Cyclist killed

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-09-13 06:50pm

Fucking shitstain never stopped Asshole in white truck ran over the head of a cyclist on the intersection of St Denis street and DeCastelneau,police are still searching for an unmarked truck.

Advocate · Post by **Advocate** » 2003-09-13 06:55pm

Is there an English version of that link? I don't read French.

In any case, people like that are what makes me believe in capital punishment.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-13 07:20pm

Oh, I wanted to add we have case making the news here in our area. An 18 year old girl on her way to class ran over two children. She killed the 6 year old and seriously wounded a 10 year old. She drug the 6 year old's bike down the street. She never stopped. She went to her BF's house to get him then went to class.

She is only getting a 1 year jail term followed by 1,000 hours of community service. The big stink is the girl still does not seem to comprehend she actually killed somone. Im not sure if she is all fucked up emotionally or just a very jaded young women.

Anyway, it makes me angry she got off so light. If it was up to me she would serve 5 years in jail. Banned from driving for life, and 5,000 hours of community service. She destroyed a child, she destroyed a family, and she seems more upset about gettting caught that actually making amends.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-09-13 07:32pm

Nothing on the english news site yet i`ll have to wait for them to wake up later tonight, and TPJ that is one fucked-up bitch.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-09-13 07:45pm

There was an even worse case in Idaho. A cop who was giving out a speeding ticket was struck and killed by a reckless driver. The person responsible never stopped and kept on going. A massive manhunt was begun to try and find out who did it, but nothing every came of it. Then an anomymous letter was recieved by the police from the person responsible saying they were sorry, but they feel they did nothing wrong and refused to turn himself in. I can't fucking believe someone like that won't live up to their fucking responsibility.

Kintaro · Post by **Kintaro** » 2003-09-13 07:48pm

TrailerParkJawa wrote:Oh, I wanted to add we have case making the news here in our area. An 18 year old girl on her way to class ran over two children. She killed the 6 year old and seriously wounded a 10 year old. She drug the 6 year old's bike down the street. She never stopped. She went to her BF's house to get him then went to class.

She is only getting a 1 year jail term followed by 1,000 hours of community service. The big stink is the girl still does not seem to comprehend she actually killed somone. Im not sure if she is all fucked up emotionally or just a very jaded young women.

Anyway, it makes me angry she got off so light. If it was up to me she would serve 5 years in jail. Banned from driving for life, and 5,000 hours of community service. She destroyed a child, she destroyed a family, and she seems more upset about gettting caught that actually making amends.

What the Goddamn Hell? What kind of fecal matter made her sentence? If that were my kid she killed...

Advocate · Post by **Advocate** » 2003-09-13 07:51pm

Alyeska wrote:There was an even worse case in Idaho. A cop who was giving out a speeding ticket was struck and killed by a reckless driver. The person responsible never stopped and kept on going. A massive manhunt was begun to try and find out who did it, but nothing every came of it. Then an anomymous letter was recieved by the police from the person responsible saying they were sorry, but they feel they did nothing wrong and refused to turn himself in. I can't fucking believe someone like that won't live up to their fucking responsibility.

Isn't that an oxymoron? How the hell does one "feel sorry" yet feels that they "did nothing wrong"?! Idiot.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2003-09-13 08:45pm

What? Only one year for vehicular manslaughter? That's absurd.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-09-13 09:41pm

Judicial sentencing is predicated upon the "it could have been me" syndrome.

Simply put, if a judge thinks it might have been him, then he will give a slap on the wrist. If the judge is a shitty driver, he might think "hell, I might have done that", and give the girl a slap on the wrist. That's why certain judges are extremely lax on DUI; read between the lines and it's pretty obvious that the judges themselves are regular "social drinkers".

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-09-13 09:52pm

Advocate wrote:Is there an English version of that link? I don't read French.

In any case, people like that are what makes me believe in capital punishment.

Here's a combination of machine translation and my own French knowledge. Some nuances may be lost, but it should work well enough:

A cyclist of about thirty years lost his life when he was hit by a truck in the Villeray district, towards 9:00 this morning.

The vehicle left the scene of the accident after the impact, which is always forbidden.

The accident occurred with the intersection St-Denis and Castelneau. The truck, which is white and without inscription, carried out a turn on the right, thus hitting the cyclist who died instantly.

