jsdavis

I hate crossing this street because I'm always afraid of something like this happening. It's pretty rare that bicyclists stop at the red lights on this road regardless if pedestrians are crossing.

https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAUL1KB1PH.DTL

Chris516

I hope the pedestrian is recovering.

Seanholio

Running a red light causes a collision. I'm having a heart attack from Not Surprised.

B. Carfree

CB HI

At least the cyclist stopped, unlike so many Hit&Run motorist.

Best wishes to the pedestrian.

Commando303

Is this seriously an attempt to pick on cars? The bicyclist did the right thing by remaining at the scene, but he or she should have been vigilant going through a red light, which it's reasonable to suspect he or she wasn't being.

CB HI

It is a true statement, pull the burr out of your ass. The cyclist screwed up, knew it and hung around hopefully helping the pedestrian he/she injured and took responsibility. In many, likely most cases, motorist hitting pedestrians or cyclist just take off leaving their victim to die.

gcottay

In most cases a cyclist or MV driver stays at the scene.

exile

I know what you are trying to say CB HI. Just your choice of words gave me a chuckle . No offense intended.

CB HI

Does not seem to be the case in Hawaii. I hope that is true on the mainland.

I have been hit twice, both motorist ran. One of those motorist hit a car two weeks later and ran. A witness in the other case for the driver was a DUI driver that had run when he hit a parked car. I was a witness in a cyclist hit and run case. Most of the many pedestrian deaths in Hawaii have involved a hit and run. Cyclist killed on sidewalk, hit and run. Teenager killed on shoulder on way home from evening shift, hit and run. Newspaper photographer cyclist killed in hit and run, motorist dumped car in gulch and burned it. College fixed gear rider hit on shoulder at night, lighted like christmas tree, hit and run.

On the other side, motorist that hit mom with 2 kids in bike trailer on side path did stop. Tour bus driver the hit air force service member putting him in wheel chair did stop.

That is the ratio of my experience.



Maybe it is just fender benders that you speak of.

CB HI

No offense taken, just playing off the typical news stories - "and the driver never stopped".

Digital_Cowboy

Exactly, and uh, correct me if I'm mistaken. But wasn't there at least one case reported recently in which the hit and run driver. Not only hit a cyclist and ran, but stopped got out of his car and picked up the pieces that had come off of his car putting them into it and than drove off?

And IF I remember correctly when he was finally caught he excuse was that he didn't want his 5-year old son to see a dead body.

B. Carfree

Your ratio matches pretty closely to my experience in CA and OR and is pretty close to what gets reported in our local news. (If you don't count the ones that couldn't drive away because there weren't enough working parts left on their pick-up/SUV.)

fuji86

I could've hit an old lady that was crossing the street about a month or so back like that. Only in this situation, the light changed against her, almost immediately after she stepped off the sidewalk and into the crosswalk with her walker. A bus blocked the right most lane and everyone else couldn't see her and I couldn't see the light so I moved over a lane and came thru there nice and slow. I did see her, wasn't even a close call and I could've stopped just the same. But when the light changed, I continued thru because I knew/figured the bus wouldn't run her over and the rest of the traffic was going to have to wait until the old lady strolled thru with her walker anyway. I went thru the light as virtually an immediate turn to green and was long gone in short time.

CB HI

PS - the one cyclist I know of injuring a pedestrian in Hawaii was doing a fast downhill on the narrow local favorite climbing road. No sidewalks, pedestrian on wrong side of road, cyclist riding too fast to stop for available sight lines.

That cyclist stopped to render aid.

Dchiefransom

Kid was hit by a car in San Jose. Driver stopped.

myrridin

Your anecdotes are not significant evidence. News reports are not significant evidence. It is undoubted that the vast majority of accidents are in fact reported, usually by both parties, just check the insurance statistics.

The only thing telling about your "statements" are your prejudices. Since the same species both drives and rides bicycles, there is no reason to expect any statistical differences in their behavior...

squirtdad

No,the cyclist should have stopped at the red light. That simple. Not be vigilant. Stop.

I saw the TV new clip, his bike appeared pretty messed up, so some speed was involved. It was interesting that while the news guy talked you could easily see 4 or 5 bicylists run the red light at speed. They are using a bike lane, which does not preclude following traffic laws.

If the victim were to die, the cyclist would be facing involuntary manslaughter charges.

mnemia

Insurance statistics are not proof that the "vast majority" of "accidents" (collisions is a better word, since negligence on at least one person's fault is usually involved) are reported. I would guess that a) car-bike collisions are more likely to go unreported to insurance, that b) hit-and-run drivers have a larger incentive to not report collisions to insurance than other drivers do, and that c) hit-and-run drivers are more likely to be uninsured (due to an overall pattern of irresponsibility). I would also bet that the more serious the car-bike collision, the more likely the driver is to pull a hit and run.

I can tell you that of the two minor incidents caused by motorists that my wife and I have been involved in while riding (in both cases, a driver caused one of us to crash by severely cutting us off, but didn't actually make contact), neither motorist stopped. Both times, the motorist paused briefly, saw that we were getting up, and then gunned it to get away and escape any consequences. And neither of those incidents was reported to any kind of insurance, so they didn't get counted. I've also witnessed a pedestrian getting severely hit by a turning motorist (to the point of getting thrown up onto the hood), and the driver just took off after they saw that the person was at least semi-"okay", though they didn't stop long enough to really check on that.

I suspect many car-bike and car-pedestrian "accidents" are like that. The drivers mostly don't stick around if there isn't damage to their own car that they need to worry about getting insurance involved on (since without an insurance claim, they don't have need for a police report). Yes, these are anecdotes. But my point is that if my experience is typical, there is simply no way you can regard insurance claims statistics as a comprehensive picture of how motorists behave when they hit cyclists or pedestrians.

genec

In 2008 USA today reported a 20% increase in hit and run deaths.
https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...n-deaths_x.htm

Other areas too have seen an increase in hit and run collisions.
https://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news...-20110706-wpms

Is it possible your response is an indicator of your bias?

kevin_stevens

+1

KeS

rousseau

Really? Because that never happens when drivers of motorized vehicles kill pedestrians or cyclists. I think it should, but most often drivers get a fine and maybe lose their licences for a year.

I would love it if operators of all wheeled vehicles, motorized or not, were charged with involuntary manslaughter when they kill pedestrians or cyclists (or indeed drivers or occupants of motorized vehicles) due to careless driving/riding.

Brennan

If you can stomach it, read through the comments section following the article. A cavalcade of hatred towards all cyclists. This is the perception we have to deal with out there.

dougmc

It seems that the odds of a (car) driver staying at the scene of a collision is much higher if they hit another car than if they hit a cyclist or a pedestrian. At least from what I've heard of from friends, it seems that the odds of a motorist sticking around after hitting a cyclist is around 50%, but in my own experience with car on car collisions the odds are so far 100% sticking around. (Anecdotes, yes, but quite a few of them.)

Perhaps a lot of this is simply physics -- when cars collide, they're often smashed up enough that they're not drive-able. When a car hits a pedestrian, the car can usually drive away.

kevin_stevens

Hmm... the first responses are all of the tone "bicycles should be obeying the traffic laws and stopping at the stop signs".

Then you get:

And you're surprised that things deteriorate from there? I'm at the point where I pretty much hate all cyclists, too. And I am one.

KeS