View Full Version : Cyclist Strikes and Kills Pedestrian in SF
mas0328
04-11-2012, 10:11 PM
There is speculation the cyclist was traveling at around 35 mph (obtained from his Strava data) through a crowded intersection to shave time off of his imaginary race time.
The victim was a elderly man walking with his wife.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/04/11/cyclist-in-deadly-sf-pedestrian-crash-may-have-been-racing/
The cyclist wrote about the accident online:
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2012/04/05/was-cyclist-who-killed-pedestrian-reckless
Reading this guy's write up makes my blood boil.
What do you guys think?
tannhauser
04-11-2012, 10:21 PM
There was another thread about this.
There is nothing defensible about his actions.
Armchair quarterbacks, start your engines.
Kirk007
04-11-2012, 10:29 PM
it seems to be all about him. Sadly not out of the ordinary.
toosahn
04-11-2012, 10:33 PM
it seems to be all about him. Sadly not out of the ordinary.
Not to derail, but your bikes are awesome!
benitosan1972
04-11-2012, 10:34 PM
Not to derail, but your bikes are awesome!
total derail! :beer:
Kirk007
04-11-2012, 10:41 PM
Not to derail, but your bikes are awesome!
grazie mille. The travel kirk is getting a rework and looking forward to getting it put back together.
Back on topic. Sounds like the guy made a really dumb decision. Hope to always avoid something that tragic on the occasions my head is elsewhere. Maybe his head was still groggy when he decided to post that comment.
eisoh
04-11-2012, 11:53 PM
meh, a hilly crowded city vs too many cars, bikes equipped with cable brakes= recipe for accidents
Do we know the age of this cyclist? Was it a designated pedestrian crossing, and on 'walk' at the time?
I was hit like this by a cyclist last year. He was going slower, but the force of the impact was tremendous. 35mph must be like a wall.
Penalty? Five years of not being allowed to ride a bicycle. Caught riding in that five years? Prison for one year. A man died.
Elefantino
04-12-2012, 04:57 AM
If I had a dollar for every idiot out there, I'd have lots of dollars.
If I had a dollar for every idiot out there, I'd have lots of dollars.
...but would you live to spend it? There are a lot of idiots out there.
learningtoride
04-12-2012, 05:13 AM
...
54ny77
04-12-2012, 06:37 AM
sad situation all around.
not sure why he's not being arrested for manslaughter. if he were driving a car, would he not be?
if it was my grandparent who was killed, i'd want far worse things to happen to that guy than any legal system would permit.
benitosan1972
04-12-2012, 07:41 AM
sad situation all around.
not sure why he's not being arrested for manslaughter. if he were driving a car, would he not be?
if it was my grandparent who was killed, i'd want far worse things to happen to that guy than any legal system would permit.
I said the same thing to a non-cyclist friend. As a cyclist myself, knowing that intersection, if I was in a car or on a bike, and ran a yellow/red there... and killed someone... manslaughter... whatever direction you're coming from (Twin Peaks, Divisadero, Castro, Market)... no bueno, it's a clusterf*ck of pedestrians & cars there with like 6-way traffic... he could've been killed too, unfortunately he was the one who killed someone... terrible choice
sfghbiker
04-12-2012, 08:03 AM
that is not the intersection to hammer through. even if you've been living in SF for a week you should be able to figure that out. He also probably could have laid down his bike way earlier as I doubt this old man did the dash into the intersection. idiot.
oldpotatoe
04-12-2012, 08:04 AM
Penalty? Five years of not being allowed to ride a bicycle. Caught riding in that five years? Prison for one year. A man died.
Being negligent and killing someone and 'not be allowed to ride a bicycle for 5 years'?
YGBSM...that's appropriate punishment if the guy is truly negligent resulting in a death?
verticaldoug
04-12-2012, 08:25 AM
Being negligent and killing someone and 'not be allowed to ride a bicycle for 5 years'?
YGBSM...that's appropriate punishment if the guy is truly negligent resulting in a death?
DA should see if they can apply the street race laws in this situation. In China, they are discussing the death penalty for illegal street racing.
leooooo
04-12-2012, 08:29 AM
My nature is usually to not give a damn bout these things.
That said...
IMO, the DA should throw the book at him.
Being negligent and killing someone and 'not be allowed to ride a bicycle for 5 years'?
YGBSM...that's appropriate punishment if the guy is truly negligent resulting in a death?
As a 'think' to other cyclists - a life ban is good for me too. This particular idiot deserves far more as his own personal punishment.
holy crap, that makes me ill. what is it about our sport that attracts such a truly special type of a-hole? More than any other sport I've been involved with...(and no, I'm not one of them, really!)
Surprised by the car comment.. if he'd been in his car he probably would be getting a ticket and that's it.
