A man on a bike crashed on E Olive Way at Belmont Tuesday morning after possibly being struck by a hit and run driver.
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|Biker crashes in possible E Olive Way hit and run — UPDATE: 12th/Jefferson incident, too
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My thoughts go out to the cyclist involved in this incident. I hope he is okay and the driver of the vehicle is found a prosecuted for hit and run plus any other applicable charges.
However, it is disturbing to read that the cyclist was not wearing a helmet. As a cyclist/bike commuter I cannot understand how someone can ride without a helmet, particularly on streets shared with vehicles. It doesn’t matter if you are a ‘good’ or ‘experienced’ cyclist, it takes one accident from someone else moving a 2 ton pile of steel to _kill_ you. Wearing a helmet is the best way to increase your chances of survival.
No more Darwin award candidates. Wear a helmet while cycling. Period.
never fails
-Bikes should be licensed
-Bicyclists run red lights
-Mandatory education if you want to ride a bike
-Bicyclist should wear reflective vests
-Bikes need to be registered and pay a usage fee
I figure I’d get them out of the way since the next 5 posts will bring up these points.
A driver hit a cyclist and drove away. Hope they catch this driver and throw him in jail for years.
and was smart enough to wear a helmet…
Wear a helmet for god sakes. My life was literally saved by my helmet. It sucks that you crashed, but man, come on. People who don’t obey the law (wearing a helmet) make all cyclists look bad. I know it might mess up your hair, but it will more than likely save your life when you are hit by a car/truck/etc.
Also, even if the driver is as fault, they/their insurance will try to find you at fault for something. If you are hit and are not wearing a helmet, have fun arguing with the driver’s insurance company for a long long time. Hire a really good lawyer. If you are simultaneously breaking a law, you will have a hard time on your hands.
I’ll tell you, insurance companies aren’t the most transparent or helpful people ever even when you were following all of the rules and their insured driver was the one breaking them (as I am finding out).
That being said, if there was a car involved in this inciddent and they fled, then they probably do not have insurance anyway. In that case, my feelings go out to you. Dealing with medical stuff really sucks.
Jo, wearing a helmet is like wearing a safety belt. It’s the same thing. I know every time I get on a bike I wear a helmet and every time I get in a car I wear a safety belt. 1.) It’s the law. 2.) You have a greater chance of not dying in the event of an accident.
Recommending wearing a helmet isn’t part of a tangent. It’s just practical.
It actually sounds like there was no collision because the cyclist crashed while maneuvering to avoid one.
If there was no contact, is it a hit and run, legally speaking?
If there was no hit, then there was no hit and run. It’s a lame situation for the guy that got hurt, but maybe it will be a learning experience.
Hopefully the guy is okay, and hopefully he will be inspired to wear his helmet and maybe ride a bit more defensively.
wearing a helmet while riding a bike in king county is the law. why is it never enforced?
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/files/library/BOHCodeTi
SEVERAL of the bicyclists in and around that area simply do not stop or follow the rules of the road up to and including hand turn signals as well as not paying attention to cross traffic. TOO MANY TIMES have I witnessed several occurrences where a cyclist ran a stop sign, failed to yield the right of way, or simply pass by no regard for pedestrians especially in this are.
CITY OF SEATTLE – How many dead or injured people does it take for your law enforcement to start enforcing the rules of the road to bicyclists? If you don’t do something now its only going to result in law suits, fines, fees, and dead people. Wake up and smell the bike chain oil.
It’s enforced: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/644306-Seattle-Helm
Why do people feel like the police never ticket bicyclists for anything?
Cars speed all the time. Does that mean that speed limits are never enforced?
oiseau,
The thing that is being pointed out though is the fact that, every article about a cyclist getting hit and all the comments on that article are about whether the rider was wearing a helmet. Of course, people should wear them, but that wouldn’t have prevented the car from hitting them. Whether or not the bicyclist was wearing the helmet, the driver still pulled in front of them, and them drove away without waiting for police or even checking in on their victim.
To use your example of wearing a seat belt, what if every time someone got hit by a drunk driver, the news just talked about whether the victim(s) were wearing their seat belt. While wearing a seat belt is a significant factor in whether or not the victim survives, it has nothing to do with preventing the accident or the fact that the drunk driver themselves broke the law.
Because it is not the law in Seattle.
While I see the merits of your argument, and I agree with the sentiment, that is not what happened here. I suppose what I was trying to convey was that it’s just a good idea, no matter the circumstances. I see people now, since being bounced off of the concrete, and it just worries me I suppose. In all circumstances, helmets help. I would love to see better enforcement of the helmet laws, just like I’d like to see better enforcement of traffic laws that protect pedestrians.
Unfortunately, in this incident, we do not even know if the cyclist and the vehicle made contact. From the testimony provided by the medics, it sounds like they did not. In any case, the driver probably failed to yeild, which is illegal, but I guess my point that it’s just good to take that precaution. Wear a helmet, and ride defensively. Both will not only save your life, but will decrease the chance of super serious injuries
I don’t know what the cause of the recent tide of people riding without helmets is, but it’s just worrying nonetheless.
