10 Cyclist were injured this afternoon in South Florida, the area is called Kendall Lakes, it is in South West Miami, the area is residential and has a golf course were groups meet every afternoon to train around the golf course, I think it is approx a 3 mile loop. Check out link to local news station and check out the video pretty scary all the damage to the car, seems like the group was hammering and the car pulled in front of them with no time to stop, one guy was air lifted to local ER…
and here is the link to the Miami Herald, interesting if you click on the comments section below the article, the stupid comments everyone is making already
Key quote from the morons: I am really glad to see that somebody has finally acted on their primal impulses to mow down these idiots that pack up and block traffic in their tight pants. Last time I checked there were no license plates on their bikes, that makes them secondary to paying customers CARS ! They should not be allowed to clog roads and use only designated bike lanes where available.
Austin79 can confirm, every time a cyclist is hit down here, it usually reads “cyclist crashes into car” or something to that effect…we have some of the worst drivers I have ever scene. It is pretty bad here, I think it has alot to due with all the different cultures that live in South Florida, and everyone being used to driving like they used to in their country and with different styles.
The article now says that they collided with a car and the accident was caused “when a car pulled right in-front of them and struck them.”
saltamontes pretty much nailed the atmosphere there. lots of bad drivers and people coming from all over the world bringing their countries’ ‘rules of the road’ with them… as he noted, the blame almost always falls on the cyclists… i was hit when a dude ran a red light, and i hit the side of his car. the police report said that i hit him (and did not mention that he was at fault).
I was out with some friends riding on Sun. on a County Road and this car decided to turn right, right in-front of us. We were in a 2x2 formation. The 2 riders on the outside were able to veer to the left into the County Road to barely miss the back end of the car. I was in the front on the inside. I probably had less than 2 or 3 seconds to figure out what to do, but was unable to come up with a good plan and nailed the rear of the moving vehicle at roughly 16-18mph. The guy behind me had an additional second or two to slow down and missed the car, but ran over my P3C. I don’t remember the impact. I woke up on the ground about 10 feet away with my body rotated 90 degrees from the last position I was in. I was taken to the hospital via ambulance. My outcome was pretty good, no broken bones, I just have some good bumps and bruises, a sore jaw and just some road rash on one ass cheek.
Why do people do stupid things like this, all she had to do was wait 2-4 seconds for us to pass the intersection. If she would have been a second or two later she would have taken all 4 of us out, just like what happened in FL.
I ride there a lot, its freaken stupid dangerous. Cars/trucks are always parked in the cycling lanes becuase of construction or repairs somewhere around the neighborhood. The pack that was hit rides somewhere around 30+ mph and they have a race the last 30 min of their practice in which they fly. The peloton is sooo big it takes up not just the cycling lane but also the car lane. Most locals are used to it and know when the team is out there and drive careful but it there are a lot that speed right through and honk as if its something new.
From what was reported in local news is that there were cars including a cop car ILLEGALLY parked in the cycling lane and forced the peloton on the rd, when the driver pulled out to see if there was a car the first cyclist hit him and was a chain reaction afterwards. It sucks to ride bike down here with the drivers, Key Biscayne last wknd a female rider the day before a sprint flew off the bike after an entire peloton passed her on the left except for one guy, he clipped her and she fell off and broke her ankle had to be taken to the emergency room. Ive met 2 riders i train with that got hit by cars and spent significant time in the hospital last yr. And now this small 3.8 mile loop near my house has this accident. Freaken drivers!!!
Yes, drivers can be bad. However, I’ve witnessed several collisions of bikes hitting (or nearly hitting) cars who had the right of way and the cyclists failed to yield right of way. It drives me bonkers when I’m stopped at a stop light with cross traffic at dusk with lights and a helmet, and some idiot goes past me through the intersection with no helmet or lights and wearing headphones. I’m amazed if they even noticed the car that had to stop to avoid hitting them. Now don’t even get me started about drivers with cell phones. Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity. How on Earth did we get 6 billion people?
