Anyone have an update on the bicyclist that was hit by the SCMM member on Latigo canyon last week? From what I understand--the driver got a flat as he came around a blind corner, and hit the cyclist so hard from behind that he smashed his bonnet, roof, and windshield and sent the guy to the hospital.

Sounds pretty ugly to me---was curious how the cyclist was doing.

 

This is the first I heard of this. Do you know who hit the cyclist? I guess you don't know how anyone is or you wouldn't be asking.

Earl

 

Yeah I know, there really should be more public discussion about this sort of thing. I mean the San Diego accident was a tragedy but in this case, who do you think will lose more--a MINI or a bicyclist??

I believe the SCMMer's name is Tom, aka tskouros

I got this from the TMMZ website which was extracted from the SCMM website:
Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2004 1:47 pm
Post subject: Crash and Burn.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, chasing Randy around the canyon, a biker wasn't so fortunate. My tire got flat and I went sliding around a corner taking him out. He got discharged from the hospital and should be fine, but now I have a mushed Mini in my garage....Well, it was fun while it lasted. Photos will follow. Thanks, Tom
=============

Another interesting but relevant news is that Peter of M7 announced he would no longer do canyon runs because of the dangers involved.

Personally I don't give a hoot about this guys MINI, I want to know how the cyclist is doing---as a Mountain Biker myself, the thought of being wiped out by a MINI is very upsetting to me. To hear that his MINI is mushed--sounds like the impact wasn't minor.

 

I am a Mt and road biker in Atlanta and we are losing cyclist to cars about one every three weeks. I'm talking death here. Cars are replaceable - mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, uncles, friends, are not .....well enough of the soap box.

 

Amen to that!
I am to afraid to ride the road. But I will down-hill at Snow Shoe!

 

Life is obviously very precious, but QUALITY of life is precious too. Too many cyclists are innocent victims of self-indulgent motorists. This MINI driver needs to get a grip!

I'm kinda militant about this issue because I was hit.

While on a training ride in 1999 the driver of an 87 Honda put a hole in my chest/shoulder. The incident tore my left pec and trap & strained all the muscles on my left side. The impact from the fall (to the ground) tore the posterior cruciate ligament in my right knee. I continue to suffer accident related back & neck problems. …All because someone in a car was careless & IMO mindless.

Aside from the pain and discomfort of my physical injuries was/is the effect on my cycling. I was a national caliber cyclist who’d raced XC in the 98' Worlds. Try justifying to someone like me that your tire went flat & it’s not your fault. ...Whatever!

A Mini's a cool car & I LOVE driving mine - hard. But where and when is key. Everyone has a right to use the roads & be safe - including cyclists.

 

Ditto on everyone's comments- I could care less about Tom's MINI. He is clearly at fault-no excuses. I'm a road biker and have seen too many accidents caused by incompetent and careless drivers. High speed canyon runs are too dangerous to everyone else on the road. Tom needs to give some thought to others besides himself.

 

Boy, this one hits close to home. I'm a driver who bikes, the wife is a biker who drives. On road rides I'm always telling her (and anyone with us) to ride on the SIDE of the road - everyone likes to talk side by side, drives me nuts! (and then they get pissed when drivers come too close.)
When driving, wife is always telling me to slow down, given that there could be a biker around any corner.
I see way too much aggravation on both sides.
Everybody be careful out there! Share the road, put yourself in the other guy's bike/driving shoes for a minute!

 

Amen to that, OctaneGuy. I was a USCF-licensed bicycle road racer for 10 years and I support your sentiment 110%. I feel sorry for the guy's MINI, and I'm sure it was an accident, but my sympathies lie mostly with the cyclist. I would bet that many of us using this fine forum would feel the same way, and also enjoy human-powered sport as well.

 

I hear ya... 2 abreast is a real problem (on some roads). But in other instances it provides safety. But I do see some cyclists being foolish & inconsiderate.

