Cyclists Down

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Some sad news from the Midnight Ridazz:

A driver slammed into a group of about 100 bicyclists in Baldwin Village, injuring nearly a dozen people

. . .

A woman driving the car was arrested on suspicion of DUI, officials said. The driver told police she was looking down at her phone when she crashed into the bike riders.

. . .

Authorities said some of the riders also may be at fault, because they were standing in the street. Many of them also had on dark-colored clothing.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Flos_angeles&id=8193912.

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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

19 Replies to “Cyclists Down”

  1. That last paragraph (“…dark-colored clothing…”) unfortunately follows the common press bias to blame cyclists. The net effect shifts the onus onto cyclists and away from the blitzed driver.

  2. That’s like saying a pedestrian is at fault for crossing the street, when they get run over by a texting/drunk motorist

  3. Had a lady almost hit me and then yell at me for not wearing “bright clothing” the other day. This was at 5pm in downtown Portland of all places. I gotta check the fucking bylaws again because apparently the wearing of neon bullshit is one of the requirements for bike riding these days.

  4. I know from experience that wearing a full on glow in the daylight rain jacket in the daytime does not stop people hitting you. Especially when they are texting, feckers.

  5. Is this kind of BULLSHIT happening more often; or is it just me??
    The color of ones clothing should not make a difference!! That’s like blaming the driver for wear the wrong type of clothing!!
    Total and utter BULLSHIT!!!

    Peace

  6. Well. If it’s night time and you’re dressed like a Ninja then maybe.

    But otherwise, yea. You could wear the brightest gaudiest outfit possible, and if some drunk ass bitch is looking down as she approaches, she obviously ain’t gonna see ya.

    Best wishes to all the injured.

  7. stop calling the police and start kicking the shit out the people that hit cyclists.

  8. Wearing dark clothing makes them as much at fault as a woman who wore “provacative” clothing responsible for her rape. That argument has been quashed a long time ago, time to take away the BS when dealing with drunk/testing a-holes. If they haven’t gotten the message about drunk/testing driving, the should loose their “right” to drive for being stupid and not paying attention to the rest of the farking world and all of the propaganda out there. If she was a friend of mine, I’d slap her for being an idiot; I’d wait for her to get drunk again though, so I would get away with it when I said I didn’t see her cause she was dressed in dark clothing.

  9. @07-Or maybe stop calling the police and start kicking the shit out of them. Fucking donut-scarfing pieces of shit.

  10. I gots one question. The girl was a cop, supposedly. Had a cop radio, even. Not that they are that hard to come by. Where was her weapon?

  11. yeah J the E you’re not the only one to ask that question. Meaning why didn’t she just shoot the fucker? If you read her stuff you kinda get the idea she ain’t yer average barney. Plus she is after all, a cyclist.

  12. I have a neice who is a detective with a nearby county’s police force. I have known her since she was a baby and I can tell you-Steel would have been placed on target.

  13. What I have been reading on the cop-lady’s blog is she couldn’t clear the background to shoot so she didn’t bother to pull her sidearm. IOW it wasn’t safe to shoot, so she didn’t shoot.

  14. Really? Shooting a gun is the first thing that comes to your minds? Sure, assholes abound, and hood ornaments feel like sights, but shooting (the intent: to kill) the person? The line between arrogance and ignorance is not distinct. The last thing we need to advocate is Police using their weapons, unnecessarily. Just as this lady describes a badge not having super powers, nor do bullets. Grow up, John McClane fan-boys.

    More discrediting and playing down of the motorist’s behavior: “Earlier Thursday, police told Eyewitness News evidence of alcohol, marijuana and condoms was found where the group was hanging out.”

    The part about cyclist standing in the street is not in quotes, rather a paraphrase and probably taken out of context. From the witness quote, “I saw her first, and then I started calling everybody out, ‘Hey everybody, merge right, get out of the bike lanes to the sidewalk,'” said one bicyclist,” one doesn’t “merge” when they’re walking their bike. This article is terribly written and carries an obvious bias. The emphasis is placed on the cyclist behavior, and downplays the actions of the”suspected drunken-driver.” So, the moral of this article: drunk-driving = the norm, no-big-deal; cyclists hit by vehicle = cyclist must be at fault and, if not, find “evidence” of bad behavior.

    Just like the in the Cops case, this driver will take a plea to some traffic violations and the vehicular assault charges will be dropped, or not prosecuted because the status quo: if a cyclist is in the road they’re at-fault. The DUI will get her some alcohol classes a hefty fine and a mark on her MVR. If there is a trial the jury pool is tainted with cultural bias, as the Cop describes the DC Grand Jury.

    Watch your ass out there, and the ass of all other cyclist.

  15. A weapon in the right hands can deter further aggressive action without ever being fired.

  16. As drug dealers, being threatened by a gun could have meant UZI’s and AK’s being pulled out and a “Heat” shoutout with only a short barreled 9mm. Very stupid. A gun is not the first step in policing, it’s the final and last layer of protection a officer has.

    I think that lady cop did the right thing and nobody got hurt – perfect.