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Hit-and-run driver strikes cyclist, tears off clothes while running away
I think the original story from September was posted here, but I can't
find it now. Here's it is, with a recent up-date, cobbled from news stories report: On September 18, Steven E. Riedel, age 58, was driving erratically when he crossed the center line and across the road into the opposing bike lane. Four riders were able to dodge the car, but one woman could not escape in time. He pinned cyclist Gail Alef, a Bellevue dentist, on the sidewalk and under his car. He then walked away from the accident towards the golf course on Willows Road and started taking his clothes off, according to an employee at the course. Riedel was arrested, sent to the hospital for blood tests and charged with vehicular assault and felony hit-and-run. It took rescue crews 30 minutes to lift the car off the 54-year-old woman. She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center The cyclist suffered pelvic fractures, internal bleeding, and spinal and rib fractures. These injuries took her life yesterday. Redmond police say the death means that a vehicular assault charge against the driver will be amended to vehicular homicide. Sad, sad, sad. Claire Petersky Home of the meditative cyclist: http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm |
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Hit-and-run driver strikes cyclist, tears off clothes while runningaway
Claire wrote:
Redmond police say the death means that a vehicular assault charge against the driver will be amended to vehicular homicide. Sad, sad, sad. Claire Petersky At least the police are making it a homicide instead of blaming someone on a bike for being on a roadway for cars. It sounds like the driver was on some serious drugs from the description. Even on the right side of the road you are not safe these days. I don't know the road but maybe putting a concrete barrier between lanes of opposite direction could be done on a lot more roads. That hits close to home, as far as avoiding cars goes, and I hate to lose a fellow cyclist to a spaced out cager. R.I.P. Bill |
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Hit-and-run driver strikes cyclist, tears off clothes while running away
In article ,
Bill wrote: Claire wrote: Redmond police say the death means that a vehicular assault charge against the driver will be amended to vehicular homicide. Sad, sad, sad. Claire Petersky At least the police are making it a homicide instead of blaming someone on a bike for being on a roadway for cars. It sounds like the driver was on some serious drugs from the description. Even on the right side of the road you are not safe these days. I don't know the road but maybe putting a concrete barrier between lanes of opposite direction could be done on a lot more roads. That hits close to home, as far as avoiding cars goes, and I hate to lose a fellow cyclist to a spaced out cager. R.I.P. Bill It's easy to suggest stuff like concrete barriers in these cases, but you can't protect against all eventualities. The guy in the car was, as you note, _seriously_ impaired. As in not in a state to safely operate a car. He could about as easily have taken the life of another driver had he veered at the wrong moment, or his own life had he managed to put himself in the path of a truck. I'm reminded of the story of a kid from my neighbourhood who jaywalked across the busy highway near our house one night. Nothing wrong with that: the traffic density is light at night, and I'm sure I've pulled similar acts often. But this boy jaywalked badly, or carelessly, or something, and got killed by a car. The solution was to put a kilometre or so of tall fence on the median island, after his parents repeatedly lobbied for it. I still cynically refer to it as the A___ _____ Memorial Fence. The fatal failure was not a lack of concrete or steel in the way in the case of our fallen fellow cyclist. The fatal failure is that the killer decided to take strong drugs and drive a car. -- Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/ "I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos |
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