Going on a RANT here….
Have you ever noticed that the more room you give up being courteous (by riding closer to the curb) the closer & or faster some motorists seem to believe they can come when overtaking you? Man but THAT pisses me off! I end up having to take up more and more lane just to have an 'out' to steer to. If I leave too much room I’m in more danger than if I don’t. …This isn’t always the case, but far more often than not its what I experience. FYI I’d ridden 8000km by August this year – so I experienced it a lot.

Ironically (IMO) drivers slow down if they have to move partially into the left or oncoming lane in order to pass. Conversely when they see room enough to get by without changing lanes they often come dangerously close. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had my left elbow hit by a mirror.

Also
If the road is one that has old-school sewer grates (slats oriented in the same direction as traffic) a cyclist is forced to take up even more lane to avoid the grates. Its not because we're greedy, stupid, or trying to make a political statement about bikes having a place on the road! …It’s because our tires/wheels will get stuck in the grate & we’ll get hurt/bike damaged.

Most motorists wouldn't drive their cars through the ***** they expect a cyclist to ride through. Take puddles for example... Who knows what pothole or other foreign matter lurks under the water? People avoid these all the time in their cars - to protect wheels/alignment or even wax jobs... but us cyclists... we're just worried about getting wet, and shouldn't be on the road anyways.

Potholes, glass or other road debris aren’t merely inconvenient obstacles… These can be dangerous if not deadly to a cyclist & MUST be circumnavigated. People don't realize that a road cyclist is riding on spoked wheels with maybe 23mm of tire on each wheel, inflated between 80-160 psi. Its not the same as a car.
End rant

 

Boy am I glad to read the responses posted so far. I was worried people might disregard the safety of the cyclist and worry about the damage to a MINI instead, but I see that is not the case. I too, am a road cyclist and have been hit before (back in the 80's, three days in a coma) and have had my fair share of close calls since. I ride quite a bit around LA county and as someone posted earlier I have found that the more room you give vehicles the more room they take. (Riding down a road one day I saw a person in a Corrolla pass me and then proceed to bounce off the curb a hundred feet down the road at 45+MPH!)I have to say it kind of upset me reading the guys post about the incident as he is flippant about the guy getting out of the hospital and more concerned about his MINI. Somebody posted earlier how cyclist must sometimes circumnavigate certain road debris and it can sometimes lead to close calls with vehicles. I will join the chorus here and say we must share the road (EVEN CANYON ROADS!) with cyclists. Please drive safe out there. Here's to the cyclists full recovery and getting back on a bike soon. (And the MINI getting repaired too!)

P.S. Its great to see that there are quite a few cyclists here who are also MINI enthusiasts. (I see quite a few MINIs at local bike races around here)

 

Richard,

Thanks for posting about this. Hopefully someone will have an update on the condition of the cyclist and the nature of his injuries. My best wishes for a speedy recovery to the cyclist.

I raced road bikes for three years at the University of Colorado. Boulder was a road biker's paradise in terms of bike lanes, generous shoulders, and drivers that generally kept an eye out for cyclist. Even in those conditions you'd get drivers that tried to push cyclists off the road. After moving to L.A. I all but abandoned road biking as I the options in my area weren't that great (ride on the strand bike path with the roller bladers and their baby joggers, ride on PCH which is flat and heavily trafficed in places, or ride in the canyons with near nonexistant shoulders).

I'm actually a little surprised we don't hear about more car/cyclist collisions. Between this and the road rage in San Diego that took the lives of two people in their MINI, it hasn't been a very good couple weeks for defensive motoring.

Dave

 

Bunny Hop!

 

This is really too bad. MOALA had their annual run there the following weekend – one they have been doing for decades without incident – and from what I hear, the bikers were not too friendly.

Edit: when I said, "... one they have been doing for decades without incident..." I was not implying anything." What I meant is that they have been extremely lucky over the years.

 

Oh my this is sad to read about!! I do hope the cyclist has a speedy recovery...

And reading all of the other stories you all have posted about being hit - OMG!! Now I know I'll continue to ride on the trails and out of the way places....

Chow!

