Biker down

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This one out of Boulder, Colorado.

A founding member of the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society was killed Friday when a dump truck pulling a trailer loaded with construction equipment hit him as he was riding his bike near Boulder, where he lived.

Eugene Philip Howrey, 73, was thrown about 36 feet from the impact, said Cpl. Eric Wynn with the Colorado State Patrol. He was declared dead at the scene. He had been wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

Howrey, known as Phil to friends and family, moved from the Ann Arbor area to Boulder several years ago.

The preliminary crash investigation indicates that the truck driver, Christopher G. Loven, 45, of Boulder County, failed to yield the right of way, Wynn said.

Loven was driving west on Lefthand Canyon Road, while Howrey was riding east, Wynn said. The truck hit Howrey’s bike as Loven attempted to turn left onto southbound Olde Stage Road shortly after noon, he said. Howrey swerved to try to avoid the crash, he said. The investigation is continuing, and no charges have been filed, Wynn said.

http://www.annarbor.com/news/eugene-philip-howrey-killed-when-dump-truck-strikes-bike-founding-member-of-ann-arbor-bicycle-tourin/.

Keep the rubber side down out there.

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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

32 Replies to “Biker down”

  1. From the Denver Post:

    A dump-truck driver involved in a fatal bicycle accident Friday in Lefthand Canyon pleaded guilty two years ago to a road-rage incident in the same area.

    The Colorado State Patrol identified the driver Monday as Christopher G. Loven, 45, of Boulder County. The cyclist in Friday’s accident was Eugene Philip Howrey, 73, of Boulder.

    In 2009, Loven was ticketed on suspicion of reckless endangerment after a cyclist said Loven used his truck to push him into oncoming traffic near Lee Hill Drive and Olde Stage Road.

    A witness confirmed the cyclist’s account.

    Court records show that in 2009, Loven pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation and community service in the case, which exacerbated tensions between bicyclists and drivers in Boulder County.

    State Patrol Cpl. Eric Wynn confirmed Monday that the driver involved in Friday’s crash was the same person.

  2. Gee, who woulda thought thought it would be a serial offender?

    One of the comments in the local rag pointed out that pushing someone into traffic with your body=attempted murder, with a vehicle, not so much.

  3. This was an entirely different mode of wreck than the one the driver was convicted for in 2009. This wreck was a left-cross as the truck made a sudden turn (hard enough to leave 4 sets of skid marks on the road according to one witness) which left the rider without even enough time to grab brakes as he made a quick turn to reduce the angle of impact.

  4. Opus, the point isn’t whether or not the wreck is the same. The question is what was this guy thinking. Did he see the cyclist and turn anyway thinking the cyclist would brake and screw him or did he just not see him.

    I had a guy looking right at me yesterday as he pulled a truck and a trailer of similar length right into my path. I know he was thinking f’ him, he’ll have to stop.

    There has also been commentary from a few who say the driver has given other people similar disrespectful treatment while driving. I think he just figured he was a tough guy driving a truck and screw everyone else (but I could be totally wrong).

  5. I guess part of what I’m saying is this: I don’t take the word of convicted criminals at face value. He has been convicted in a road rage related incident and therefore should should be held to a higher standard in regards to explaining the incident.

  6. Hangin’s too good for him. Got his address? Pay him a visit, oh, about 0300.

    March him, and everyone else in the house, outside. Bring sledgehammers, blowtorches-Oh hell, use your imagination. Take care of everyone else. Wife, kids, dogs-but not teh kittehs. Or the turtles. Then take care of him.

    But don’t kill him; oh hell no. Whatever you do to everyone else (except teh kiiehs) is fine. But make sure he is around to think about his actions and their consequences. For a long time.

    A long time.

  7. Before you all go getting all worked up on the driver, you may want a few more facts…his 7 yr old daughter was with him, he performed CPR on the biker for more than 30 minutes and forensics have found out that the biker hit him! Chris Loven was NOT to blame! The cyclists in boulder act like they are the only ones on the road. Chris was driving a back road home because the main road was being worked on to support bikers. Those roads are NOT bike friendly. Not the drivers fault! The wife of the biker is not pressing charges because she has no case. Her husband ran into the driver! You all need some facts and not base your opinions of liberal skewed media!

  8. Mom— so what you’re saying is, that 73 year-old cyclist deserved to die under the wheels of a dump truck? I find your conclusion a little bizarre. Drive nice out there.

  9. MomOf3 Says…holy clouded vision…feel free to post your association with the truck driver…to be soooooo one side but not explain why is absurd.

    Nobody is saying the guy is guilty of murder, but at least bad judgement and perhaps a bad attitude.

  10. oh, and the truck truck driver clearer turned left in to the path of the cyclist…additionally, it looks like the front (right side) of the truck struck the cyclist.

    I have personally seen a cyclist struck in a similar fashion. Nobody lynched that guy and this guy is probably not in much trouble either, but lets not confuse that fact with who is at fault.