Hope the guy recovers. These sorts of incidents are usually big learning experiences. Also, if this was a -hit- and run, then the driver needs to be penalized, obviously.
Jo, sadly speeding tickets are probably handed out as often as helmet citations….
SEVERAL cars in and around that area simply do not stop or follow the rules of the road up to and including turn signals as well as not paying attention to cyclists. TOO MANY TIMES have I witnessed several occurrences where a car ran a stop sign, sped, failed to yield the right of way, or simply pass by no regard for cyclists especially in this area.
CITY OF SEATTLE – How many dead or injured people does it take for your law enforcement to start enforcing the rules of the road to cars? If you don’t do something now its only going to result in law suits, fines, fees, and dead people. Wake up and smell the transmission oil.
Sunday in my hood, I watched a bad ass bike dude run a stop sign, hit another cyclist and knock her clear off her bike, and was put off when I told him to stop to make sure she was ok. Don’t just hate on cars, hate on careless drivers of all modes of transport please, and thanks.
If the guy flew over his handlebars from braking really hard to avoid the crash….how fast would he have been riding? If you’re driving a car, if someone pulls out in front of you and you hit them, it’s almost always your fault anyway (so they say). “Failure to maintain control of your vehicle”. Why is this different for a bike? (if that’s what happened, that is). If he couldn’t stop his bike properly without flying over his handlebars, was he in control of his bike?
Maybe not “flamed”, but if you knew the intersection in question…
Olive/John is on a steep-ish curved section at Belmont. I regularly see drivers do “double take” stops for bikes. Even bikes at modest speed have a hard time breaking here. Besides, would the conventional blog wisdom be more favorable to the biker had he actually hit the car.
I’m generally eager to be skeptical of cyclists, but not in this case.
“would the conventional blog wisdom be more favorable to the biker had he actually hit the car”?
My opinion? No, I don’t think so. You should always be able to stop your vehicle, no matter what your vehicle is.
Just today I was on Lakeview Blvd (coming down from Roy) and some a=hole in an SUV pulled right out in front of me from the side street and almost broadsided me, and kept going. Would it have been her fault hitting me broadside? Yup. But it didn’t happen because I was able to stop, because I wasn’t driving too fast for conditions.
I do know this area of Olive, and I do know it’s really steep for bikes. That means they should slow WAY down to keep their speeds appropriate for the conditions. Excusing it because the hill is really steep doesn’t cut it.
I am definitely NOT saying it was OK for the driver to (allegedly) do this, BTW.
I had the unfortunate opportunity to watch the entire accident happen today.
The biker was not wearing a helmet, was going at a sped faster than the car and was riding directly in the car’s blind spot. The biker slammed on his brakes as the car attempted to go around a left turning car by entering the 2nd lane, not the bike lane. The biker slammed on his brakes to avoid the accident (may or may not have hit the car, I didn’t see) and flew over his handle bars. To me, they seemed equally at fault.
A helmet is most important, but secondly so is following the rules of the road. It is all to often that as a Capital Hill resident I see bikers ignoring the rules of the road, play both biker and pedestrian and disregard what is moving around them. As we learned in driver’s Ed, you should never ride in another car’s blind spot and always allow a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you. In this case as fault is most likely even, cars should always check their blind spots and use turn signals.
Just say’in.
I hope you’ve contacted the police and give an eyewitness account. Plenty of speculation here from both sides about what happened and getting an accurate account on the record will hopefully temper everyone’s “shoot mouth first, ask questions later” approach.
“was riding directly in the car’s blind spot”
So now cyclists have to know the blind spot of every make and vehicle model out there now?
“The biker slammed on his brakes as the car attempted to go around a left turning car by entering the 2nd lane, not the bike lane.”
The driver was in a hurry, didn’t look before he went into the other lane, and then cut the bicycle off. The car ran the guy off the road.
I’m assuming you got a description of the vehicle as well as a license plate number since you had such a good look at the entire accident?
Helmet: Are you saying that it is legal to cycle without a helmet in the City of Seattle? Are you sure? I would be surprised if the City did not have a law in line with the County’s…
Regardless, I doubt if cyclists without a helmet are ticketed much, if at all. Why not?
We just ask our police to not enforce laws. If drug dealing/possession ( or whatever Phil calls it) isn’t a priority, helmets should be even less of a priority.
A few things.
I am, obviously, a helmet and rules of the road advocate. That being said, you cannot pretend that a lot of drivers don’t break rules every day. I work in an office where I am the only person that does not commute by car, and I hear people here ALWAYS complaining about other drivers. It’s fun to have an enemey, but come on man. Pedestrians and cyclists? The enemy isn’t those that you label as this (I label myself as a pedestrian, because I am one. It’s my main mode of transport. While on a bicycle, I am a cyclist. It’s my secondary mode of transport. A person walking across the street to their car? Well, that’s a person walking across the street to their car). I think the people that drivers constantly see as the enemy are people that aren’t used to walking or cycling around the city, because if you are, you usually know how to stay safe. In other words, the people that drivers usually get mad at are usually drivers themselves and are not as used to walking or cycling.