He sounds like a menace but let's get real.. he's going to end up being used as an example to try and stop the huge heinous problem of cyclists mowing people down and causing inconvenience to car drivers. The much higher # of pedestrians killed by cars can just be ignored of course, that wouldn't even be news.
Seramount
04-12-2012, 11:09 AM
As a 'think' to other cyclists - a life ban is good for me too. This particular idiot deserves far more as his own personal punishment.
banning the guy from 'riding' is ridiculous. the fact that a bicycle was involved is immaterial.
aren't there are laws regarding vehicular manslaughter/homicide?
just apply them.
It's odd, the blog post from the purported rider. We all get self-involved from time-to-time, maybe not so rarely, but certain things bring us out of it, or should, and some things ought to be screaming, blaring wake-up calls. Those quick nods to hoping for the recovery of the person in intensive care (now deceased), sprinkled in the discourse on himself and the paean to the helmet? After you've slammed into another human being, putting him into an ICU? It just seems bizarre.
And the account just doesn't ring quite true, although maybe that's how a person would remember it, even if it weren't. 35mph and it's half-way through the intersection that he (a) sees the light turn red, (b) sees the cross-walk flood with pedestrians, (c) picks a route, and (d) lays the bike down. Maybe . . . I mean, pedestrians might well jump the curb a little early, and we've all reacted quickly here and there when the alarms go off and the reactions are triggered, but the timing doesn't seem right. A little elementary school level computation says that 30 mph -- slower than the reported speed -- takes you across 5,280 feet in 120 seconds. Lop off a couple of zeros on both sides before you start to wonder about the particular half-width of the intersection . . . I dunno. Was everything -- including an elderly man's walking out into the intersection -- supposed to have taken place in 3/4 of a second? Half?
Fixed
04-12-2012, 11:40 AM
hang him and then burn him somebody's husband ,dad , died :bike:
imho cheers
It's odd, the blog post from the purported rider. We all get self-involved from time-to-time, maybe not so rarely, but certain things bring us out of it, or should, and some things ought to be screaming, blaring wake-up calls. Those quick nods to hoping for the recovery of the person in intensive care (now deceased), sprinkled in the discourse on himself and the paean to the helmet? After you've slammed into another human being, putting him into an ICU? It just seems bizarre.
I agree, very bizarre to the point of antisocial...it seems he thinks of the victim as some sort of random footnote to his crash. I hope he becomes a footnote in some jail somewhere.
Maybe he was in shock and/or hit his head and posted some stuff he shouldn't have since he wasn't thinking straight.
Surprised by the car comment.. if he'd been in his car he probably would be getting a ticket and that's it.
He sounds like a menace but let's get real.. he's going to end up being used as an example to try and stop the huge heinous problem of cyclists mowing people down and causing inconvenience to car drivers. The much higher # of pedestrians killed by cars can just be ignored of course, that wouldn't even be news.
No, if he had been in a car speeding through an intersection on a yellow light that turned red while he was in the intersection, and he hit and killed a pedestrian as a result, we would be hearing about it. And we should be. This kind of recklessness deserves punishment, and yes there are laws aimed to do so. Whether a prosecutor brings charges, or a jury will agree to convict, is another story.
But cars do that thousands of times a year in the US.. it usually is NOT national news.
There were about 50,000 pedestrians killed over the past 10 years. How many times did we have a thread here about someone getting killed stepping into the road and getting hit by a car/truck?
Even if he was at fault he's getting thrown under the bus for being "one of those damn cyclists" and that is the only reason this is news at all.
Here.. this shows all the ped deaths in 2011 in San Francisco on a map:
http://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign2011/map/#?latlng=37.7749295,-122.41941550000001
mtechnica
04-12-2012, 01:10 PM
What he did was irresponsible and horrible but this could easily turn into an opportunity for the anti-cycling people to jump all over cyclists... As others have said way more people die from being hit by cars...
rugbysecondrow
04-12-2012, 01:23 PM
But cars do that thousands of times a year in the US.. it usually is NOT national news.
There were about 50,000 pedestrians killed over the past 10 years. How many times did we have a thread here about someone getting killed stepping into the road and getting hit by a car/truck?
Even if he was at fault he's getting thrown under the bus for being "one of those damn cyclists" and that is the only reason this is news at all.
Here.. this shows all the ped deaths in 2011 in San Francisco on a map:
http://t4america.org/resources/dangerousbydesign2011/map/#?latlng=37.7749295,-122.41941550000001
What he did was irresponsible and horrible but this could easily turn into an opportunity for the anti-cycling people to jump all over cyclists... As others have said way more people die from being hit by cars...
