9 ms·

Ex-Napster exec fatally struck by sheriff's patrol car while biking

55 points by 001sky 13y ago

sukuriant 13y ago
I think the most disappointing part about this is that the person that was hit had to be an 'ex-napster exec' to get any notoriety. I am very sorry to hear there was an accident involving a bike and a car though, at apparently such a high speed that it broke in the window...
minimize_me 13y ago
"The impact smashed the patrol car’s windshield, leaving the deputy with cuts on his arm and glass in his eyes." Clearly the peace officer was the victim of the cyclist's irresponsible road behaviour here!
- jessaustin 13y ago
  Clearly the automobile was moving quite fast when it struck the cyclist. I've seen similar damage when a car struck a cow at 55mph. I'm not familiar with the street in question, but it seems likely the speed of the automobile was not anticipated by the cyclist.
  - hdevalence 13y ago
    Seeing as the cyclist was in his bike lane, it's unclear why he should have had to anticipate the speed of the automobile.
    - jessaustin 13y ago
      If as it seems the cyclist was rear-ended, it isn't actually relevant whether he was in the bike lane or not. Rear-ending is illegal and dangerous, period. Speed awareness is mainly important at intersections. Away from intersections, all vehicle operators are responsible for maintaining a safe distance between their vehicle and those ahead. My original point was just that the automobile was moving quite fast. Thanks for seeking clarity!
  - votingprawn 13y ago
    I'm surprised, I would have thought that hitting 3/4 of a ton of cow 55mph would do significantly more damage than we can see here.
    - jessaustin 13y ago
      Yeah, it was weird. The car went under the cow, and the cow destroyed the windshield and damaged the leading edge of the roof. The driver did not require medical attention. The cow walked off but died within two days. I'm sure in other cases the driver and cow both might have been killed immediately.
- laumars 13y ago
  While I don't think that was the tone intended, I too read the sentence that way.
- FedRegister 13y ago
  That's okay. They'll just give that poor officer paid vacation, er, suspension with pay, until the incident dies down.
  - voidlogic 13y ago
    Come on, while there are plenty reckless police officers, there also plenty of reckless cyclists, we don't even know what happened. It possible the officer hit him, but it is also possible he didn't see the car, misjudged its speed or merge from a side street. Let save judgment for when we know what happened. And poor officer is right, regardless if he was at fault or not, he has a heavy burden to carry. If the officer did wrong, I will be glad to see him pay societies price for such a mistake, but until then- I'll just be blown away by the continual lack of empathy and pragmatism shown here.
    - maxerickson 13y ago
      The video states they were traveling in the same direction.
    - darkarmani 13y ago
      > Come on, while there are plenty reckless police officers, there also plenty of reckless cyclists The standard is slightly higher when you are a police officer. For example, I don't think I've ever seen police cars follow at a safe distance. It's clearly a foreseeable outcome that if the car in front needs to brake hard there will be a collision, yet people would say it is an unfortunate accident if they happen to hit the car in front of them. Driving your car under control means exactly that. Give bikers a wide berth. Slow down if it is unsafe to pass. Stop tailgating. Slow down in general.
      - voidlogic 13y ago
        >The standard is slightly higher when you are a police officer. I never said the standard wasn't higher- Also, I'm glad I don't live where you live, the police tend to drive very conservatively where I live, unless there is due cause. >Driving your car under control means exactly that. Give bikers a wide berth. Slow down if it is unsafe to pass. Stop tailgating. Slow down in general. Did the officer have his siren and lights on? Where I live cars (and bicycles) are required to pull over to allow the police car past. I assume you are not suggesting that a police car responding to an incident should should "Give bikers a wide berth. Slow down..." because that is ridiculous.
- theg2 13y ago
  It's a vehicle accident, do we have to turn this into a "f the police" (censored, for the kids) discussion?
  - rhizome 13y ago
    Not yet, but... http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/no-charges-opd-officer-accused-hitting-homeless-ma/ncDdm/ http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/no-charges-opd-officer-a...
  - sp332 13y ago
    The discussion has been going already. For example http://copsinbikelanes.tumblr.com/ http://copsinbikelanes.tumblr.com/ (those are from New York city)
- martythemaniak 13y ago
  A pertinent Rob Ford quote: “My heart bleeds for them when someone gets killed. But it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” Sadly, it's a very common belief, hence why he managed to get himself elected.
- freehunter 13y ago
