Peter Ostertag, RIP

I put him on the healing list at our synagogue, but I had to move him over
to the list for those for whom we said kaddish last night. Two weeks ago
Rose and I rode past the spot where the accident had occured not long
before. The bike and his gear was lying akimbo; even more frightening was
the blood on the pavement.

Article he
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...tagobit02.html.

Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referr*al/Cpetersky

On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:09:01 -0700, Claire Petersky wrote:

The bike and his gear was lying akimbo; even more frightening was
the blood on the pavement.

That's so sad! In a ride to promote cycle safety no less.

Article said he was doing 40mph, then mentions that he was wearing a
helmet as if it's a surprise that it didn't protect him from injury. I
find that a bit disturbing.

40mph...

"maxo" wrote in message
news
40mph...

The event is supposedly the most popular century ride in the state. The
descent where he fell is the final one of the hundred mile course on about
mile 95 of the 100. The course in general is very hilly, and there are
several fast descents -- this one was one of the easier of the lot. While
there have been all sorts of rumors swirling around regarding the cause of
the accident I suspect that the real cause was a momentary lapse of
attention, due to fatigue on a long ride.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 12:57:36 -0700, Claire Petersky wrote:

I suspect that the real cause was a momentary lapse of attention, due to
fatigue on a long ride.

Sounds about right--I certainly know the feeling one gets near the end of
a century ride. Morbid maybe, but at least he left this earth doing
something he loved, too bad it wasn't 30 years from now. :/

I wasn't really criticizing the poor fellow's riding skills, just appalled
at the verbiage of the reportage.

maxo wrote:
On Sat, 02 Jul 2005 10:09:01 -0700, Claire Petersky wrote:


The bike and his gear was lying akimbo; even more frightening was
the blood on the pavement.


That's so sad! In a ride to promote cycle safety no less.

Article said he was doing 40mph, then mentions that he was wearing a
helmet as if it's a surprise that it didn't protect him from injury. I
find that a bit disturbing.

40mph...

Yeah, I don't know why every article about a serious bicycle accident
has to report whether a helmet was worn or not...

Perhaps it's ironic that this fatal crash happened on a ride to promote
safety, but it's not that surprising. I don't know, nor want to
speculate, on this rider's contribution to his own death, but I see so
many instances of very bad cycling habits on group rides that it
wouldn't surprise me if this incident was from one of those cases.
People seem to be very casual about riding at lethal speeds -- too casual.