The line starting with "the vehicle" is the loosest translation (the grammar there is a touch odd in the French, perhaps a Quebecois or modern lingual shift, since I only know formal French). It should all be accurate, though.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-09-13 10:04pm

One of my store's customers is a quadraplegic thanks to some asshole driver. The driver made a turn without looking and sent customer flying headfirst into the ground breaking his neck. The fucker didn't even go to jail when he got caught.

A friend of our store is dead thanks to another driver. He was biking home from a race when a car just ran him over. The driver was never found and the case remains unsolved to this day.

And myself, I lost a year of my life when some asshole made a right turn from the left lane on the road. I ended up in a coma for a few days and was in a complete haze for month, and it cost me an entire school year. 2 years later and I'm still not 100%.

My GF was almost hit by a car and I was that close to chasing the chasing the car down and beating the shit out of the asshole driver.

These drivers should be doing serious fucking jailtime, as should the fuckers who run over pedestrians. I really have no sympathy for them.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-09-13 11:35pm

This is why I never bike on the road. It is also why I tell my kids to stay off the street and ride on the sidewalk. Yeah, I know, bikes are supposed to stay off the sidewalk. Well, blow me. Nobody's going to get killed by a collision with a 7 year old kid's bike, but lives can and will be lost by forcing cyclists onto the road.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2003-09-13 11:39pm

Darth Wong wrote:This is why I never bike on the road. It is also why I tell my kids to stay off the street and ride on the sidewalk. Yeah, I know, bikes are supposed to stay off the sidewalk. Well, blow me. Nobody's going to get killed by a collision with a 7 year old kid's bike, but lives can and will be lost by forcing cyclists onto the road.

You can't bike on sidewalks??

I never ehard of that...so far as I know, people around here can (or at the least if they can't, people disregard it en masse).

Lord of the Farce · Post by **Lord of the Farce** » 2003-09-13 11:43pm

As far as I know, in Australia it should be ok for 7 year olds to ride their bikes on the side walk (I think it's alright for up to 12 year olds, though I can't recall the actual rules). I think it's probably similar in Canada.

*shrug*

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-09-13 11:44pm

Actually any bike with 24" diameter or smaller wheels are legally allowed to use the sidewalks in Canada. This means all kid's bikes can and should use the sidewalk, and if you're biking with your kids go right ahead and ride on the sidewalk with them, no one's going to complain or arrest you for it. Just make sure you have bells on your bikes since cops like to write that one up when stopping cyclists. No bell? That's a $90 fine.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-09-13 11:50pm

I used to ride a bike but i quit 12 years ago after i busted the front wheel,thanks to the fuckhead who pushed me off the road.

Shaka[Zulu] · Post by **Shaka[Zulu]** » 2003-09-14 12:07am

Darth Wong wrote:This is why I never bike on the road. It is also why I tell my kids to stay off the street and ride on the sidewalk. Yeah, I know, bikes are supposed to stay off the sidewalk. Well, blow me. Nobody's going to get killed by a collision with a 7 year old kid's bike, but lives can and will be lost by forcing cyclists onto the road.

actually Mike, Living in S. Florida as I do, I can testify to the the fact that this place is one of the (if not the) worst places for cyclists in the USA as far as safety is concerned. However, I do remember a study being done a few years ago, which took stock of all the bicycle vs car accidents in the state... it turns out that at least for the period from '92 to'96 something like 95% of all bicyclist fatalities occured because the cyclist was operating their vehicle contrary to the rules of the road -- riding against the flow of traffic, riding on sidewalks (this especially, as cars coming out of driveways well, you get the picture), ignoring traffic signs and lights and cyclist or car driver DUI were the principal culprits. Come to think of it, people with suspended or revoked liscences due to DUI convictions who switched to biking while continuing to drink made up a substantial percentage of the fatalities.

I understand that these facts are cold comfort to those who have suffered injury or worse due to incidents between cars and bikes, but I for one am a firm believer that bicycles *must* be held to the same rules as motor vehicles such as mopeds and scooters ie THE RULES OF THE ROAD that apply to cars. you dont see mopeds or vespa scooters running on sidewalks now do you?

Nova Andromeda · Post by **Nova Andromeda** » 2003-09-14 12:33am

--Personally, I never ride on the street if I can possibly avoid it (no I've never hit anyone and yes I go slow or stop if there are pedestrians). In addition, I try to ride such that a car cannot possibly hit me even if they tried. This is of course not always possible, but it has probably cut down on my risk. Of the people I know that ride bikes regularly at least half of them have been hit by a car (no shit!).
-I'm also dubious about using lights at night. It complicates predicting how a vehicle will react and I'm not really concerned about the drivers that are paying attention anyhow. I'm more concerned about drunken, tired, drugged, etc. drivers and I've heard that at least some of them use the rear tail lights of other cars to guide them...