  I'm surprised that the biker was able to smash the windshield hard enough to cut the driver with the glass. Windshields are laminated so they don't shatter and splinter when hit.
herbig 13y ago
As a biker in NYC, police cars are the most dangerous thing on the road for you. They roll through red lights, never use blinkers, cut you off without looking, park in bike lanes, and occasionally just drive down one way streets. All this without running their emergency lights, just as matter of everyday driving.
- hnriot 13y ago
  "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
- dmix 13y ago
  Anecdotal point: I was biking in Toronto recently and I rolled past a cyclist that was just hit by a white van. An ambulance and police car were next to it responding. I biked slowly passed the van (in a clear bike lane) and then about 20 seconds later after passing through a stop light beyond the accident, a police car flew in front of me, cut me off, and proceeded to park in the bike lane in front of me, making me break hard and go around him. You'd think while the police are responding to a bike accident call they'd temporarily give a shit about our safety.
- IgorPartola 13y ago
  I witnessed some pretty questionable police driving in Boston. The greater Boston area is not known for stellar road quality and there are lots of poorly designed lane merges. For example, one time I saw a state trooper zooming between lanes, cutting people off, not using his turn signals. The cruiser's lights and sirens were off. It is possible that the officer was trying to catch up to someone in moderately heavy traffic without attracting lots of attention, but turn signals are really not that hard to use. My problem with this behavior is that aside from the obvious safety issues, this sets a bad example. It tells everyone around that turn signals are optional. On an unrelated note, so many of Boston's driving problems can be fixed with paint. There are many miles of road surface where the lane markers have worn out and it is not clear where people should be driving. When it is not clear, each driver makes up their own rules, lanes, etc. What's worse, the places where the paint is most worn out are typically busy intersections or the rotaries they use so much, which leads to some of the most hectic driving conditions an unprepared driver can be thrown into. As a side note to this side note, I actually wonder how something like Google's self-driving cars would do in an environment like this. The only place where I have personally seen worse driving is in Ukraine, where despite having lanes, they are typically just ignored. For example, if there are three wide lanes at an intersection, they become five very tight actual lanes.
sologoub 13y ago
Looking at the map where that happened, that's an incredibly bad part of the road. There is a hill with very little visibility of what's in front of you as you pass it. There is a bike lane further down, but I think at the hill the road narrows and there is no bike lane or protected area. And of course people go flying through that section. Cops aren't the only offenders there, but they sure don't make it any safer.
BudVVeezer 13y ago
Was anyone else a bit put-off that it was the patrol car that killed the cyclist, and not the person driving the patrol car (as it would have been reported had it not involved an officer)?
donretag 13y ago
The cyclist was in the bike lane at the time. More info: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/12/08/bicyclist-struck-and-killed-by-sheriffs-radio-car-in-calabasas/ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/12/08/bicyclist-struck-a... http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/925411-Bicyclist-hit-and-killed-by-Sheriff-in-Calabasas http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/925411-Bicyclist-hi...
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  Is there any dashcam video of the incident?
  - paulrademacher 13y ago
    It was accidentally erased during routine maintenance. We do not expect this to materially affect the ongoing investigation.
    - tptacek 13y ago
      Is that true, or the kind of dumb snarky one-line Paul Graham was talking about here: http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html
      - toomuchtodo 13y ago
        Neither article mentions it. Snark perhaps? Tragic nonetheless.
      - msutherl 13y ago
        It was a sarcastic joke, and I enjoyed it.
  - Atroxide 13y ago
    To my knowledge, the camera is only recording when the sirens are on, not 100% sure if this is true so take it with a grain of salt but I don't think there will be footage. Speculation: The dash-cam might have some type of buffer that allows for it to save the moments leading up to an officer turning on the sirens though so maybe it is saved.
alex_c 13y ago
RIP Milt. He was one of the good guys.
InclinedPlane 13y ago