Also
There isn’t a bike lane on this street. It’s spelled Capitol Hill (I imagine most people know how to spell the name of their own neighborhood). These two things make me believe you might be fibbing just a wee bit.
Did you mean that the cyclist was in *your* blind spot?
I’m sure it’s an issue of priority. Bicyclists not wearing a helmet are more conspicuous than other people breaking the law, but most people who don’t wear seat belts aren’t caught and most people speed aren’t caught either. I think most people would agree that if you don’t go more than 5-10 mph over the speed limit in your car you will NEVER get a ticket, except for in certain (usually very small) municipalities.
I definitely support people wearing their helmets. I also support people wearing their seat belts. But given the choice between enforcing speed limits or traffic lights and enforcing seat belts of helmet laws, I’m going to go for the former every time. They’re a form of law breaking that affect more than just the driver and can result in much more serious injury and damage, it’s as simple as that.
Just to be clear, I also support enforcement of bicyclists riding the speed limit, just because there’s really no safe way to go 40 mph on a bike.
Is riding in someone’s blind spot illegal? Unless it is, then the blame isn’t “even”. It’s definitely not very smart, but it sounds like only one party broke the law in regards to their actions towards the other party.
Could be that the motorist never saw the bicyclist at all, including after he crashed. “Pmac,” do you know if the motorist signaled the turn?
“jo,” it’s not a matter of learning every car’s blind spot. It’s something everyone (not just cyclists) need to be aware of: That the driver or rider in front of you might simply not see you. Bicyclists are hardest to see, followed by motorcyclists. But even large vehicles might get missed.
It’s tremendously tempting to turn traffic into a morality play. Happens all the time. I know I’ve done it, and then reminded myself later on that the (epithet of your choice) who pulled that (bonehead maneuver of your choice) is me at some other time.
The reality is that every rider or driver makes mistakes. Therefore, everyone has to drive defensively. If you’re on a bicycle, you have to drive very defensively, because you’re naked. One part of that is that you need to drive slow enough to be able to take evasive maneuvers.
Bicyclists who say they are going the speed limit have it wrong. Speed limits are a maximum. They don’t tell you what’s safe. If you can’t stop your bike safely when a car cuts you off, you are riding too fast. In this case, we don’t even know if the driver ever saw the bicyclist at any time, so the idea that there was a “hit and run” is questionable.
If bicyclists want to take their place as “legitimate” users of the streets, then they need to understand the principles of defensive driving. You cannot operate any vehicle on the principle that everyone else will drive perfectly. Motorcyclists are aware of this. Now it’s the turn of bicyclists to be aware of it.
@Shane, you watch too many lawyer shows. It’s not really about what was legal. It’s about driving defensively. That cyclist was going too fast. Sure, the car shouldn’t have cut him off, but motorists (and bicyclists) cut each other off all the time. It’s obnoxious, but it’s the job of the driver (or rider) who is cut off to be sufficiently aware of his surroundings to deal with what happens.
Next time, the cyclist shouldn’t ride so fast.
Blaming an accident on the cyclist because a cyclist was in a drivers blind spot? Please. The driver just never bothered to look over before he went around the left hand turning vehicle and would have hit the rider had he not slammed on his brakes. Olive Way is a one lane road and the cyclist was being courteous by being on the right side and allowing traffic to go through.
Reading this thread and the many others has changed my cycling habits. I now ride down the middle of the street. Don’t care how fast I’m going or if there’s a bike lane. If I’m holding up a lane of 15 cars so be it. If you see a guy on a bike riding up Pike or Pine going 8MPH straight in the middle of the street, well that’s just me staying out of your blind spot.
Next time, the driver shouldn’t veer outside their lane.
@jo, it’s not a matter of who is to “blame” for the accident. You and many other bicyclists simply refuse to acknowledge the obligation to drive defensively. When someone points it out, you spout “the law” and “blame,” and ignore what really counts: survival.
If you want to ride down the middle of the street from now on, I can’t stop you. I’d just tell you a couple of things. First, most motor vehicles leak some oil, and most of it goes into the middle of the road. Second, you should be sure that there are other people nearby in case one of those motorists gets mad and runs you over.
I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the “dead right” commercials. They were about defensive driving, and were directed at motorists. They featured situations where someone had the right of way and was killed. The punchline: “He was right. Dead right.”
I remember those commercials from 40 years ago. Maybe they need to start running them again. Take the right of way if you want, but I’d advise against thinking it will protect you. Ultimately, the choice is yours.
I also support enforcement of bicyclists riding the speed limit, just because there’s really no safe way to go 40 mph on a bike.
Bicyclists shouldn’t be allowed to go faster than the speed limit, but that’s not usually the issue. Too many cyclists think that because they are complying with the speed limit, everything’s okay. But actually, a cyclist doing the limit is usually going too fast for conditions.
If you can’t readily stop or maneuver around a sudden hazard (such as a motorist who cuts you off), then you are going too fast. This is true regardless of whether you are driving a car or riding a bicycle.