I know this part of the video broke my heart! I feel for him! Hope he heals well!

I am a big fan of Tim's and it is areal shame we wont be able to see him race. However I commute on my bike in London and have been doing so for years, the single variable that you can control which will stop you having an accident is SPEED. slow down enough and you will pretty much eradicate any accidents. The busier it gets the slower you have to go.

Well they have 2400 athletes racing this year. Not long ago it was the biggest field at 1800. Think about that for a second. If everyone brings 2 other people with them to Kona that is another 1800 people in town...for a very small town. Plus add in more vendors, etc. That race is outgrowing the town.

I hope this was supposed to be pink. Otherwise it's f-ing retarded. I don't know specifics about Tim's crash. But riding 10 MPH or 20 MPH doesn't stop some careless douche from texting while driving or driving drunk and running you over.

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Don't drown. Don't crash. Don't walk.

Yep

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

go on....

Not that the athlete density along Ali'i doesn't cause issues, but there the speeds of cyclists and cars are generally low. The situation between the airport and harbor access is almost entirely a combination of vehicles and construction. Construction takes forever on the Big Island. This particular contractor actually gets their work done faster than any other, but some design and environmental screw ups have extended construction by probably a year. Local drivers are frustrated, visitiors are clueless and rush in and out of intersection like the airport access road. All of this makes things very dangerous for cyclists.

It also doesn't help that Hawaii DOT construction traffic safety requirements are some of the worst I've ever seen. I guess they just have never been subject to a huge liability lawsuit award or they have and don't care. The construction raffic control measures along the Queen K are terrible. As mentioned above and in Kona Coffee's 2017 Kona thread, the safest approach is shuttling north past the construction if you want to ride north.

I've theorized about that myself here on the mainland, but I think it's less likely on the Big Island where Trump only got 27% of the votes. http://www.politico.com/...ap/president/hawaii/

Here's what Michael Drutar, who is on the Board of Directors at Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii according to his Facebook page, wrote on ST's Facebook page regarding the collision:

"Very disappointing. As for the details- he was riding Northbound through town. Just passed the light at the harbor. With all the construction, traffic backs up to a near stop there. A car traveling South was waiting to make a left turn into the gas station. As is Hawaii custom, one of the slow moving Northbound cars came to a stop and waved the south bound car to make their left turn. The cyclist was riding legally in the bike lane, but with all the traffic, neither the cyclist or car saw each other in time. Witnesses say that he was able to brake for an instant before the collision. The car (truck actually) stopped and stayed at the scene. It's sad to see this. We here on the islands are doing the best we can to educate drivers and cyclists, but like in most places, we still have out work cut out for us. I hope he has a successful recovery and makes it back next year."

Mark,

thank you for including the details of how the accident happened. It does indeed truly sound like an accident, which does happen at times. I also have ridden out in Kona and in pre-race rides, every driver has been courteous.

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2018 Races: IM Santa Rosa, Vineman Monte Rio, Lake Tahoe 70.3

I feel really bad for Tim Don. You can hear the emotion in his voice at the end of his Instagram post. You know he poured the better part of the past 8 months into preparing for this race. Sounds like it was just an unfortunate accident that was completely unavoidable. I hope he has a speedy recovery.

That's not an accident! The driver who waved the truck through should have checked the bike lane before directing the truck to cross. And the truck should never have trusted the driver who waved him through. This is called the "wave of death" and it's not an accident but a completely preventable incident.

https://bikeportland.org/...ult-collision-109655

I agree. And whenever I'm riding and see this situation, I always break and never trust that the driver(s) are going to see me. If you're the driver, you don't just go on good faith of the wave either, you crawl out, until you can see the way for yourself. Both parties could have done with better defensive efforts to avoid this one. Very sad.

PMo,

You are right that the one waving them didn't check the bike lane. But that is negligence not intent. They truly did not mean the cyclist harm. It was an accident.

