MinnMan

https://themessenger.com/news/wood-l...ia-napa-county

Cycling is dangerous. Random bad things happen on the road.

Yeah, somebody was negligent in loading that truck, probably, and so, their liability. But for the cyclists, catastrophe.

Sad.

MinnMan

Location of accident approximately here on Silverado Trail Maybe a little to north (between Oak Knoll and Yountville Cross according to press reports)

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4023...!1e3?entry=ttu

It looks like a fairly safe road - wide shoulders, no sharp curves, etc.

Just really bad luck.

JoeyBike

Man, I guess when it's your time it's just your time.

I have a friend in Rawlins, Wyoming. Bike racer. It is legal to ride on the Interstate highways there (was legal in 1989 when I was touring through there). The cyclist and his buddy were riding on the shoulder of I-80 when a flatbed semi passed them with a load strapped down with metal bands. Unknown to the driver, one of the bands had come lose and was flopping onto the truck's load, then off over the shoulder, then back again in a cycle of a few seconds each way. The band just happened to go over their heads when the truck passed them at full highway speeds. A couple of seconds either way and they would likely been cut in half. Wasn't their time apparently. They both use mirrors now.

Anyway.....There are...

Eyes Roll

Very unfortunate and very sad. Rest in peace, Deatons.

Apparently, a piece of wood shown in the below video was hanging to the right of the truck and struck the Deatons.


https://bikeportland.org/2023/10/18/...80421#comments

GamblerGORD53

Oh hell. RIP. They were also well involved with cycling in Portland.
I can see why it could happen. There was only one 4x8 board, or maybe two? So it is harder to tie down securely. A couple nails would fix that. Or maybe he just forgot to.

Last year a Toronto lady had a bad/ good event on a ride across Canada. On the way to Sudbury, she had to ride a bit in the lane because the tiny shoulder had rumbles. A Jeep took out her left paniers and dumped her on the road. 2 weeks later she continued, but on the lakeshore.

Rick

I was on my way to work one morning and heard noise from behind me. Some RV was gaining on me With one of those canopy's that they had forgotten to retract. I was pedaling down a wide shoulder and was able to get out of the way. Another motorist had also warned me just after I had looked back.

MinnMan

Another argument for not wearing earbuds on the road. We need all of our senses as much as possible.

Eyes Roll

Makes me wonder if that truck could have struck and killed more people with that piece of wood, if more bikers were riding on that bike path, as it passed along. Or for that matter, more pedestrians if it was a busy urban area rather than a rural area. Wonder if it struck them from behind in unexpected and unforeseen manner.

Very unexpected and unusual occurrence. The deceased could not have done anything better or taken any other action to prevent this incident from happening. And no one could.

OldForerunner

Very sad.

Beautiful stretch of road, I've run the Napa Marathon on that highway a few times. Always thought the shoulders were nice and generous but apparently not enough in this case.

We were just there a few weeks ago on vacation, always see cyclists along both the Silverado Trail and HWY 29 on the other side.

Eyes Roll

Looks like there is an uptick in the number of accidents in that area. Stay safe.

jack pot 

there aint no safe urban or rural lanes when you're on 2 wheels .................................and it's a lot more dangerous now than ever before but the upside is that if you get killed by a rich or reputable your heirs will most likely be fixed for life

MinnMan

It's pretty clear from the video that the couple were doing things right - you can see their rear lights still operating on their wrecked bikes.

Some decide simply to not ride on roads. Or to not ride on paved roads (sticking to gravel, for example.) No matter how many precautions we take, riding on paved roads means taking some added risk. Riding on roads that have fast speed limits, that have trucks, that have (insert here) increases that risk.

I do all of these things, and I am not contemplating a retreat. But the decision to be a road cyclist comes with some modicum of added risk as opposed to sticking to trails, gravel roads, etc.

Yeah, and staying home reduces your chance of being hit by a truck, and increases your risk of (insert health problem here).

