On 10/29/2018 7:49 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 29 Oct 2018 13:10:08 -0700, Joerg
wrote:

On 2018-10-29 12:38, James wrote:
On 29/10/18 11:47 am, John B. Slocomb wrote:

This past week the news here has reported the death of a Philippine
bicyclist who was in Thailand participating in a 1,000 km Audax.

About 01:30 on Tuesday, the 24th, Russel Perez, 55, from the
Philippines, was struck by a van that run a red light and died, after
having completed approximately 950 km of the 1,000 km. ride.

Naughty van.


On 25 Nov police reported that a damaged van, a white Toyota, was
found at a garage in Min Buri district in Bangkok. It was taken to the
police station for forensic and fingerprint testing. The police said
a man drove the van to the garage on Wednesday morning for repairs
saying that the vehicle hit a cow.

On 26 Nov.Police arrested a 29-year-old van driver who ran a red light
and fatally hit a 55-year-old Philippine cyclist joining a
long-distance event early Tuesday morning. He was charged with,
reckless driving causing death and damage, failing to help his victim,
failure to inform an official of the incident, running a red light and
using drugs.

Ah. I see the van had a driver.

The media usually word these stories as though the motor vehicle did
something it shouldn't. It is a common problem. No mention of the
driver having lost control, or not paying attention, or being
distracted, etc., except maybe sometimes as a footnote.

The language used in motor vehicle crash stories is usually very
different from bicycle crash stories, where it is usually the rider that
is noted to have done something - not the bicycle.


Wait until we have the first cyclists run over by driverless cars. Like
what happened to a woman in AZ who was pushing her bicycle.

Perhaps the U.S. could pass a new law, similar to one that was enacted
in Pennsylvania in 1896, when legislators unanimously passed a bill
through both houses of the state legislature which would require all
motorists piloting their "horseless carriages", upon chance encounters
with cattle or livestock to
(1) immediately stop the vehicle,
(2) "immediately and as rapidly as possible ... disassemble the
automobile", and
(3) "conceal the various components out of sight, behind nearby
bushes" until equestrian or livestock is sufficiently pacified.

When my wife, daughter and I did our coast-to-coast ride, we were on a
gravel road in North Dakota when a woman driving a pickup truck stopped
us. She explained that another pair of touring cyclists just ahead of us
had spooked her cattle so badly they stampeded right through a barbed
wire fence and up the road.

Her family was herding the cows back down the gravel road, opposite the
direction we were riding. She asked us to please hide ourselves behind
some huge hay rolls in the adjacent pasture until they had passed by.

So we took a snack break there, and after a while got to watch cowboys
on horses plus another pickup truck move the herd.

At least we didn't have to disassemble our bikes. :-)

--
- Frank Krygowski