Biker Down – David Meek

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This just in.

From: Dan
www.wrcbtv.com
David Meek was a cool dude. Once Prez of Chattanooga Bike Club, currently a Frame builder (Privateer bikes) and an all around great guy. I met him a few years ago at a mountain bike fest outside of Cleveland TN on Chilhowee mountain. Super cool and was one of those guys who “got it”.

I’ll send an update on whether or not charges are pressed as soon as I know.

-dan
eastsidecyclist.blogspot.com

From the article linked above:

Friends of David Meek say this could have been prevented. “If drivers knew the law and respected the law we wouldn’t be here today,” says Minya James of Outdoor Chattanooga.

The state of Tennessee requires that driver allow three feet of clearance between their vehicle and cyclists when passing. “The roads belong to cyclists as well. In this state a bicycle is legally considered a vehicle. We have the same rights and laws protecting us,” says James.
Friday March 6th

…A bicyclist died in a morning crash in Chattanooga. Police identified the cyclist as 51 year old David L. Meek. Meek owned a bike shop on North Hawthorne and lived on Wood Lane in Red Bank.

Police say the accident happened at 6:40am in the 1000 block of Ashland Terrace. According to eyewitnesses, Meek was traveling on Ashland Terrace toward Hixson Pike. Investigators say a box-type truck traveling in the same direction passed by the cyclist. A saddle bag on the back of the bicycle caught the rear of the truck and yanked the bike out from under Meek. The victim was thrown into the street where he suffered life threatening injuries. Paramedics transported Meek to Erlanger Medical Center where he died.

The truck driver told police that he never saw the bicyclist and didn’t know there was anything wrong until he saw Meek in the street. From video taken at the scene by Eyewitness News, the truck appears to be a postal transfer truck. They say charges in the incident are pending further investigation.

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About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

6 Replies to “Biker Down – David Meek”

  1. It’s always a shame when this happens because it just doesnt need to…..EVER.

    How does the driver just not see a cyclist? Was he legally blind? Its a vehicle with a grown man on top of it, not a squirrel. Is this excuse viable when someone plows over a harley?

    And Jonny, I just realized you followed up a post that begins by saying you feel like you got run over by a truck with a post in which a guy got run over by a truck.

    Be safe everyone.

  2. What wasn’t mentioned in the articles but was in the comments section was that Mr. Meek had an obnoxiously bright blinking red light in operation on the back of his bike when he was hit. The only way to avoid seeing the cyclist was willfully ignoring the light. And yes, people do use the same excuse when they hit a Harley even one with no mufflers.

  3. that’s insane. do people get away with that shit?. they teach you how to ignore oncoming headlights without veering into said headlights in drivers’ ed when you’re 15 fucking years old. so, because you’re NOT looking at the safety light, you run over it? that’s fucking nuts. that’s like cleaning some super tech shit on a ride by staring straight up into the fucking sky. what?

  4. “A saddle bag on the back of the bicycle caught the rear of the truck”

    Why isn’t it “the bumper of the TRUCK snagged a saddle bag on the bike”? I see this type of wording in articles so often, as if the fault lies with the person that got run over, not the person driving negligently OVER the other person.

  5. it always seems to be “work” trucks that act the most recklessly. I believe the bigger the vehicle, the bigger the punishment when careless driving occurs.

  6. I can only pray for his family and friends, what a tremendous loss to the cycling community. It is not safe to ride in the South. I have been there and they hate cyclists, my cousin got upset every time I went for a ride in Georgia. We never forget our fallen.