Calsun

This was a very dangerous area in the 1970's when logging trucks would routinely get the cab just ahead of the cyclists and then move over and use their trailer to force them off the road. I had this happen a dozen times by red neck drivers in this area who thought this was amusing. The driver who killed the cyclists could easily see their load had shifted in the side mirror but did not bother to pull off the road to fix the hazard on their truck. Driver should be charged with manslaughter at the very least.

Rick

I occasionally use bone phones but even those if you turn the sound way up could cause you to miss something important. I wore them at the park this morning while I walked. I need them while I walk to forget about my other distractions.

Eyes Roll

For the reckless automobile drivers it is fun and amusement, but for the bikers it poses a serious risk and danger of injury or even loss of life. I live in a Midwest city where it is not uncommon for car drivers to intentionally pass by and enter the path of bikers to obstruct the bikers, or honk their horns really loudly, or have the passengers roll down their windows to yell at the bikers to scare them or throw them off balance, just for their fun and amusement.

Amen.

MinnMan

Possible, but we don't know this for certain. We don't know when the load shifted, we don't know how the mirrors were adjusted, we don't know how attentive the driver was to his right hand side view mirror.....

Unlikely that a DA would think they could make such a charge stick. Sadly, drivers get acquitted even when the circumstances and evidence are much stronger.

Rick

I have driven many large, medium and small vehicles for work. I never allowed excuses to endanger others. I don't believe the driver of that vehicle had no clue about the wood hanging out off the side of that truck. There is a level of responsibility that a competent driver adheres to. This driver did not take the time to properly secure their load. If the problem really couldn't be seen then the mirrors are improperly installed and the driver was illegally driving that vehicle. This kind of incompetence is rampant in the USA because we expect these kinds of things to happen.

MinnMan

That's not the same thing as a body of evidence that a DA could expect to bring to conviction.

Sorry, but there's a difference between morally right (I think you are) and legally strong. And the reason they are distinct is not because we tolerate incompetence.

Rick

Two dead people should trigger an immediate tox screen of the driver and any logs. I seriously doubt that this will happen. We have state attorneys that are insurance brokers.

​​​​​​​ Weather or not it is incompetence or apizing the insurance companies there is plenty of it to go around.

Paul Barnard

The load needed more than 2 points of attachment. I see all kinds of sloppy load securing in my travels. I ride a motorcycle too. I don't linger behind questionable loads for any period of time at all. The riders were essentially defenseless against this.

base2 

The whole premis of this thread is cycling is dangerous. Balogna. Driving is. Driving fast is. Driving a big truck is. Unsecured loads is dangerous. Driving big trucks with unsecured loads is. There is no excuse. The truck driver did not try not to cause harm.

Rick

There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of accident. It is 100% preventable. As long as we expect this and other kinds of accidents to happen we as a society are condoning these bad actions.

indyfabz

Something similar happened to a known American pro cyclist. Cannot recall the name right now. IIRC, he was out riding and got struck in the head by a pipe that had shifted. He survived and became a big helmet advocate after the incident.

AndreyT

Strange discussion. Some people seem to be detached from reality.

This is USA. In USA your life is worth as much as you have yourself insured it for, and not a penny more. You insure yourself and then you go do whatever you want: ride a bicycle on a road, skydive, climb the face of El Capitan etc. That's the short and the long of it. Incidents like that have been handed over for resolution to insurance companies very long time ago. Nobody else will investigate it. Nobody will present anything to the DA. (LOL! "DA"! This instantly reminded me of that "Leads? They Got Us Working in Shifts!" moment from "Big Lebowski")

Keep that in mind, then decide whether you can afford it. That trucking company did not care to secure their load because they can afford not to care. The same applies to you. That's all there is to it.

Rick

Actually our laws make it a we bit more complicated than this. Your rant was pretty maniacal. Helpfully the family Gets a lawyer and sues the incompetent police action and the trucking company.