People complain all the time about the subset of bikers who disobey road signs but the fact is that mistakes and negligence on the part of drivers are always far more dangerous than on the part of bikers. More so, the arrangement of "bike lanes" as well as the laws themselves typically make it very, very difficult for bikelrs to get from point A to point B without at some point either putting themselves in excessive danger or effectively violating the law. Rule makers typically just assume that bikers can either safely blend themselves into normal vehicular traffic or teleport across gaps in properly laid out bike access areas (which tend to be rare and never fully connected with each other). It's a ridiculous and unsafe situation that we've become accostomed to existing merely because it's the status quo. And then we wonder why not so many people commute by bike in most cities.
hack_edu 13y ago
How long until the stolen lives of bicyclists are treated with the same respect as pedestrians and drivers? A 'police car' hits a person, not the person driving the vehicle? The police officer's injuries detailed, yet no actual details of the accident of quotes from witnesses? Lets see if charges are pressed for this potential vehicular manslaughter... or even a criminal investigation! You know it would be if this were a pedestrian or other driver. My law-abiding friend, during a group ride in the bike lane, was struck and killed last month on Highway 1. The cops let the driver off, his illegal speeding and loss of control of his vehicle being simply 'an accident.' So, who wants to bet this cop will face charges?
- aroch 13y ago
  How long until the stolen lives of bicyclists are treated with the same respect as pedestrians and drivers? How long until bicyclists stop pretending that traffic rules don't apply to them? Or that they don't get to pick and choose when they're vehicles and when they're pedestrians -- if they're on the road, they're a vehicle? Or that, they too, have to come to a stop at a red light or stop sign? Or that they also have to respect pedestrians in crosswalks and can't just barrel through them?
  - ASpring 13y ago
    You're attempting to say that because a subset of cyclists don't obey traffic rules therefore it's okay to not treat cyclists who are killed in traffic accidents as human beings. Stunning work.
    - aroch 13y ago
      That isn't at all what I'm "attempting" to say. If the GP wants to complain about the law not being "enforced" to punish the cop perhaps they should complain about the lack of enforcement on cyclists too
      - mikeash 13y ago
        Why? Where is the rule that says you must complain about all bad things at once?
danso 13y ago
Thought of a couple recent tragic tech star fatalities: - Former Amazon CFO Joy Covey was killed by a car while bicycling in September: http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/19/joy-covey-amazon/ http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/19/joy-covey-... - Oculus Rift co-founder Andrew Reisse killed in August in the crosswalk during a police chase. Not on a bike, and not in normal traffic conditions, but tragic nonetheless: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/02/oculus-rift-co-founder-killed-as-bystander-in-police-chase/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/02/oculus-rif...
- mikeyouse 13y ago
  I don't know about tech 'star', but there was a pretty high profile employee at GroupOn killed a few months ago in Chicago traffic; - http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/20566657-418/groupon-honors-staffer-killed-in-bike-crash-with-donations-for-protected-lanes.html http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/20566657-418/groupon-hono...
epicureanideal 13y ago
And this is why I don't ride a bicycle. Despite the health and cost savings benefits, it just isn't worth putting myself mere feet from all the crazy drivers with no concern for my safety.
capedape 13y ago
Reminds me of this piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to... "We do not know of a single case of a cyclist fatality in which the driver was prosecuted, except for D.U.I. or hit-and-run,” Leah Shahum, the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, told me." Cycling is just going to get more common, at what point will the having less rights bias end? Will it take someone of David Byrne's status getting hit to actually do anything about this?
- mprovost 13y ago
  That is a great article. It's important to look at the language used by media in these cases, for example look at this local news article about the ex-Napster person's accident, the headline is: "Bicyclist dies after hitting patrol vehicle in Calabasas" which implies that the cyclist was the one who hit the police car, even though he was rear ended. "The man was riding east on the road when he crashed into a patrol car traveling in the same direction, officials said." http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/dec/08/bicyclist-dies-after-crashing-into-patrol-in/ http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/dec/08/bicyclist-dies-after-...
  - machrider 13y ago
    Wow, those quotes are awful. It looks like the article was rewritten since your comment, though.
josu 13y ago
"Authorities did not say whether the deputy was on routine patrol or responding to an emergency call" Why wouldn't they release this information?

