1955

I work at an archery shop in Fountain Valley...on Brookhurst St. and...well, it's yesterday now, but at about 5:30 in the evening, a bike rider was killed right in front of the shop. He was hit by a newer VW Bug, and he laid in the street for a couple of hours waiting for the coroner...I guess. I haven't ridden much in the last year or so, but still consider myself a bike rider. It was horrible to walk out of our shop this evening to see the carnage and the poor guy covered up with a tarp in the middle of the street. I guess that I'm just venting because I can't sleep...I can't get that image out of my head. I didn't go out to look at the accident, but so see if there was a way out of the parking lot since it was completely taped off and there were fire trucks and police everywhere. We were kind of trapped in the lot. I just didn't realize that he was so close...one glance and I was frozen.

So, I apologize in advance for my comments. I haven't even looked at BF for a year or so, but I didn't know where to go and vent. My daughter rides her bike to and from school and I die a little waiting for her phone call to hear that she's OK. I know that there's not a lot of Christians on here, but the only thing I can do is to pray for the family and friends of the person that passed away yesterday.

I've seen nothing on the internet about it, and will look at the OC Register tomorrow to find out the details. The place where it happened is extremely dark at night, very dangerous and accidents happen there all the time. There's lots of traffic (Brookhurst St is a major thoroughfare) and every time you turn left into or out of the lot, you're taking your life in your hands. But this is the worst I can remember.

I doubt that you could have enough lights on your bike on a street like this one, especially with NO bike lane.

So, all you dedicated bikers out there, please be careful. No family should ever have to go through what this guys family is going through tonight.

Ralph

kleinboogie

That's horrible. It may take awhile for the imagery fade. You can do something positive to counteract the tragedy such as:

• Write your city council representative and ask for better lighting or reduced speeds.
• Contact businesses along the road to sign a petition to get the city to do something like make a bike lane.
• Ask your boss if he can install a light to better light up the road, if that's appropriate and effective.
• Erect a small memorial like flowers with a sign in the cyclists honor. That can have an affect on drivers to slow down.
• A sign for people to be careful or watch for cyclists might help.

I understand about worrying about your daughter. I worry about mine at times. That's because we care. All we can do is help them be ready for the world. My wife calls us home base. I always took that to mean we were the safety zone and a measure of how well that's working is how far our daughter feels safe in being away from it. The affect of that of course is we have to trust them to make good decisions. Since yours is riding to school and back you must be doing a good job.

All the best.

JonnyHK 

Not fun - even as a 'by-stander'. Glad you chose to vent/release/whatever instead of keeping it bottled up.

I hear lots of scary stories from my sister (an ambulance paramedic) all the time.

A couple of times a year I get on my local bike forums to 'play dad' and chastise a few of the local riders for training with no (or cruddy) lights. *sighs*
You can only do so much.

Chin up. Deep breath.

jogya03

Sad story, thanks for remind us Ralph, sometimes we dont realize how close we were...

knowledgdropper

Here's the oc register link, for those interested.

tuxbailey

It is tragic. If this happens in a crosswalk then the driver has to be at fault; otherwise I wouldn't blame the driver unless she was driving real fast.

carpediemracing 

I never thought of the effect of seeing something like that. Sorry to hear about the traumatic experience. Horrible. Obviously I'm not an EMT or anything - what you experienced is just as foreign to me as it was to you.

cdr

merlinextraligh

It's unfortunate that this man died. It's unfortunate when anyoe dies prematurely.

That said, this appears to be a classic example of the type of incidents that predominate Bike fatality statistics, and why riding a bike if less dangerous than you think if you obey traffic rules, and don't do stupid things like riding at night without lights.

You don't know who had the right of way, but we do know that the guy was walking or pedaling his bike across traffic, without any lights. Not a smart thing to do, regardless of the right of way.

Flash

My prayers are with the family.

Your presentation of the incident is really well done -- in the sense that I can see how this must have shaken you up. No melodrama, you just told it straight and it is chilling to read.

popeye

WUT? You came to this conclusion on what evidence. I have had two women
in the bike lane in the last week on cell phones in the OC. One ran me up against
the curb.

merlinextraligh

Based on being dark, and the Man having no lights. Based on the fact that he was crossing a road without a traffic light, or street lights, and having no lights himself. https://www.ocregister.com/news/mcnef...rookhurst.html

You don't have enough information to determine whether the driver bears any responsibilty. But we do have enough information to know that the man pushing, or riding his bike across the road in front of oncoming traffic in that situation was doing something very dangerous and very stupid.

pallen

Not that this makes him any less human, but the homeless are generally not the most educated on bike safety and are often seen around here going the wrong way, on sidewalks, rarely with lights or helmets, etc. Nonetheless, its a sad day when anyone dies like this.

charliekeri

karma

Carbon Unit

I agree. It bothers me anytime I hear about a cyclist being killed but there are precautions people can take to reduce their risk of being hit and based on the OC Register article, the cyclist took chances that an experienced cyclist shouldn't have taken.

If you ride after dark, you need lights.

If you are crossing a street in heavy traffic, you cross when traffic is stopped or there is no traffic.

You avoid streets with narrow shoulders where the cars can clip the cyclist.

With that said, there are no guarantees. You can still do everything right and get hit and I think about that every time I ride.

OldPilot

You will be in my prayers as well as the family of this man...there are more Christians on BF than you think...Trust in God's love.

wfrogge

Why go there?

1955

I work 150 feet from where the body lay...there is NO crosswalk. In fact, I never make a left turn out of out lot onto Brookhurst St...EVER! I go through the parking lot behind the other businesses to get home.

10 Wheels

Read what is written at the top of every penny.

techlogik

I was sympathetic, until I read this part "Police have not released the man's name but say he is a registered sex offender who listed his address as "transient."

I hardly think of this guy as a "cyclist" in the sense most of us are. Sounds like some transient, maybe drunken dude crossing the road at night/dusk and got hit. They don't even know if he was riding his bike, or walking with it.

sbxx1985 

Whatever.

sbxx1985 

Hang in there.

tagaproject6

If you are in Hong Kong, big brother or "second uncle"is still the norm, yes?

It is sad to see accidents that causes the extinguishing of life. That image is not an easy thing to remove from your psyche.

surgeonstone

Who knows the demons this man dealt with but calling him a cyclist is like calling me a runner.
Merlin Xlight has it right. This is the kind of reporting that scares people away from a very safe sport. I have a friend who will not ride on the road, she is scared of being offed by some texting imbecile. She is a very fit lady who does all of her cycling in a spin class. A shame. So I tell her to log onto Bike Forums and check out some of the threads on safety. Big mistake as this is the first thing she see's. " I think I'll stay in the spin classes"
There are cyclists and there are people who ride bicycles. They are not always the same.

dahut

The Army surgeon struck last October here in Augusta, GA died last week. It was big news when it happened and the story has stayed fresh for the fact that he was a military officer. Served in the Mid East, family and now after months in the hospital, he has passed.
Several other guys were hit with him, but they survived.

The driver was charged with negligent vehicular homicide.

It's a bad thing all around.

MegaTom

^ ass ^