P.S. My favorite was seeing a guy in his aerobars hit a parked car. I have no clue, because it was parked legally. He was looking straight at it. The only think I can think is that he was too wrapped up in his music and/or thoughts (listening to headphones).
once again read the comments section to the story…interesting
I just read and added a few comments. I also noticed the anti bike comments seem to be aggressive. How about adding a few pro bike comments too! STer’s are pretty good at “comments”.
When a beloved heart surgeon and devoted cyclist was hit and killed in my city earlier this year the next day newspaper headline was “LOCAL DOCTOR KILLED IN BIKE CRASH”. What happened was that he was hit from behind by a woman in a minivan, run over, went under the van and was spit out to the other side of the road. Yet the headline implies HE was at fault. Yes, a “bike crash” is what happened, not “driver accident” or “vehicular homicide”. No one in the mainstream media would ever challenge citizens right to their cars and the road.
The ignorance of the anti-bike comments is frightening. There are a few people who sound like they would like to go out and mow down the next cyclist they see.
Best wishes to the injured, hope they recover well and are on the road again soon.
Bad stuff and there are definitely some ignorant comments (from both sides of the fence). As a cyclist I fully support our right to the road but I have to somewhat agree with the folks saying that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. We can’t use the law to defend our right to the road then treat the laws that inconvenience our use of those roads as something that only applies to cars. It was irrelevant in this case but the comments about cyclists blowing stop signs, yields, speed limits and lights are valid. I see it all the time where I live. I do it myself occasionally. Yes, it sucks to be moving along at a good pace and having to stop… but sometimes that sucks in a car too. You still have to do it.
Don’t take this as defending impatient, roadrage fueled idiots and no-life losers in motor vehicles that feel the need to vent their sad existence on cyclists. I know there are all too many of them out there. I’m lucky in that I live in a small, remote town with a lot of foot and bike traffic and the vast majority of drivers here are very courteous but even here I rarely push my luck with stop signs and yields. No way I’d do it in busy, angry big-city traffic. Actually, I’m not even sure I’d ride in that anymore. I’m spoiled now with the open, very low traffic, surrounded-by-wilderness highways I have here.
I live, ride and train in Miami and surrounding areas and to tell you the truth, even though the cultural thing is to blame the cyclist first, same as with when a car strikes a pedestrian we all assume is the drivers fault, i am going to be really honest. First the city of Miami, besides Key Biscaye and some parts in SW dade county plus Homestead’s back roads dont either have bike lanes or safe streets to ride a bike on unless you are very careful and lucky (too narrow roads no shoulder). A lot of this recreational riders dont know how to properly handle a bike ( I am not saying this is the case here) and dont respect a lot of the traffic laws you need to obey if you are riding on the road sharing with vehicles. I have gotten myself into the “pissed off motorist” mood more than once and I am a cyclist and try to always be as careful as possible but there is really no reason to ride 4 or 5 abreast on the road. In some roads even double pace line is dangerous (ie Old Cutler and Main Hwy for the ones familiar with the area) and actually impacts traffic a lot and I see this selfish people doing it week in and week out. Also stop signs, lights and the likes are to be obeyed, tons and tons of people here dont think those apply to cyclist. Yes, i am guilty of taking lights and signs if I am completely sure there are not cars in the vecinity and if anything happens it will be my fault for doing so, but some people think that because they are riding in a pack cars are just going to stop no matter what.
Anyhow, I am not placing blame on anyone because details are not clear but the same way this city has the worst drivers in the country i also has some of the most moronic riders.
Peace
PS hope they are all doing well and the incident gets clarified because that is very popular loop.
P.S. My favorite was seeing a guy in his aerobars hit a parked car. I have no clue, because it was parked legally. He was looking straight at it. The only think I can think is that he was too wrapped up in his music and/or thoughts (listening to headphones).