Donna

 

JUST how do you know that??

Earl

 

After reading all of this, if I ever take up biking, I think I'll stick to the bike trails! Losing a biker every three weeks is a stunning statistic!

Be careful where you point your car!

 

The manager at the bike shop I worked at in college did a lot of riding in the area just outside of Atlanta. He told me one day he had a pickup truck go by him with one of the occupants hanging out the window with his fishing rod so that it slapped him across the back as they drove by.

I'll stick to mountain biking. At least there all I have to worry about is the random rock that decides it doesn't want to cooperate and the occasional rattlesnake spotting. I'm hoping to stay away from actually coming across a mountain lion on a ride.

 

Hell, I can rear wheel pogo on my road bike, but how many of those bunny hops do you think I wanna do in a 2 mile stretch of road?

 

Sounds like its pretty dangerous to be on those roads in or on anything these days.

 

Dave,

You need to come down my way. I moved to Irvine from Redondo Beach and my riding options have improved dramatically. Of course I still have to ride smart and be safe but, for now (until they finish paving Irvine with housing... ), there are lots of great rides to be had out here.

Joe

 

I'm pretty much a 95% roadie now, even though I still ride my mountain bike ocassionaly. Thankfully, Phoenix has a lot of bike lanes, and wide shoulders so it's relatively low-stress to ride here.

However, on my last few trips to LA, I was scoping out the streets, and thought to myself that I would be terrified to ride my road bike there.

As a cyclist, it pisses me off when other cyclists don't follow the rules of the road, like riding two or three abreast. Having said that, I wouldn't ride Latigo Canyon. It has a ton of curves, and practically no shoulder. Definitely not a safe place to ride IMO.

Both motorists and cyclists need to exercise common sense. As cyclists, just coz out bikes go there, doesn't mean we should ride them there.

The cyclist is obviously not at fault, but where you ride plays a HUGE part in how safe your ride will be.

Look at Latigo Canyon, would YOU ride your bike there??

 

Sounds like there are a lot of shaved legs gracing MINI seats these days!

Hope the cyclist recovers soon!

Dave
2003 DS/B MCS, 15% pulley and formerly shaved legs

 

You people need to lay off the man with the MINI. Its an unfortunate event, and dont any one of you tell me that you dont drive your mini fast. He had a flat tire, and it wasnt like he was playing "hunt the biker with the MINI". Thats ridiculous. I ride bikes too, its not the bikers fault at all, as he had the right to be on the road. But for all of you who insist on slamming the mini driver, YOU have no room to talk, because when you are driving hard, a bicycalist could pop out of no where and could cause a collision. So lets all close our mouth (polite way), its an unfortunate accident, hope the byclist recovers to ride on the same road again. (and the mini too.)

When you motor, just be prepaired for any obstacles or consequences that could get in the way, or could result....

 

Ride where you feel comfortable, but…

IMO you're resigning our past time to 2nd class citizen status.

AND you're passively endorsing & propagating the notion that we as cyclists shouldn't go on the road/don't belong there. Furthermore you imply that if we do venture on to the roads (as cyclists) we do so at our own peril. WTF is that!?

IMO This is an 'Uncle Tom’ cyclist perspective. It only highlights how our various rights & freedoms as citizen cyclists aren't being protected equally under the law (compared with motorists).

So… where and when does it stop? Which road is the next you or I shouldn’t ride on? What stretch of road near you should be the next cyclist free-zone?

I realize that I’m risking my life every time I venture onto the road... And that goes for my MINI as well as my road bike. I also recognize that some roads are more risky than others.

We all are responsible for safety. Shoulder, no shoulder, canyon or not, its no excuse to kill, maim, or otherwise injure (cuz you're wreckless and out of controll).

What if it hadn’t been a cyclist in that blind canyon turn... what if it had been another vehicle stopped due to emergency? There'd be a lot more to talk about than an injured cyclist & dented MINI.

Tom should consider himself lucky. The cyclist should be so fortunate.

Anyone found out how extensive the cyclist injuries were?