This was actually a few weeks ago.
A bicyclist was killed in Fort Washington yesterday (9/24/08) when he was struck by a van while trying to cross Allentown Road, police said.
Jose Obdulio Garcia, 45, of the 800 block of Veltri Drive was traveling west and had crossed eastbound traffic before he was hit, police spokesman Henry Tippett said. The accident occurred at 12:04 p.m. in the 7200 block of Allentown Road.
I've seen no follow-up on this.
Though not much,
Ian M. Wolfe was pronounced dead after being transported to the hospital after he was struck while riding south across Maine Avenue in the District around11:20 p.m. Sunday, according to U.S. Park Police. He was struck in the crosswalk by a Toyota Corolla traveling east through a green light on Maine Avenue. The driver remained on the scene. No charges have been filed.
The eastbound lanes of Maine Avenue in the area of the crash, near the Tidal Basin Parking Lot, were closed for four hours Sunday. U.S. Park Police investigated the collision because the crosswalk is within the bounds of West Potomac Park.
This is all I know right now, anyone else?
Around 11:15 p.m. Sunday, a bicyclist was struck and killed by a car in a crosswalk on Maine Avenue.
The incident was not a hit-and-run; the driver remained at the scene. The Toyota Corolla passed through a green light at the intersection where the bicyclist was struck. No charges have been filed against the driver.
The bicyclist was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police have identified him as 24-year-old Ian M. Wolfe of Bethesda.
U.S. Park Police are investigating the accident, as the crosswalk is within the bounds of West Potomac Park, near the Tidal Basin Parking.
Any person who may have witnessed this incident is encouraged to contact the United States Park Police Criminal Investigations Branch at (202) 610-8737.
This sounds like the intersection of Maine Ave and 15th Street SW.
From the Economist
In the course of his 40-year travelling life he went the equivalent of ten times round the equator, covering 6,000 miles or so a year. He became the first man to cycle the Darien Gap in Panama, and the first to cycle from the top to the bottom of the American continent. He went from Norway to the Cape of Good Hope and from Bangkok to Vladivostok, wheeling or walking every inch of the way. Every so often he would come back, showing up at STC (from which he had taken, in the beginning, only a two-year leave of absence) with vague murmurings of an apology. But pretty soon the panniers would be packed, the brakes checked, the tyres pumped, and he would be off again.
His cycle, loaded with 60-80lb of clothes, tent, stove, biscuits, sardines and water, was sometimes a complication. In the Sahara it sank to its hubs in fine, talc-like sand. In the Amazonian jungle he could not squeeze it between the trees. Crossing the great Atrato swamp, where the track became a causeway over slimy logs and then a mat of floating grass, the bike would sometimes sink into nothingness. He became expert at feeling for it in the morass with his feet. Every tricky traverse in mountain, stream or forest needed doing twice over: once to find a way for himself, then to collect the steed, often carrying it shoulder-high through sharp palmetto, or water, or rocks.
Yet Mr Hibell’s love for his bikes was unconditional. He took them, muddy as they were, into hotels with him, and clung fiercely on to them whenever tribesmen robbed him of the rest of his things. His favourite had a Freddie Grubb frame of Reynolds 531 tubing on a 42-inch wheelbase, reinforced to take the extra weight of goatskins holding water; Campagnolo Nuevo Record gears front and rear; Robregal double-butted 14-16-gauge spokes; and Christophe pedal-straps. It was so lightweight, as touring bikes go, that a group of boys in Newfoundland mocked that it would soon break on their roads. Instead, it did 100,000 miles.
Bikes rarely let him down. Escaping once from spear-throwing Turkana in northern Kenya, he felt the chain come off, but managed to coast downhill to safety. He crossed China from north to south—in 2006, at 72—with just three brake-block changes, one jammed rear-brake cable and a change of tape on the handlebars. In his book, “Into the Remote Places” (1984), he described his bike as a companion, a crutch and a friend. Setting off in the morning light with “the quiet hum of the wheels, the creak of strap against load, the clink of something in the pannier”, was “delicious”. And more than that. Mr Hibell was a short, sinewy man, not particularly swift on his feet. But on a good smooth downhill run, the wind in his face, the landscape pelting past, he felt “oneness with everything”, like “a god almost”.