Nova Andromeda · Post by **Nova Andromeda** » 2003-09-14 12:44am

Shaka[Zulu] wrote:actually Mike, Living in S. Florida as I do, I can testify to the the fact that this place is one of the (if not the) worst places for cyclists in the USA as far as safety is concerned. However, I do remember a study being done a few years ago, which took stock of all the bicycle vs car accidents in the state... it turns out that at least for the period from '92 to'96 something like 95% of all bicyclist fatalities occured because the cyclist was operating their vehicle contrary to the rules of the road -- riding against the flow of traffic, riding on sidewalks (this especially, as cars coming out of driveways well, you get the picture), ignoring traffic signs and lights and cyclist or car driver DUI were the principal culprits. Come to think of it, people with suspended or revoked liscences due to DUI convictions who switched to biking while continuing to drink made up a substantial percentage of the fatalities.

I understand that these facts are cold comfort to those who have suffered injury or worse due to incidents between cars and bikes, but I for one am a firm believer that bicycles *must* be held to the same rules as motor vehicles such as mopeds and scooters ie THE RULES OF THE ROAD that apply to cars. you dont see mopeds or vespa scooters running on sidewalks now do you?

--I'd like to see that study.
-What makes you think a bicycle is comparable to a motor scooter? Do you think people are powered by gas, weighs 350+ lbs, and the average bicycle rider can go tens of miles per hour easily over many miles and up hill? That is utter nonsense. If you are going over 15 mph, you probably have to use the road simply to avoid problems with unlevel sidewalks and sharp turns anyhow.

The Dark · Post by **The Dark** » 2003-09-14 12:56am

RogueIce wrote: You can't bike on sidewalks??

I never ehard of that...so far as I know, people around here can (or at the least if they can't, people disregard it en masse).

I believe it is technically illegal in Florida...of course, so is every position except missionary, but that doesn't stop anyone either.

Shaka[Zulu] · Post by **Shaka[Zulu]** » 2003-09-14 01:36am

Nova Andromeda wrote: --I'd like to see that study.
-What makes you think a bicycle is comparable to a motor scooter? Do you think people are powered by gas, weighs 350+ lbs, and the average bicycle rider can go tens of miles per hour easily over many miles and up hill? That is utter nonsense. If you are going over 15 mph, you probably have to use the road simply to avoid problems with unlevel sidewalks and sharp turns anyhow.

well, here is one:

http://www.wright.edu/~jeffrey.hiles/es ... /home.html

and another... go down to statistics for " Circumstances of police reported car-bicycle collisions, 1998"

http://tomrevay.tripod.com/projects/Mas ... buttal.htm

unfortunately, neither site really deals much with florida specifically, but I can tell you as a driver down here (my work requires that I drive ALOT... It isn't uncommon for me to out 3-4000 miles on my suv in a single month) that I see a great many bike riders engaging in incredibly stupid behavior on a shockingly regular basis, most common are those who ride against the flow, on the sidewalk, and cross 4 lanes of traffic whenever they seem to feel like it., without so much as looking for traffic. Kojikun could probably confirm my observation, as he lives down here too.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-09-14 02:16am

Darth Wong wrote:This is why I never bike on the road. It is also why I tell my kids to stay off the street and ride on the sidewalk. Yeah, I know, bikes are supposed to stay off the sidewalk. Well, blow me. Nobody's going to get killed by a collision with a 7 year old kid's bike, but lives can and will be lost by forcing cyclists onto the road.

Mike, you speak right. I have NEVER fucking ridden a bike on the
street - always on sidewalk, and I'm still here.

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-09-14 02:47am

The only time I ride my bike in the street is when it's mostly clear of traffic. If the traffic gets heavy, or there are a lot of cars parked to the side, I'll ride on the sidewalk.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-14 02:53am

Just in case anyone is interested, here is a link to today's paper concerning the accident I told you about this morning.

San Jose Mercury

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2003-09-14 12:45pm

Riding on sidewalks isn't practical for me since I'd be dodging pedestrians, running kids, and parked cars. I'll actually run a greater risk of getting whacked by some guy backing out of his driveway since lots of people have hedges in my area so I can't see the cars and they can't see me. I'll be limited to a speed about 10km/h slower than if I rode on the road. In any case, I don't like biking on the road much, I have a mountain bike, it's meant for use on off-road trails.