55 points by 001sky 13y ago

I think the most disappointing part about this is that the person that was hit had to be an 'ex-napster exec' to get any notoriety. I am very sorry to hear there was an accident involving a bike and a car though, at apparently such a high speed that it broke in the window...

minimize_me 13y ago

"The impact smashed the patrol car’s windshield, leaving the deputy with cuts on his arm and glass in his eyes." Clearly the peace officer was the victim of the cyclist's irresponsible road behaviour here!

jessaustin 13y ago
Clearly the automobile was moving quite fast when it struck the cyclist. I've seen similar damage when a car struck a cow at 55mph. I'm not familiar with the street in question, but it seems likely the speed of the automobile was not anticipated by the cyclist.
- hdevalence 13y ago
  Seeing as the cyclist was in his bike lane, it's unclear why he should have had to anticipate the speed of the automobile.
  - jessaustin 13y ago
    If as it seems the cyclist was rear-ended, it isn't actually relevant whether he was in the bike lane or not. Rear-ending is illegal and dangerous, period. Speed awareness is mainly important at intersections. Away from intersections, all vehicle operators are responsible for maintaining a safe distance between their vehicle and those ahead. My original point was just that the automobile was moving quite fast. Thanks for seeking clarity!
- votingprawn 13y ago
  I'm surprised, I would have thought that hitting 3/4 of a ton of cow 55mph would do significantly more damage than we can see here.
  - jessaustin 13y ago
    Yeah, it was weird. The car went under the cow, and the cow destroyed the windshield and damaged the leading edge of the roof. The driver did not require medical attention. The cow walked off but died within two days. I'm sure in other cases the driver and cow both might have been killed immediately.
laumars 13y ago
While I don't think that was the tone intended, I too read the sentence that way.
FedRegister 13y ago
That's okay. They'll just give that poor officer paid vacation, er, suspension with pay, until the incident dies down.
- voidlogic 13y ago
  Come on, while there are plenty reckless police officers, there also plenty of reckless cyclists, we don't even know what happened. It possible the officer hit him, but it is also possible he didn't see the car, misjudged its speed or merge from a side street. Let save judgment for when we know what happened. And poor officer is right, regardless if he was at fault or not, he has a heavy burden to carry. If the officer did wrong, I will be glad to see him pay societies price for such a mistake, but until then- I'll just be blown away by the continual lack of empathy and pragmatism shown here.
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    The video states they were traveling in the same direction.
  - darkarmani 13y ago
    > Come on, while there are plenty reckless police officers, there also plenty of reckless cyclists The standard is slightly higher when you are a police officer. For example, I don't think I've ever seen police cars follow at a safe distance. It's clearly a foreseeable outcome that if the car in front needs to brake hard there will be a collision, yet people would say it is an unfortunate accident if they happen to hit the car in front of them. Driving your car under control means exactly that. Give bikers a wide berth. Slow down if it is unsafe to pass. Stop tailgating. Slow down in general.
    - voidlogic 13y ago
      >The standard is slightly higher when you are a police officer. I never said the standard wasn't higher- Also, I'm glad I don't live where you live, the police tend to drive very conservatively where I live, unless there is due cause. >Driving your car under control means exactly that. Give bikers a wide berth. Slow down if it is unsafe to pass. Stop tailgating. Slow down in general. Did the officer have his siren and lights on? Where I live cars (and bicycles) are required to pull over to allow the police car past. I assume you are not suggesting that a police car responding to an incident should should "Give bikers a wide berth. Slow down..." because that is ridiculous.
theg2 13y ago
It's a vehicle accident, do we have to turn this into a "f the police" (censored, for the kids) discussion?
- rhizome 13y ago
  Not yet, but... http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/no-charges-opd-officer-accused-hitting-homeless-ma/ncDdm/ http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/no-charges-opd-officer-a...
- sp332 13y ago
  The discussion has been going already. For example http://copsinbikelanes.tumblr.com/ http://copsinbikelanes.tumblr.com/ (those are from New York city)
martythemaniak 13y ago
A pertinent Rob Ford quote: “My heart bleeds for them when someone gets killed. But it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” Sadly, it's a very common belief, hence why he managed to get himself elected.
freehunter 13y ago
I'm surprised that the biker was able to smash the windshield hard enough to cut the driver with the glass. Windshields are laminated so they don't shatter and splinter when hit.