In a career of hazards, from soldier ants to real soldiers to sleet that cut his face like steel, only motorists did him real damage. The drivers came too close, and passengers sometimes pelted him with bottles (in Nigeria), or with shovelfuls of gravel (in Brazil). In China in 2006 a van drove over his arm and hand. He recovered, but wondered whether his luck would last. It ran out on the road between Salonika and Athens this August, where he was knocked out of the way by a car that appeared to be chasing another.
Ian Hibell was 74.
This is from July 30th
Prince William County police say a 13-year-old boy has been struck and killed by a car on Hoadly Road near Olivewood Drive.
The accident occurred about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. Officers say Prabhdeep Ranahawa of Dale City was riding his bike, crossing Hoadly Road, when he was hit by a BMW driven by a 61-year-old Manassas woman.
Ranahawa was pronounced dead at the scene.
No charges have been filed and police are continuing to investigate the accident.
The police have since finished their investigation and made an arrest
Marilyn J. Freeman, 61, of 8129 King Arthurs Court in the Manassas area, was charged with reckless driving/failure to maintain control following a nearly month-long investigation that included multiple witness interviews and a reconstruction of the scene, Richardson said.
Police initially said that it appeared he was crossing Hoadly Road at the time, but the investigation revealed Ranahawa was bicycling on the shoulder near the edge of the travel lane.
Speaking of the police, GGW recently linked to a great police training video from SF. The police tell a cyclist to take the lane. Fantastic.
From the Gazette. Single bike fatalities are incredibly rare.
According to the Frederick Police Department, Karina and her parents were at a relative’s house on Friday when she crashed her bicycle. No cars were involved. After the incident, Karina was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for a head injury, said Lt. Shawn Martyak of Frederick Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division.
Karina received stitches and was sent home with her parents. Later on Friday, she started feeling sick and vomiting. On Saturday, Karina became unresponsive. She was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital where she died later in the day, according to a police report.
She was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
It's good to see the school trying to be proactive as a result
Because the incident was related to safety and security, the school has made some steps to educate students about summer safety.
A physical education teacher at Orchard Grove held an education session for students on Tuesday, talking about bicycle and swimming safety, Crawford said.
Crawford said the school may also consider putting together a similar event for parents.
‘‘Several years ago, the PTA did a bike helmet sale,” Crawford said. ‘‘It’s probably time to do that again.”
Somewhat related, someone sent me a link to this cycling safety website called yieldtolife.org. It seems to have some good programs.
More here. And official remarks at WABA's website.
The Post had coverage of the Ghost Bike Memorial yesterday - though I can't find it online yet. I'll update when I do. [Update: Here's DCist] Here's the Post.
It is known as a ghost bike, a memorial that has started appearing in cities around the world for cyclists killed on urban streets. The one placed last night at Connecticut Avenue and R Street NW was for Alice Swanson, 22, of Mount Pleasant, who was fatally struck at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday by a trash truck as she rode to work.
More than 150 people, many holding helmets and leaning on bikes, gathered at 6:30 p.m. for a dedication ceremony. The crowd included several Swanson family members.
"We all love the excitement, joy and freedom of riding a bike, but it is at sad times such as this that we recognize just how vulnerable we can all be when we are out there enjoying the thing we love," Gilliland told the crowd. He urged a complete investigation by police.
The tragedy has resulted in a discussion of biking/driving/economics etc... on several bigger blogs.
Megan McArdle weighed in with a couple of posts first. The first on making DC safe for bikes
If you want to make the streets safer, put in more bike lanes, and ticket drivers who drive in them.
and the second on who's to blame for the conditions on the roads, cyclists or drivers?
I commute by both bike and car, and it's no contest: cars. Bikers are keenly alive to their own safety, and tend to pay a lot more attention to the cars than the cars pay to them. Moreover, many drivers in DC seem to believe that it is against the law to be in a mode of transportation that goes more slowly than their own, and therefore complain about such "violations" as trying to merge into the exit lane of a traffic circle. Memo to drivers: whether it's a car or a bike, you're supposed to yield to someone trying to exit.