  11. Momof3,
    Thanks for trolling sites like this and 303cycling.com with your rants about cyclists.

    Chris Loven was found guilty of harassing cyclists in 2009, and a lot of people in Boulder have stories of being run off the road by a douchebag in a pickup truck with “Power Earth Movers” on the side, which is coincidentally Loven’s company.

    Lee Hill and lefthand canyon are not back roads, either. Both are heavily used by cyclists and have been for years. Loven turned left across oncoming traffic, which puts him at fault. Of course the cyclist hit his truck…where else was he supposed to go?

    I’m not sure where you’re getting your numbers from, and why you think CPR was performed. Mr. Loven’s head was nearly wrenched off. Also, there were cops on the scene within minutes.

  12. One more thing regarding the Mr. Loven’s widow….

    There is an ongoing investigation. It isn’t up to her “pressing charges” to move the process forward. Stan Garnett’s office (DA) is working with people in the area to elucidate other details.

  13. …momof3…wow…really ???…seriously fucking wow…

    …why, exactly, are you an apologist for a guy like christopher g. loven ???…what personal reason do you have for supporting a man who has a court record of intimidating a cyclist(s) with a motor vehicle ???…rather than me surmise & insult you, (& it would be easy to insult you because of your obvious bias & ignorance) why don’t you come clean & inform us…

    …as elsid suggests, obviously you are trolling, so what fucking gives ???…

    …& who do you hope to sway with your comment “…forensics have found out that the biker hit him!” ???…basic physics (& geometry) would bear out that ‘fact’ but a logical observation would be that the driver, having cut off the cyclist’s path, offered him no escape route whatsoever…
    …& in the given situation, the cyclist should not have needed an escape route…

    …had the dead man been driving a larger truck than levens vehicle, rather than riding a bike, leven’s 7 year old daughter would likely have been killed & leven would have easily anticipated such disastrous results so i doubt he would have made that turn but he obviously didn’t care when it came to the life of the cyclist…

    …the result is that leven now has the death of another human being on his record & his conscience, assuming he actually has a conscience…

  14. I’m with momof3. Maybe cyclists should have to carry insurance, display tags and pay a registration fee to use the roads like drivers do. We are all accountable when using the roads. There isn’t enough room on our county roads for the typical arrogance/egomania that many of the roadies here possess.

  15. How exactly would display tags or a registration fee have saved this poor man from being plowed under by a dump truck driven by a road rage asshole ?

    ‘Splain that to me toots.

  16. Licensing bicycle users and requiring the carrying of insurance would be relevant if a cyclist was using a public roadway in a negligent or unlawful or negligent and unlawful or reckless and unlawful (you get the idea) and that cyclist caused injury to another person and/or that person’s property AND the cyclist was either insolvent or just plain old couldn’t pay the tab.

    None of that happened here.

    So, your point is moot.

  17. What next? Travel documents for pedestrians? Yeah, more gub’mint. That’s the answer.

    Jesus, are people really that dumb?

  18. “Jesus, are people really that dumb?”

    Geez joe. Is that even a valid question ??

    How old are you kid ??

  19. “Kid”? 60 a month from now. But I still hold out hope for humankind. Fuck if I know why. Maybe for my daughter and the children that she may have some day.

  20. …i’d suggest ‘mountain biker’ is a foil…the comments he/she made are absolutely irrelevant as regards the article but they’ve certainly drawn everyone away from the topic of christopher levens & his lack of concern for the lives of cyclists in particular…

    …we’ve all deviated from the reality of the situation…

    …christopher levens murdered a cyclist with his truck…

    …fuck you, momof3 & ‘mountain biker‘ & your subterfuge…

    …turtlef & joe, you guys ought a’ know better than to feed into it…

  21. Just wanted to say:
    I really feel for everyone that is personally affected by this tragedy. It’s awful. A terrible thing. Peace to all of you.
    Also, anyone claiming to have forensics results is lying. The final report has not been published because it is not complete. It also seems pretty irrelevant to the point of this article, which only contains basic information of the crash and more of a remembrance of Phil, the man who lost his life doing what he loved.
    Momof3, you’re a troll. Please do something more useful with your time.

  22. Nice to find out the driver of the truck had an additional previous altercation with a different cyclist (in 2003)…that’s right…in 2003, 2009 and finally killed some in 2011.

    The bonus rumor…he was a Boulder Police Officer until the 2003 incident when he lost his job for that altercation (a statement someone made on the Daily Camera).

    Menace to society.

  23. Re-read all this after a month and this guy, Momof3 and Mt Biker still royally piss me off.

    I need to hang a sign on the sign.

    “I am already disturbed, please come in”

  24. While your at it I reckon it couldn’t hurt to hang another sign on the sign. Just to be thorough and all.

  25. I’m dying to argue with you joe but I can’t.

    Do you know how much that sucks ??