Originally Posted by
rumrunn6
cement trucks around here drive above the speed limit. they have no chance of stopping in an emergency. we need a law enforcement crackdown on them
Reaction and stopping distances are indeed a fact - for everyone.
The one thing actually and clearly knowable here from the available video is that the cyclist was unfortunately riding a sidewalk at an unsafely vehicular speed and on the unexpected side of the road for their direction of travel. They would have been no more able to respond to a pedestrian than they were to the truck, the attempt at which had them already spilling off the bike before making contact.
Bicycling on the sidewalk is illegal in NYC. If one is going to do it anyway and claim that it is safer than the roadway, for that to be true it has to be ridden with slow caution and extreme awareness, not as if it were a reserved travel lane. Vehicles rarely manage to kill fit aware pedestrians when loudly approaching with clear momentum, most pedestrian deaths at intersections occur when vehicles turn from an unexpected direction.