Arnold King points out that what we have here is a prisoner's dilemma
The case in which bikers obey traffic signs and drivers are courteous to bikers is the "co-operate/co-operate" quadrant of the Prisoner's Dilemma. The equilibrium is "defect/defect."
Will Wilkinson is close to my position (more on this later) that what is needed is a change in law, though he goes the other direction from me.
But I biking because it’s faster than driving — because I blow through stop signs, go the wrong way on one-ways, etc. Were I suddenly to become fastidious about heeding traffic laws intended to regulate cars, one of the main advantages of biking over driving would evaporate. So I think people ...ought to encourage bikers to break traffic laws, or at least promote EXTRA traffic laws for drivers, in order to increase the relative benefit of biking. How about intersections where four-way purple means you’ve got to stop unless you’re on a bike? That would be pretty sweet.
And finally, Tyler Cowen is uncharacteristically dead wrong.
1. Riding a bike is dangerous no matter how considerate the drivers, at least in the car-intensive cities of the United States (maybe not in Amsterdam). Furthermore accidents and potential accidents impose costs on both parties and more generally Coasian externalities are symmetric. The first best equilibrium involves less mutual contact and the cheapest way to bring that about is probably to discourage biking. (After all, they're the ones who can be scared off with risk of death and dismemberment.) That means road rules which discriminate against the interests of bikers.
2. If a bike has to stop and wait ten seconds for a car, that biker loses ten seconds of travel time. If a car has to stop and wait ten seconds for a bike, the driver loses ten seconds of travel time. The expected loss in distance traveled is much greater for the car, especially in areas where cars are going fast (i.e., the disputed areas when safety is a concern). Furthermore the cars are more likely inhabited by people with a higher value for their time, at least on average if not for every biking blogger.
Who: The Washington Area Bicyclist Association
What: Press conference on the death of a cyclist yesterday
Where/When: Intersection of Connecticut Ave and R Streets, NW at 6:30pm
July 9th
Why: To highlight the need for better bicycle safety and driver
education efforts in the DC region
The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) will install a ‘ghost
bike’ as part of a news conference tonight to call on the Metropolitan
Police Department to conduct a full investigation into the death of Alice
Swanson while riding a bicycle in Washington, DC, yesterday. The news conference
will also highlight the need for improved bicycling safety and driver education
efforts throughout the DC region. Part of the ceremony will include the
installation of a “ghost bike” at the intersection where Ms.
Swanson killed. Ghost bikes are somber
memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle which
has been painted white will be locked to a street sign near the crash site to
serve as a reminder of the tragedy and as a quiet statement in support of
cyclists' right to safe travel. Cyclists and others who attend the ceremony
are encouraged to bring bike lights and flowers.
On the morning of July 8th, Alice Swanson, a
22-year old riding to work in Washington, DC, was struck and killed by a trash
truck at the intersection of 20th and R Streets, NW. According to
police reports, Ms. Swanson was riding west on R Street when she was struck at
the intersection by a trash truck making a right turn onto 20th.
The police have not filed charges against the driver.
“All too often drivers are let off the hook when their negligence leads to serious injury or death of a cyclist or pedestrian”, said Eric Gilliland, WABA’s executive director. “’I didn’t see them’ is too often accepted as an excuse that results in a small fine or no punishment at all. While we cannot comment on the particulars of this case, we expect the Metropolitan Police Department to conduct a thorough examination of this crash and hold the driver fully responsible if he was at fault.”
More and more people are turning to bicycling for
transportation in the wake of high gas prices. That makes safety improvements
for cyclists and improved education of drivers all the more necessary. Among
the most important needs cited by WABA are the need for improved law enforcement
training and greater enforcement of traffic laws, increased fines or
prosecution when drivers strike cyclists or pedestrians, improved driver and
cyclist education efforts, and more public service announcement campaigns aimed
at drivers and cyclists.
“We can only hope that everyone will learn to slow down, be aware and share the road”, Gilliland said.
Recent Comments