doing well...but considering she has two broken legs, one of them a compound fracture, an arm that is broken in multiple places, and has been in and out of orthopedic surgery the last 3 days, and still has more scheduled...it's barely going to put a dent in her medical and rehab bills. The driver is 20 years old, and I'm not going to hold my breath that he can be sued for any value or that he opted for maximum bodily insurance coverage. She will also be out of work for quite some time.

I live at the base of this hill, and I was there that day. I ride it 4-5x a week and people racing their cars and motorcycles up/down this one section has been an increasing problem. I heard the cars drifting up ahead of me as I was climbing...then saw them descend back down either to leave the area, or make another "run" back up. I wasn't with Lectie's group, but still riding up as they were descending, and crossed paths with her group about 2 minutes before the incident happened.

I wish I could have warned them, or stopped them. Known exactly how dangerous these guys were taking the blind corners, and known that they were planning to race up the hill one more time. It sickens me how this happened. This was not just someone who lost control of their car because they were going a little too fast. This driver decided to put his car into the oncoming traffic lane, into a completely blind left corner...so he could drift out back to his side of the road.

She is an extremely strong individual. Very humble, kind, and fun to be around. Not your typical type A athlete. I normally don't give to these types of funds, but the combination of who she is to our community, how senseless the circumstances were, and the initial outlook on the road ahead of her breaks my heart.

Anything you can contribute, even if it's just advocating for safer cycling and driving in your area...so that maybe one less person has to go through this would help.

Sorry, i didn't mean to imply anything negative on the progress of those leading the campaign. Clearly a tremendous achievement and a reflection of someone loved in the tri community. I just didn't want to be too positive and risk slowing the rate of donations.


Hard not to get that sick feeling inside when hearing about something like this.


https://www.coeursports.com/blogs/latest/meet-ironman-hawaii-qualifier-lectie-altman

Hey There People - the Lectie Altman Fund has a had a great response but it needs a bit more to hit the goal (or better!). If you haven't put in a bit to help -please consider doing so and if possible, give it a plug on your social media so your athlete buddies can help as well. This could be you or any one of your buddies or family. Thanks again

Very sad but, fortunately she is going to be Ok. Several broken bones but no head injuries - which is a good thing. She goes to rehab next week. Wishing her the best.

Hello NealH and All,

A couple of more reports and video:

http://www.kitv.com/...g-car-on-tantalus-dr

http://www.syracuse.com/...red_in_honolulu.html

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

The extremely saddening part is some of the responses in defense of the driver on social media.

Some of them are saying it's the cyclists fault for choosing to ride in an area that they should know is their area to drift. That they don't care if people call the police, or if they hit anyone. One of them even went on to comment, and I quote "fuck it hit a child while I'm at it"


Here's an older video of what goes on there. The very end of the video, the last left turn the car is making into a completely blind corner is where last weeks incident happened. The tire tracks that were left indicate the car that struck Lectie was completely in the oncoming lane going into the apex of the last corner, where this car was more on the center line in the video. Not that it makes it any safer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1scpboEioH0

Local police say they can't do anything retroactively based on the video other than build a case against someone if something actually happens going forward. The guy that hit Lectie was apparently new to drifting (20 years old), so nobody is sure if there are public videos of him to strengthen the criminal case for this incident.

Riding here for nearly 7 years, I have seen them many times...but it's just that one blind corner where things can go really bad. I actually had no idea some of these guys were willing to drift that last corner without a spotter up ahead. I've seen them drift the corners below which aren't completely blind and they take their foot off the gas when they see me...at least the one's I've seen. I suppose there are some that wouldn't care based on some of the comments and gladly take me out.

Super sad.

I wouldn't even give this a second thought. There are people with crazy, fringe ideas about every topic imaginable. The minuscule fraction of the population that this actually represents is virtually meaningless. The driver is in a heap of shit and hopefully it has a resounding impact on stiff legislation, moving forward.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

I understand what you're saying, that a few people don't represent all. But with all due respect, that fraction of the population nearly ended someone's life, shows no signs of remorse, no signs of changing their ways, and are willing to do it again. There are already reports of similar activity once again going on. That is not meaningless.

Of course. It's terrible and preventable every time it happens. And I'm not suggesting that carelessness makes the offense excusable. I'm just trying to draw the distinction between misfeasance and malfeasance, and what that implies about the perpetrator. While they can both end with the same result, the intent is entirely different, both in terms of the law and how you deal with problem. For instance, more aggressive public awareness campaigns could successfully mitigate misfeasance accidents but would likely have no effect on someone who just doesn't care or derives pleasure from it. I HIGHLY doubt that the majority of biker/pedestrian accidents are related to the attitude of:

Quote:

fuck it hit a child while I'm at it

For better or worse, I have more faith in humanity than that.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

Come to think of it, I've never seen a single bumper sticker advocating cyclist (or pedestrian) awareness, but "motorcycles are everywhere" are literally everywhere (IN and FL, anyway). Maybe something this simple could actually help. The motorcycle community must believe it does....

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

I wrote the article below for BuzzVelo.com about the news of Lectie's crash and how it affected me (even all the way across the US in NJ). Hoping it brings some more eyes to Lectie's story and her GoFundMe page, as well as spreads some more awareness to the bigger issue of rider safety in general. Please feel free to share and continue to keep Lectie and her family in your thoughts.

https://buzzvelo.com/2249/will-cyclists-feel-safe-open-roads/