herbig 13y ago

As a biker in NYC, police cars are the most dangerous thing on the road for you. They roll through red lights, never use blinkers, cut you off without looking, park in bike lanes, and occasionally just drive down one way streets. All this without running their emergency lights, just as matter of everyday driving.

hnriot 13y ago
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"
dmix 13y ago
Anecdotal point: I was biking in Toronto recently and I rolled past a cyclist that was just hit by a white van. An ambulance and police car were next to it responding. I biked slowly passed the van (in a clear bike lane) and then about 20 seconds later after passing through a stop light beyond the accident, a police car flew in front of me, cut me off, and proceeded to park in the bike lane in front of me, making me break hard and go around him. You'd think while the police are responding to a bike accident call they'd temporarily give a shit about our safety.
IgorPartola 13y ago
I witnessed some pretty questionable police driving in Boston. The greater Boston area is not known for stellar road quality and there are lots of poorly designed lane merges. For example, one time I saw a state trooper zooming between lanes, cutting people off, not using his turn signals. The cruiser's lights and sirens were off. It is possible that the officer was trying to catch up to someone in moderately heavy traffic without attracting lots of attention, but turn signals are really not that hard to use. My problem with this behavior is that aside from the obvious safety issues, this sets a bad example. It tells everyone around that turn signals are optional. On an unrelated note, so many of Boston's driving problems can be fixed with paint. There are many miles of road surface where the lane markers have worn out and it is not clear where people should be driving. When it is not clear, each driver makes up their own rules, lanes, etc. What's worse, the places where the paint is most worn out are typically busy intersections or the rotaries they use so much, which leads to some of the most hectic driving conditions an unprepared driver can be thrown into. As a side note to this side note, I actually wonder how something like Google's self-driving cars would do in an environment like this. The only place where I have personally seen worse driving is in Ukraine, where despite having lanes, they are typically just ignored. For example, if there are three wide lanes at an intersection, they become five very tight actual lanes.

sologoub 13y ago

Looking at the map where that happened, that's an incredibly bad part of the road. There is a hill with very little visibility of what's in front of you as you pass it. There is a bike lane further down, but I think at the hill the road narrows and there is no bike lane or protected area. And of course people go flying through that section. Cops aren't the only offenders there, but they sure don't make it any safer.

BudVVeezer 13y ago

Was anyone else a bit put-off that it was the patrol car that killed the cyclist, and not the person driving the patrol car (as it would have been reported had it not involved an officer)?

donretag 13y ago

The cyclist was in the bike lane at the time. More info: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/12/08/bicyclist-struck-and-killed-by-sheriffs-radio-car-in-calabasas/ http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/12/08/bicyclist-struck-a... http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/925411-Bicyclist-hit-and-killed-by-Sheriff-in-Calabasas http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/925411-Bicyclist-hi...

toomuchtodo 13y ago
Is there any dashcam video of the incident?
- paulrademacher 13y ago
  It was accidentally erased during routine maintenance. We do not expect this to materially affect the ongoing investigation.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    Is that true, or the kind of dumb snarky one-line Paul Graham was talking about here: http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      Neither article mentions it. Snark perhaps? Tragic nonetheless.
    - msutherl 13y ago
      It was a sarcastic joke, and I enjoyed it.
- Atroxide 13y ago
  To my knowledge, the camera is only recording when the sirens are on, not 100% sure if this is true so take it with a grain of salt but I don't think there will be footage. Speculation: The dash-cam might have some type of buffer that allows for it to save the moments leading up to an officer turning on the sirens though so maybe it is saved.

alex_c 13y ago

RIP Milt. He was one of the good guys.

