Not the way to be starting the weekend, but I’m just reading that a cyclist was killed late yesterday afternoon. My deepest condolences to his family for their loss.
One bicyclist was killed and another was injured Friday afternoon in a collision with a dump truck in the city’s Eastlake neighborhood.
Two men in their 20s were apparently riding north on Eastlake Avenue toward the University Bridge when a dump truck making a right turn onto Fuhrman Avenue East crashed into both of them around 3 p.m.
Police said the two men got pinned under the dump truck and were dragged for several feet.
Additional coverage from the Seattle PI , NW Cable news, and King 5
update:
The cyclist has been identified as a 19 year old from Colorado.
The driver turned into Lewis and another bicyclist, they added. The second rider, a 19-year-old man, suffered minor cuts and abrasions.
The bike riders recently had moved from Colorado, a Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman has said. They were not wearing helmets, she added.
Seattle police did not cite the truck driver.
6 responses so far ↓
1 lbj // Sep 8, 2007 at 6:06 am
Found this from a Seattle area bike forum and thought it was well put.
“Always, always ride like the cars don’t see you - because they usually don’t and the real laws - the laws of physics - are firmly on their side.
Bombing down the side of the road is fun and it gets you to your destination a couple minutes faster but never forget that if you’re outpacing your stopping power for the unexpected, you’re gonna be the one with a busted ride/in physical therapy/rolling in a chair/pushing up daisies with a stepladder and the car is going to have a small dent.
Yes, it’s not fair and I wish the drivers would be more careful but that’s not going to change overnight. Until then at least consider getting your start-on a couple minutes earlier and getting to the end in one piece.”
2 Davey Oil // Sep 8, 2007 at 11:53 pm
where was this forum post originally posted, lbj?
I gotta say I am disturbed how many times I’ve read/heard this line from people since friday’s tragic killing. None of us have any way of knowing if the cyclists overtook the truck on it’s right or if the truck overtook them and then made it’s right hook into them. I really wish people would try to hold off on this blame tossing for a little bit after accidents like this.
3 ted // Sep 9, 2007 at 8:55 am
does anyone know of any plans for a memorial ride/gathering? if so, can you please post? thx.
4 Raindog // Sep 9, 2007 at 10:54 am
According to the Seattle P-I article, the driver of the truck was not cited. Not cited for KILLING someone. Even an accidental fender-bender usually results in one driver or another being cited, but you can run over cyclists in this city without recourse. No surprise, though. It’s only because I don’t trust any drivers, particularly those in trucks and SUVs, that I’m not dead already.
Also, isn’t there a bike lane on Northbound Eastlake at Fuhrman? I’m almost certain there is, which means that unless the cyclists ran the red light, they were hit by a truck making a right-turn into traffic without looking at the bike lane. I support more bike lanes in Seattle, but what do we do about drivers ignoring the ones we already have?
5 Linda Lane // Sep 9, 2007 at 2:41 pm
We campagne to make the city saver and drivers more aware.
The articles say a dump truck driver - and where was he from?
Many years ago as a kid of 13 I organized with the help of my parent, and two friends to plan an alternative location for an addition to Orah Dee Clark Jr. High School in Anchorage. This year they finally built it.
Why so long? Not only did we show them 10 other possible sites but showed what the city planner had not. What the real expenses were for building an elementary school next to the jr high school, including the costs for crossing guards on a major highway, and the cost of the overpass/bridge.
The city fired the planner.
The focus for city planning in transportation here has been to do nothing to get people to use public transportation.
I rode the buses for 12 years including Seattle to Microsoft, which used to be a 2 hour trip - 4 hours round trip and if you missed it - too bad - more hours.
If there are only 2% of trips done by bike, planning needs to show what an impact having reserved lanes and or streets will mean in every way to this city.
For example I love to bike downtown to work - but let’s face it = traveling down 5th avenue is just asking for trouble.
We need to organize, collect information, state it clearly, get people and money to back it, then build or paint in lanes and get more people to ride. It really helps to work locally.
I am so sorry to hear of this death.
6 Jose Duran Jr. // Sep 10, 2007 at 12:45 pm
For memorial bike ride info visit -
http://www.point83.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4480
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