Actually, you are questioning the responsibility of the driver and letting him off of his responsibilities. The truck driver had the responsibility, dictated by state statute, to not pass the bike unless he could do so safely. The driver was approaching the bike. The truck driver has all the responsibility in that situation. Yet you, and many others, are determined to blame this on the cyclist and let the driver off the hook.
On one hand, you claim that the cyclist was racing, or pacing the truck, and that was a bad thing. Then you claim that the cyclist put the driver in a bad position to have to drastically alter the forward momentum of a large vehicle. I’m not the fastest biker, but, I could easily have been doing 20 miles an hour on that road if I was racing a truck. I don’t know the speed limit there, but I think 35 is a reasonable assumption. That means the trucker would have only had to slow down 15 miles an hour to stay behind the bike. That can be done very easily and safely without endangering any other vehicles around the truck. Did you see any brake lights in the video? The driver made the wrong choice and unsafely, and therefore illegally, passed the bicycle.
If I had been the cyclist, I would have stopped and waited for the truck to pass. I ride with a rear view mirror so I know what is happening behind me and react accordingly. This cyclist made the unwise decision to continue on. It was unwise, but not illegal. The truck driver is the one that broke the law.
OK are we reading about the same accident? I can’t find anywhere in the police report where it says that the bicycle raced to get in front of the truck.
You guys have the rider being passed and then trying to repass the truck on the right. This is NOT what the report says.
Here is what the eyewitness said:
The bike wasn’t trying to pass on the right, the truck made an illegal pass on the left. The bike wasn’t racing the truck. He was riding and got run down by Sparky Mcnumbnuts in his truck.
Can we stick to the facts here please?
The problem as I see it is that the cyclist couldn’t maintain his speed or he would have been in front of the truck. All he managed to do was arrive somewhere around the choke point with a truck behind him. We don’t know how far behind him he was. The road curves at this point. The question that one has to ask is when would the average person realize the road narrows and recognize the potential for danger. The cyclist is not without responsibilities in this situation. He can’t just swing in front of a truck and expect it to stop. I’m not saying this is the case, just that such responsibilities exist.
According to an eyewitness, the cyclist was coming down a hill and the truck was speeding. Downhill, an average cyclist can easily do 25 miles an hour. I wasn’t there, and I’m just guessing, but a very likely scenario is that the trucker underestimated how fast the bike was going and thought he could beat him to where the road narrows. He was wrong and his mistake killed the cyclist.
I disagree with your paragraph, “The cyclist is not without responsibilities in this situation. He can’t just swing in front of a truck and expect it to stop. I’m not saying this is the case, just that such responsibilities exist.”
First, the cyclist didn’t swing in front of a truck. Shooting out from a side street, crossing lanes, those would be shooting out in front of a truck. Following the road and hugging the curb does not constitute shooting out in front of a truck.
Second, it is the responsibility of the licensed, commercial vehicle operator to know the capabilities of his equipment and the rights of the other vehicles on the road. The bike is another vehicle on the road. It is frequently not treated that way by motor vehicles, but, in the eyes of the law, it is.
I will readily admit that it was unwise, even stupid if you want to use that word, of the cyclist not to be aware of the danger ahead where the road narrows. But, the responsibility for safely passing the bike was entirely on the truck driver.
Apparently “the cyclist couldn’t maintain his speed” is your bullshit code for “couldn’t pedal faster than a speeding trucker.” Part of being a responsible driver is knowing that you may come upon vehicles going slower than you, whether it’s farm equipment, a bike, grandma going to church, UPS, etc., and dealing with those in a safe way. All the truck driver had to do was slow down until it was safe to pass. He didn’t and he killed a guy.
Furthermore it is bullshit because the police report says nothing about the cyclist slowing down or speeding up.
Any wild ass guess about any speed change of the cyclist is a bullshit blame the guy on the bike excuse.
If they both arrive at the narrowed part of the road first or within a short time span then the cyclist bears some responsibility for the situation that follows.
::: Sigh:::
Not according to the law in the state of Mass. Read the law quoted in post 9 of this thread.
I know you don’t like it, but you are 100% wrong about this.