InclinedPlane 13y ago

People complain all the time about the subset of bikers who disobey road signs but the fact is that mistakes and negligence on the part of drivers are always far more dangerous than on the part of bikers. More so, the arrangement of "bike lanes" as well as the laws themselves typically make it very, very difficult for bikelrs to get from point A to point B without at some point either putting themselves in excessive danger or effectively violating the law. Rule makers typically just assume that bikers can either safely blend themselves into normal vehicular traffic or teleport across gaps in properly laid out bike access areas (which tend to be rare and never fully connected with each other). It's a ridiculous and unsafe situation that we've become accostomed to existing merely because it's the status quo. And then we wonder why not so many people commute by bike in most cities.

hack_edu 13y ago

How long until the stolen lives of bicyclists are treated with the same respect as pedestrians and drivers? A 'police car' hits a person, not the person driving the vehicle? The police officer's injuries detailed, yet no actual details of the accident of quotes from witnesses? Lets see if charges are pressed for this potential vehicular manslaughter... or even a criminal investigation! You know it would be if this were a pedestrian or other driver. My law-abiding friend, during a group ride in the bike lane, was struck and killed last month on Highway 1. The cops let the driver off, his illegal speeding and loss of control of his vehicle being simply 'an accident.' So, who wants to bet this cop will face charges?

aroch 13y ago
How long until the stolen lives of bicyclists are treated with the same respect as pedestrians and drivers? How long until bicyclists stop pretending that traffic rules don't apply to them? Or that they don't get to pick and choose when they're vehicles and when they're pedestrians -- if they're on the road, they're a vehicle? Or that, they too, have to come to a stop at a red light or stop sign? Or that they also have to respect pedestrians in crosswalks and can't just barrel through them?
- ASpring 13y ago
  You're attempting to say that because a subset of cyclists don't obey traffic rules therefore it's okay to not treat cyclists who are killed in traffic accidents as human beings. Stunning work.
  - aroch 13y ago
    That isn't at all what I'm "attempting" to say. If the GP wants to complain about the law not being "enforced" to punish the cop perhaps they should complain about the lack of enforcement on cyclists too
    - mikeash 13y ago
      Why? Where is the rule that says you must complain about all bad things at once?

danso 13y ago

Thought of a couple recent tragic tech star fatalities: - Former Amazon CFO Joy Covey was killed by a car while bicycling in September: http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/19/joy-covey-amazon/ http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2013/09/19/joy-covey-... - Oculus Rift co-founder Andrew Reisse killed in August in the crosswalk during a police chase. Not on a bike, and not in normal traffic conditions, but tragic nonetheless: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/02/oculus-rift-co-founder-killed-as-bystander-in-police-chase/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/02/oculus-rif...

mikeyouse 13y ago
I don't know about tech 'star', but there was a pretty high profile employee at GroupOn killed a few months ago in Chicago traffic; - http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/20566657-418/groupon-honors-staffer-killed-in-bike-crash-with-donations-for-protected-lanes.html http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/20566657-418/groupon-hono...

epicureanideal 13y ago

And this is why I don't ride a bicycle. Despite the health and cost savings benefits, it just isn't worth putting myself mere feet from all the crazy drivers with no concern for my safety.

capedape 13y ago

Reminds me of this piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to... "We do not know of a single case of a cyclist fatality in which the driver was prosecuted, except for D.U.I. or hit-and-run,” Leah Shahum, the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, told me." Cycling is just going to get more common, at what point will the having less rights bias end? Will it take someone of David Byrne's status getting hit to actually do anything about this?

mprovost 13y ago
That is a great article. It's important to look at the language used by media in these cases, for example look at this local news article about the ex-Napster person's accident, the headline is: "Bicyclist dies after hitting patrol vehicle in Calabasas" which implies that the cyclist was the one who hit the police car, even though he was rear ended. "The man was riding east on the road when he crashed into a patrol car traveling in the same direction, officials said." http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/dec/08/bicyclist-dies-after-crashing-into-patrol-in/ http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/dec/08/bicyclist-dies-after-...
- machrider 13y ago
  Wow, those quotes are awful. It looks like the article was rewritten since your comment, though.

josu 13y ago

"Authorities did not say whether the deputy was on routine patrol or responding to an emergency call" Why wouldn't they release this information?