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I am a very amateur cyclist. But I have some friends who are serious cyclists. And many of us on this blog have perhaps become fans or at least gained a deeper understanding of the sport from reading the many Gaby novels.
So I think perhaps we can all mourn the death on Saturday of 17 year old U.S. cyclist Magnus White. He was hit by a vehicle and killed while training for the upcoming world championships in Scotland.
R.I.P. Magnus
https://www.denverpost.com/2023/07/31/csp-boulder-cyclist-cr...
Comments
yeah
i saw that blurb. just terrible. there was no reason given, at that initial post, just the driver let the vehicle drift over and onto the berm and bounced him off. the initial report said the car continued until it left the roadway. nasty business all around. this doesn't give much more than the original release
the 'car'nage
will only end
when humans are removed from the operation of motor vehicles or motor vehicles are removed from the roads. There is a mindset prevalent not just in the US but in much of the world that anyone not travelling in a metal box is less than human and 'fair game', the penalties do not reflect the crime (there is a bigger penalty in the US for GTA than murder!)
I have lost several friends over the years to vehicular homicide, no one ever went to gaol or even had their licence revoked. It's a sad indictment on modern society.
The unnecessary loss of any life is always sad and its not the even first time that an 'elite' level cyclist has been killed in this way. The numbers are stacked against those that ride more, we ride for longer, we ride further, a pro level road rider will likely be doing 4 or 5 rides a week, each of 4/5 hours, that could mean up to 1000km each and every week. A typical commuter will do perhaps 50-100km over the same period.
Overall cycling is a very safe mode of transport / sport, the number of deaths / injuries where no motor vehicle (including e-bikes/scooters) are directly involved is miniscule compared to the number of miles ridden. Add in motor vehicles and the cyclist will always come off second best, something like 95% of reported vehicle / cycle collisions result in serious injury / death, the majority being the fault of the motorist whether deliberate through close passes, brake checking, road rage or 'unintentional' due to bad driving skills, so called 'smidsy' incidents and inappropriate speed.
For many years i had a commute of @ 4 miles each way which i did 5/6 days every week, i would consider it a good day to have less than 5 attempts to kill me on that journey. I ride bigger distances these days, the attempt rate is lower by at least 90%, mostly as i can use roads with little or no traffic for much of the time. That said, yesterdays ride of @ 55 miles had at least two serious attempts and several more that could have ended badly for someone of less experience / confidence.
So indeed, RIP Magnus, sadly your death won't be the last, after all, cyclists are more maligned than even the TG community!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Car vs. Bike always ends badly
It’s just over 29 years since I lost a dear colleague. A couple of accidents where his brain bounced around inside his skull despite the helmet, he eventually lost the ability to sleep, and then it got really ugly.
Here in the capitol of the One Star Review state, a few years ago there had been a grand total of two times motorists were prosecuted for intimidating cyclists: once when the cyclist was a uniformed police officer on his patrol bike, and once when it was Lance Something-starts-with-A. Perhaps there have been more since but I’d be surprised.
I've lost friends, too.
Back in the 1980s a very dear friend was killed outright one evening and her husband badly injured by a hit-and-run drunk (as it later turned out) driver. He was jailed at least but caused a lot of unnecessary grief to all.
More recently, just a few weeks ago a couple we know from our Tandem Club days were cycling on a lane in Scotland when a car came round a corner too quickly and hit them head on. Pat was killed but her husband survived. Her funeral was last week.
R
I've had my 'moments', too but my most serious accidents haven't involved cars - just cats and icy limestone, and I obviously survived.
Crazy Drivers
Forty years ago, I was running fifty to sixty hours a week and road racing about once a month. It seemed like every runner in our club could tell a harrowing story of cars forcing them into the ditch. We all ran against traffic to better see trouble coming.
Then cane the day we all had hoped would never happen. One of our members was hit and died instantly. The motorist claimed not to have seen her but we all knew that stretch of road and none of us believed him. We all became more circumspect in where we ran.
Not to blame the victim, but last night I had dinner with my three adult sons. The oldest was a champion cyclist in his early teens racing against adults. The second oldest was an outstanding soccer and basketball player who in his forties rides his bike three to four times a week as his only form of exercise. The youngest lives in the mountains of Colorado and loves to trail bike.
Between them they own a total of ten motorcycles.
The conversation quickly came around to the many streets and highways in the Twin Cities they will not ride on . . . bike or motorcycle.
They questioned the sanity of those cyclist who demand their share of certain highways and streets.
I had outstanding peripheral vision in my youth which allowed me to excel in several sports. One of the realities of aging is my shrinking field of vision. The other day I came within inches of hitting a cyclist who was riding on the sidewalk and came across in front of me at an intersection. I mentioned it to a neighbor who said she had almost hit several cyclist on that same corner. My car weighs 3700 pounds, about 1675 kilos.
Basic physics would suggest a bad outcome for the cyclist who was breaking the law by riding on the sidewalk and surprised the elderly driver in a car.
Be aware. Practice common sense. Know that the world is full of crazy people.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)