Not as I stated it. If both vehicles arrive at the same point then there is an expectation of what the average person would do in that situation. A truck (or any vehicle) can’t be expected to stop on a dime.
This parallels the situation I was in with the 18 wheeler on the highway. He came into my lane and I had the ability to give way to the truck. I would incur a level of responsibility for an accident if I simply let it happen. I can’t just say I have the right of way and knowingly take no action while cars and trucks pile up around me.
Surely you understand that fault is often distributed in an accident. Not everything is black and white.
Reviewing page 6 of the police report, we see the bicycle go through Weston and Central, then the truck turns left, behind him. There can be absolutely no doubt that the truck driver was aware of the presence of the bicycle in front of him. Fifteen seconds later, the camera loses sight of the truck, probably right around the time that Motsenigos was about to go under it. This would mean that they were going around 20~25mph in that distance, hardly too fast for a large truck to brake for the choke point.
Of course, the other question pertains to Central: there is a light at that intersection, yet the truck was following the bicycle by about one second. I cannot imagine a light that changes that quickly. Around here, at least, both lights are solid red for at least half a second if not more. It looks a lot like one of the parties was going on a red light.
You can’t really make that statement in court. I didn’t see mention that the trucker saw the cyclist until he passed him. by the video it looks like he would have passed him on the bridge but you don’t see this happening which gives rise to the idea that the cyclist was “racing” at this point. If I understand correctly he was interested in triathlon events and may have been practicing. This puts him over and down the bridge. We know he’s in front of him before the intersection because witness #1 is in the opposing lane at that location. Not sure if the trucker’s cab height gives him a view of this or not. The driver should have seen him go through the intersection but that’s not to say he did.
Not really. Based on the video and Witness account the truck was moving up quickly behind the cyclist. The driver cleared the cyclist and at some point the rider launched INTO the truck. Absent a witness there is a lack of evidence that the truck driver did anything wrong. That’s the legal side of it which was already dealt with by a GJ. We don’t have all the info the GJ had so maybe there’s more to comment on in relation to a civil trial. can’t say.
From a non-legal standpoint the cyclist put himself in a dangerous situation and died as a result of it. I don’t know if you’ve ever been within the legal limit of a truck passing by but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Yup doesn’t matter to him a bit what the law says or the fact that with a curb to his right the rider had no place to go or the fact that if the trucker had continued to hug the center line there would have been no accident.
According to him it is all the rider’s fault.
Once again bicyclists are the Rodney Dangerfields of the vehicle world. His posts are my cite.
the facts have already been reviewed by a GJ. Your motto seems to fit the thread nicely. go through life recklessly and skid in sideways to your death.
Oh, please. The SWSS* is you answer to this? Spare me.
Single Witness Suicide Swerve, a so common excuse given by drivers that it has a name. Suicide swerves seem to drop amazing in areas with more witness or when riders ride in pairs or packs. Go figure!
Okay, I’m going to give you one more chance to come to your senses.
On my bike ride yesterday, I approached a large intersection - the streets don’t intersect at right angles and cars turning left in front of me just have a lot of intersection to go through. Per your reasoning, my responsibility is to not continue on legally, but to stop and let the people making the turn proceed so as not to put the motor vehicles in a dangerous situation.
How about today’s ride - I’m in a bike lane, a car pulls up on a side street on my right, stops, looks both ways, looks directly at me, and then pulls out in front of me so I have to brake so I don’t hit him. What were my responsibilities there? Again, according to your reasoning, my responsibility was to stop and let the car proceed.
Can you see where this is going? According to you, bikes do not have the same rights to the road that motor vehicles have. According to the law, they do.
I honestly believe you are a safe and cautious driver. I also honestly believe that your beliefs make it more dangerous for bike riders everywhere. As long as motor vehicle operators think that bicyclists, legally riding down the road, bear some responsibility to stay out of the way of cars and trucks, cyclists will continue to not get the respect they deserve and need. It will be only after motorists are held responsible for their actions that cyclists will get the respect they deserve.
As long as there are people out there who think the cyclists should get off the road and up on the curb when a big truck comes up behind them, cyclists will continue to be in danger. Changing that thinking doesn’t come from saying the cyclist was partially at blame.
