detroitjim

Hopefully this injustice will be rectified.
Seems obvious that the CIS investigator needs some measure of sanctioning.

A Queens teenager(Mario Valenzuela) who was run down and killed by a truck driver in 2019 did not cause his own death as the NYPD claimed, and the trucker should have been held responsible for fatally striking the cyclist, a lawyer for the victim’s family, citing a shoddy, victim-blaming investigation by cops.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2020/11/...#disqus_thread

GamblerGORD53

Or not ..... I blame the cyclist too. He overtook the truck.

mr_bill

Of course you do.

-mr. bill

Steve B.

Agreed,

Is the truck partly at fault ?. Yes, no turn signal, so the kid had no way to know the truck was turning. Truck moved left, which kind of signals a left turn, but likely an experienced cyclist who also drives would recognize that the truck was positioning to swing right.

But the cyclists overtook the truck in the trucks blind spot, not a good place to be.

Notso_fastLane

Something bicyclists need to keep in mind in situations where there is a lot of traffic and you are moving along the rightside where you may catch up.

Drivers have a very short memory. They passed you, as far as they are concerned, you are now 'behind' them, forever and ever, amen. This is even more true these days, where they are often pulling out their phones and texting, reading FB...whatever. Their mind isn't on the 'job' of driving.

I had an incident a few days ago driving. I was towing my small flatbed motorcycle trailer, with nothing on it (going to the shop to pick up my race bike). A lady in a full size pickup stopped behind me at a light. A few moments later, she looked up (I think she was on her phone) realized how far back from me she was, and started pulling forward....right into the back of my trailer.....twice.

The second time, I saw her sit up and look down and over the hood of the truck to see what she hit. Luckily, she 1) pulled over when I did, and 2) didn't hit anything hard enough to break it.

So yeah, people are dumb and inattentive. You might have the right of way, but you can be right, and still be dead.

CB HI

No turn signal, all the cars made the same move as the truck for thier left turn (including a cop car), truck had two convex mirrors for a reason (seemingly not used by the driver), speed too high for the preparation of a right turn, and then a very hard cut right initiating the turn (look how much the truck heeled left). How many watched the second video linked in the article?

Extemely harsh blaming the cyclist on this one.

https://vimeo.com/473450398

SClaraPokeman

I've watched the video a few times and it's unclear to me whether the truck making the left turn actually passed the cyclist so that he would have been aware of his presence on the road. Nosofast is right: a lot of motorists think that once you pass a bicyclist they are something you can completely forget about. If the truck clearly saw and was aware of the cyclist and still make an abrupt RH turn, his action was clearly criminally negligent. If he was unaware there was a cyclist around him, it's harder to say.

My impression from the video is that this cyclist was more than keeping up with the auto traffic. What speed would this had been--25mph, more? Is this somewhat downhill?

If I was cycling fast enough to keep up with motor traffic I'd just take the lane. It's safer to potentially upset a hot-headed driver than to end up in a truck's blind spot.

Of course the official report will blame the cyclist. That's their default. Unless you're clearly drunk and caught red-handed--the authorities will almost always see it the driver's way. If you are drunk and hit a cyclist, you'd be well advised to run and sleep it off and then go to the police the next day (sober) and say you were you thought you hit a deer or something, and you'll still probably be okay.

This is really sad. I do think that obviously the biker made a mistake in putting himself where he was, but the driver was really sloppy and probably didn't really give a damn how he drove. What do you expect--Ivy league from these guys?

Notso_fastLane

AGreed. I'm not blaming the cyclist. I am saying, though, that one has to be aware of the average driver, and just how bad they are.

rydabent

When a driver hits a cyclist, his lawyer will use any excuse to blame the cyclist.

That is why I recommend blunting the obvious reasons the drivers lawyer will use. Wear a helmet, and if on a trike have lights and flags. And also wear a very bright jersey or T-shirt. Those 3 or 4 things are ALWAYS used against a cyclist if not used.

79pmooney

That video was tough to watch. The driver certainly saw a bunch of cyclist that he had just passed, so not looking for them doesn't fly as good driving. No turn signals? Professional truck driver - flunk.

That said, I've known since I was 12 that if I ever saw that view of a truck, it was my last moments on earth. (From my best friend's dad who was a hardcore cyclist, 20 mile round trip commute through Boston, club rider, owned an Allegro.) 50 years later, I saw that truck side. Only reason I am there to type this is because that day I had an angel. A hard living woman, smoker/drinker/too much sun, who happened to be in the passenger seat of that farm truck that summer solstice evening. She saw me and yelled. (I never heard the yell despite being maybe 8 feet away. I was in that silent place of knowing my death was here.) Truck straightened out. I passed on its right. I went back to talk to the driver. He was as shaken as I was. Never saw me. And said we had her to thank, turning toward the woman getting out the other side of the truck.

That fall, a young college girl got that view starting up at a light. Two months later a long-time bike mechanic watched a truck pull a tight right turn on a fast downhill (to go to the container docks). Neither of them had angels.

Edit: I have no idea what kind of bike that cyclist was riding. But, this is the one place where riding a bike without a good and accessible front brake is tossing out the one thing you can do to live.

dmark 

Have done and still do ride a lot in NYC the last 50 years; always a risk alongside a bus or truck. Be defensive and yield.
(not to excuse the truck)

Chistophe516

I blame the truck driver. Because, Knowing that the cyclist was on the right, the driver should have waited.

UniChris

No, the truck did something different from the left turning vehicles.

It's important to realize that even though this was NYC, that's actually a bi-directional roadway. The preceding vehicles making left turns stayed in their lane.

The truck however uniquely went well into the opposing lane - look at the tires compared to the line. To view that as preparation for a left turn, and not the right turn that actually required this, is a dangerous misunderstanding of the geometry of truck operations. Take a look at how sharp the corner onto 11st street is; anything short of this move would have clipped the curb and possibly the street sign or mailbox.

These and insufficient care are indeed fair criticisms, too. And it's quite disappointing that the lack of a turn signal cited in one place was ignored in the investigation.

It's unfortunate that this has skipped right to the "blame" stage and over the fact that someone with more understanding of trucks would have recognized what was happening and been hyper cautious when operating on the right side of a large vehicle to begin with.

Do drivers need to be educated to be more careful of cyclists? Yes.

Do cyclists who show a dangerous lack of understanding of large vehicles need to be educated on the geometric necessity of how they operate? Also yes.

In fact, because this can happen to you in a car and not just on a bike, it's part of driver's ed curricula everywhere.