Video starts at :48; cyclist comes into view at :50 and is hit at :53 and the crash comes to a complete stop at :58
Observations:
a) Looking at the angles, it is possible the cyclist was behind the A-pillar for a critical part of the 3-seconds.
b) Three seconds is not a lot of time. Reaction time is variable but say 1-1.5 seconds.
c) Very hard to understand why motorist did not stop sooner. The vision and sound directly in front of the motorist should have generated a reaction. A stop time of 5 seconds is more consistent with 50 mph, and the motorist clearly wasn't driving that fast.
I'm interested in what lessons I can take away from this crash. "Whose fault is it?" may be of interest to lawyers and insurance companies but a hit cyclist hurts a lot more than the downside of a dented fender. Bad subsequent behavior is what it is.
So takeaways:
1) Those pesky A-pillars can block a motorist's view of me. My spine should tingle when I'm at that angle...
2) I often succumb to the "there's no one around" logic to relax my situational awareness when I'm on the road. That's really only valid when there are no vision blockers .. and most of the time, there are vision blockers..
I grouse a bit about the "blame game" because all of us on the road need to do what we can to put lots of slices of swiss cheese in the way of an injury. In this particular case, at a school, we ask people to drive slower because children are less aware.