To contrast that, I (and I imagine most cyclists have similar stories) have had folks throw things at me (while I'm in the bike lane), get real close and yell at me to make me fall, see me and choose to turn out right in front of me and see me and choose to do an illegal u-turn in front of me causing me to hit them and then telling the officer "I had no right to be on the road".

Unintentional would be the old lady who turned left in front of me and nearly hit me or the driver who turned right into a restaurant after passing me in the bike lane. Should they have seen me? Yes. Did they? No. I am upset about these two as my life is still in danger, but these were not intentional like the others above (and many others that I could recount) all of which have occurred since 2017. In 2014 to 2016 I had zero situations where someone intentionally mistreated me on a bike. The sad thing is that I feel hunted on the bike these days by people who are bullies behind the wheel. I now wear a blinking safety vest on every ride and a camera on my helmet in addition to the normal array of blinking lights all over my bike.

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2018 Races: IM Santa Rosa, Vineman Monte Rio, Lake Tahoe 70.3

Lack of intent to harm doesn't excuse negligence. This is legally not an accident, any more than it is an "accident" when a driver runs someone down from behind. Drivers need to be more careful. Could Tim have seen it coming and acted to avoid it? Perhaps. However, assuming that is the proper chain of events, he had every right to be where he was.

I agree. My standards of what to expect from drivers have just gone so far downhill in 2017 I can't even imagine expecting what you say even though you are correct. Your perspective reminds me of what reality should be and not the reality I currently face.

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2018 Races: IM Santa Rosa, Vineman Monte Rio, Lake Tahoe 70.3

Oh I understand the reality of things. I've been hit because a driver wouldn't slow down and instead tried to squeeze through a lane with me, and biking home from campus just now I had a couple close calls in a 15 min ride. However, I feel like we have to call it like it is every time this kind of thing happens rather than call it an accident and let it slide. Call me young and idealistic if you wish (I'm only 22), but I feel like that attitude needs to go away if change is going to happen.

Also drivers aren't suddenly significantly worse in 2017. They've always sucked. That is an absolutely rediculous statement.

Saying that it wasn't an accident isn't the same as saying that it was intentional.

Calling something an accident implies that there is no on at fault and that it couldn't have been prevented and it's just something that is always going to happen. This makes us complacent and doesn't motivate us to improve our driving skills and situational awareness.

If we just say "oh it was an accident, nothing you can do" then drivers will continue waving other drivers across the road without checking their mirrors for bikes. If we instead call it an incident and look for a root cause, then we can educate ourselves and others and make the roads safer.

There's an important distinction in the words used that shouldn't be taken lightly.

https://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/8995151/crash-not-accident

So this is Trump's fault? Is they anything that people will not try to blame on him, or a subject that will not be politicized? I am sick of it.

Yeah that's gotta hurt to get knocked out of the race at the 11th hour after all that preparation.

I'd be near tears too.

.... except Lionel's out on those roads this week too

please stop calling it an accident.

two people are at fault here. the car taking a left, for not paying attention. the car stopping on a straight road to let someone take a left.

people think they are being nice, but they are just being stupid. roads are designed a certain way. when you stop to let someone on the other side take a left to improve the flow of traffic on that side, you impede the traffic on your side. i see this way too often. driving down a road and the person in front of me comes to a complete stop on a main road to let someone take a left onto a private street... facepalm. same moron is the guy not letting you merge on the highway because he "owns" the lane.

Not without reason; everything has been politicized. That’s like his favorite game. And yes, many things are different this year. It’s not just the prerogative of the right. Now deal with it, or ask for your safe space, snowflake.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Tri forum should be a "safe space" blaming Trump belongs in lavender.

I know the exact spot as I almost had the same thing happen to me yesterday as well. I was lucky in that I could see what was about to happen and slowed up before the car even turned. I'm just here for my wife and on a road bike and just riding for fun but Tim could very well of been in his aero bars and doing efforts and had no way of anticipating it.
I was here in 2014 and the riding was much nicer but this year with construction near town it has been really dicey. I've seen a number of folks walking around with fresh road rash or arms in slings.

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Team Every Man Jack

I noticed that too, ditto what you say mate