vespasianus

Your post if funny - but also really all wrong. You are confusing HIV and AIDS - not to mention SARS-CoV2 and COVID. And you are wrong about SARS-C0V2 as well.

JoeyBike

Ok. Where is your correction? I'm willing to learn. I have quite a bit of microbiology under my belt so you can use big words and technical terms if you want.

wgscott

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19 (COronoVirus Disease 2019). The virus itself is what kills people in that it is the over-active immune response and other physiological responses to the presence of the replicating virus that causes blood clots, organ failure, respiratory failure, viral pneumonia, etc.

HIV (Human Immuno-deficiency Virus) depletes helper T-cells and creates an environment in which other infectious diseases can thrive and kill the infected individual. That condition, AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome), describes the collection of symptoms that are primarily caused by these other infectious agents. So it is in fact the syndrome that causes people to die. This is very clearly the case, because with a cocktail of reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors that prevent the virus from replicating but do not actually clear the patient of the virus, these HIV infected people can lead comparatively normal lives.

wgscott

This is the key point. Glare of the sun, especially with a dirty windshield (inside or outside), makes the problem much worse than if you were driving into the sun with no glass in between you and the cyclist you are about to splatter.

wgscott

Focus on the meth.

CliffordK

It is important as cyclists to consider what we can do better with our interactions around vehicles 100x our size. And that is part of the discussion here.

Yes, for prosecuting. One might allow small amounts of amphetamines or Ritalin to slide, perhaps revoking the CDL, and prohibiting driving any commercial vehicles. But, this guy apparently was tested with large amounts of Meth, and was likely injecting.

He claims to have used the day before, and may have been coming down off of a binge which would likely be the worst time to be on the road. Although, at this point we also don't know whether he is lying.

He may not see the light of day for many years.

rydabent

My trike and I weigh 220 pounds. I for one DO NOT argue with 4000 pound cars.

JoeyBike

Thanks

Paul Barnard

I drove from MS to LA late this afternoon. That section of I-10 runs east/west. At no time from 45 minutes before sunset to sunset would I have had any trouble seeing a cyclist ahead. My windshield was very dirty and the sun was anywhere from dead ahead to 10 degrees left of dead ahead. I placed the camera at the same height as my eyes. In other words, the camera fairly accurately depicts what I could see. I'd rate my vision as slightly better than each photo shows.

45 minutes before sunset.




30 minutes before sunset



15 minutes before sunset





So tell me where on the road a cyclist could be where the sun would obscure my ability to see them?

Paul Barnard

This photo was about 20 minutes before sunset. This photo is the one where the sun was closest to dead ahead.

CliffordK

I hope that isn't driving from Mississippi to Los Angeles in an afternoon.

I can't discern the difference between your 30 min and 15 min photos. Same 3 vehicles ahead, from both directions?

Nonetheless, your first 3 photos prove your point that a cyclist that would be along the left shoulder would be difficult to see along the entire length of the shoulder. Of course in those photos the sun is more to the left.

And in the last photo, the right shoulder begins to wash out. There is a merge sign pole in the last photo that is difficult to see clearly. Likewise, a bicycle 100 feet in front of that merge sign might be invisible.

I can see the visor down in most of the photos.

As the sun descends further, it is possible it could become worse.

Also note the tree line that can give a significant benefit. It may well be different in places without a tree line.

The middle of your windshield looks clean as if it has recently rained. It is possible that parts of the Southwest haven't had significant rain for some time.

Paul Barnard

This is the 30 minute photo. I grabbed the wrong one previously.

Paul Barnard

My windshild has a nasty layer of film on the inside. It's dirty.

Imagine a bicycle anywhere on the road where cars drive. Where on the road would it be that would make it difficult for you to see? Maybe make a mark so that I can understand.

The visor is down in all the photos. That's what visors are for,

JoeyBike

Notice the sun itself, then the glare off the tarmac, then the direct sunlight reflected off the near edge of your hood (or bonnet), then on the glass. If you pulled the visor down enough to cover the actual sun, which is what most people do, This leaves about 80 ft of visibility with three sources of reflected light still in the driver's eyes. 75 mph (no one drives the limit of course) but 75mph = 110 feet per second. Literally one second to see an object in the lane ahead, process this through the brain, determine that object is basically stationary, move a foot off the accelerator, move to the brake, apply the brake, then give the car time to actually stop. This is IF the driver notices the object the INSTANT it pops into view and has the reaction time of a stunt man.

See? (I adjusted your visor to hide the sun itself). It's just not that complicated. People mess up all the time.

BLAMO!

(I estimated the distance by standard stripe length = 10 feet, and the distance between stripes at 20 feet, which looks about right compared to the stripes)

mr_bill

According to Jordan Alexander Barson, this was his view:



(High levels of meth may have altered his recollection.)

Please, please, why is the apologist still here?

Delete your account. “BLAMO!”

-mr. bill

Korina

I call that "letting the wookie win".

Paul Barnard

Your lack of driving experience is showing. It is substantially more than 80 feet to the truck ahead. How do you know how most people adjust their visors? I can honestly say that I have no idea how anyone else adjusts their visors. The bottom line is that neither of us know. I would assume most would adjust it so that the bottom edge of the visor is just below the sun, allowing a maximum field of view/sight distance. If most people are running the interstate into a rising or setting sun with an 80 foot line of sight, I think the accident rate would be higher than it is. Even with the number of idiot drivers out there, my instincts tell me they are not limiting their field of view anywhere near that much.

Touching on your first comment about 3 sources of reflected light. Well, mark a place on the road where a bicyclist would be where you couldn't see them. The presence of a reflection doesn't render them invisible. If a cyclist was right where the reflection is on the road, they'd still be visible.

The bottom line that driving into the last 45 minutes of a setting sun with a dirty windshield did NOT obscure my view of the road in a manner that would impair my ability to see a bicyclist. A driver that says "I didn't see them because of the sun" is lying. If they didn't see the cyclist, it is because they can't drive worth a crap or weren't paying attention. The sun is an excuse, not a reason.

A wet dirty windshield going into the first or last 30 minutes can be an issue. But the conditions that find a windshield wet while the sun is out is largely limited to the first few minutes a driver is heading into a sunrise.

Edited to add: Your default mindset on these accidents, if the sun is anywhere from 3-4 hours from rising or setting, is to suggest the sun was likely in the drivers eye. If "most" drivers adjust the visor to give themselves an 80 foot long sight distance, then wouldn't it be more accurate to suggest that the driver likely had the visor adjusted incorrectly rather than the sun was in their eyes?