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Old December 22nd 10, 06:23 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Duane Hébert
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Default Los Altos Hills bicyclist killed in big-rig crash was a mother,

On 12/22/2010 11:57 AM, Jay Beattie wrote:
On Dec 22, 8:06 am, Duane wrote:
On 12/22/2010 10:52 AM, Phil W Lee wrote:





considered 22 Dec 2010 00:32:00 -0800 the
perfect time to write:


In ,
Chalo says...


JC Dill wrote:


Here's an article that says the CHP determined the bicyclist was at
fault, not the truck driver.


http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_16910167?source=most_viewed


The truck driver has killed people three times with his truck, and he
still gets to keep doing his job? In what other field of work
(besides so-called "policing") would that possibly be permitted? Even
if that's just dumb luck, the guy should be taken off the road in the
name of public safety.


Chalo


The truck driver didn't kill anyone. The three people who died killed
"themselves" because they were careless and stupid...not a very nice thing to
say, but very true. I rode by the accident that happened in Santa Cruz just
moments after it occured. It was not a pretty sight. Yeah, the circumstances are
a bit creepy, but again, the truck driver was not at fault.


Having been a professional driver of big rigs, I can only say that the
truckers statement (and it's the only one we have, as he managed to
kill the only witness to his driving) is simply not credible.
And his past record leads me to suspect that this represents his
normal standard of driving. I notice that last time he killed someone
he (or rather his insurers) had to pay his victim's family $1,500,000
compensation, so the lack of sufficient evidence for a prosecution
clearly doesn't indicate any lack of blame.


He would have had to swing left before making a right turn, to avoid
the trailer wheels cutting across the side of the road, and it was
almost certainly this left swing which knocked his victim off.
Making the left swing without a mirror check on that side is reckless
- you can expect other traffic to be trying to pass on the left as you
indicate a turn to the right, and should be ensuring that any swing is
into gaps in traffic, not into the traffic itself.


And if the CHP don't know the geometry of how a big rig goes around
corners, they are unfit to investigate anything to do with them.


I wonder how they will excuse their allowing him to carry on driving
to his next victim's family?


This seems like what happened but they say that she fell when trying to
turn "in front" of the truck. If he did what you said, and I bet that
he did, then that means that he didn't even look to his left.

Something doesn't sound right. If there were no witnesses coming
forward, this is only the driver's version of what happened. I just
can't imagine turning from the left across the front of a moving 18
wheeler. And then she supposedly fell in front of him when he was going
straight and hit her. But he was turning.- Hide quoted text -

The swing left thing sounds right, and really, why would he look left
if the swing would not take him out of his lane? That's the scary
thing about lane-sharing. It puts you below the mirror on the
driver's side and in a blind spot -- or at least a spot where one
would not ordinary look. It's not like there's a bike lane going up
the left side of the far-right lane and one should watch for bikes. I
know Californians love their lane-sharing (rush hour is like a slalom
course for motorcyclists), but it is a dangerous practice. -- Jay
Beattie.


Yeah. It sounds like the bit about her cutting in front of him and
falling is bull****. I unfortunately have a lot of these trucks
around on my commute and though I think that they are very unpredictable
in general, I've learned that they swing left to turn right every time.

But still, this guy should know as a professional that what he's doing
is out of the ordinary for a typical motorist and he should pay
attention. Maybe he just did a red eye from Boston though. That's the
sort of thing that makes trucks unpredicatble.
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