So ****ing what? If you were to sit down and speak with Mr. Sutchi Hui's wife, do you think this info would matter? Justifying crappy behavior by noting other crappy behavior is not intelectually competent. That is like saying, "more people are shot than are stabbed with pencils, so why are we talking about this guy who is stabbed by a pencil when all these other people got shot?"
And, this guy hasn't been thrown under the bus, he was the guy throwing somebody else under his bike. Then this douchebag had the audacity to blog about it in such a callous manner. He actually writes a eulogy of sorts for his ****ing helmet while the man he hit was slowly losing his life. Again, he wrote more about a helmet than he did about the man who is dyeing. He isn't getting thrown under the bus, he is laying down in the road daring the damn bus to hit him.
“Anyway, other than a stiff neck, a sore jaw/TMJ, a few bruises and some raspberries, I'm totally fine. I got discharged from the hospital during the lunch hour. The guy I hit was not as fortunate. I really hope he makes it.
“The cops took my bike. Hopefully they'll give it back.
“In closing, I want to dedicate this story to my late helmet. She died in heroic fashion today as my head slammed into the tarmac. Like the Secret Service would do for a president, she took some serious pavement today, cracking through-and-through in five places and getting completely mauled by the ragged asphalt. May she die knowing that because she committed the ultimate sacrifice, her rider can live on and ride on. Can I get an amen?
“Amen.
“The moral of this little story is: WYFH”
tannhauser
04-12-2012, 01:27 PM
This thread is going as predicted. May reach Rapha-esque proportions imminently.
Really the question is:
"Was he wearing Rapha at the time of the incident?" :eek: :banana:
Fixed
04-12-2012, 01:35 PM
So ****ing what? If you were to sit down and speak with Mr. Sutchi Hui's wife, do you think this info would matter? Justifying crappy behavior by noting other crappy behavior is not intelectually competent. That is like saying, "more people are shot than are stabbed with pencils, so why are we talking about this guy who is stabbed by a pencil when all these other people got shot?"
And, this guy hasn't been thrown under the bus, he was the guy throwing somebody else under his bike. Then this douchebag had the audacity to blog about it in such a callous manner. He actually writes a eulogy of sorts for his ****ing helmet while the man he hit was slowly losing his life. Again, he wrote more about a helmet than he did about the man who is dyeing. He isn't getting thrown under the bus, he is laying down in the road daring the damn bus to hit him.
“Anyway, other than a stiff neck, a sore jaw/TMJ, a few bruises and some raspberries, I'm totally fine. I got discharged from the hospital during the lunch hour. The guy I hit was not as fortunate. I really hope he makes it.
“The cops took my bike. Hopefully they'll give it back.
“In closing, I want to dedicate this story to my late helmet. She died in heroic fashion today as my head slammed into the tarmac. Like the Secret Service would do for a president, she took some serious pavement today, cracking through-and-through in five places and getting completely mauled by the ragged asphalt. May she die knowing that because she committed the ultimate sacrifice, her rider can live on and ride on. Can I get an amen?
“Amen.
“The moral of this little story is: WYFH”
I totally agree
City cyclist need be extra careful
Peds are not part of the game
In the search of a rush
IMHO
Cheers
eippo1
04-12-2012, 02:16 PM
One thing to consider is if the blog post was a hoax to try to blow this thing up.
There's certainly a chance of that. If not, I'd like to have this guy's license suspended because if he made the same decision in a car, he would have most likely mowed more people down.
When people talk to me about a certain dude that's an ahole on a bike and how I feel about it, I tell them that if they're an ahole in life, they'll be an ahole on the bike as well as a car or in conversation as well.
BumbleBeeDave
04-12-2012, 02:34 PM
. . . but it seems like the cyclist's blog version of events could not possibly have happened that way given the distances and speeds involved.
Let's say the Strava claim is accurate and he's doing 35mph. That's 51 feet per second. Just hard to believe that . . .
" . . . almost instantly, the southern crosswalk on Market and Castro filled up with people coming from both directions. The intersection very long and the width of Castro Street at that point is very short, so, in a nutshell, blammo.”
Those people would have to be walking pretty darn fast to fill up the whole crosswalk that fast. But in any event, it's 8am morning rush hour, the streets are full, and this guy is blitzing down a hill in traffic at 35mph in an area I'm going to assume he's ridden in before and knows how crowded it will be.
Reckless? Hell, yes! But I also can't get away from the other obvious--how many peds are also killed by cars and how many of THOSE drivers are not even charged.
Regardless of hat, I doubt most of them posted blog entries that will come back to haunt them like this guy's. What an idiot.
BBD
tannhauser
04-12-2012, 02:45 PM
Let's say the Strava claim is accurate and he's doing 35mph. That's 51 feet per second. Just hard to believe that . . .
Apparently you've never ridden in SF when you were young.
54ny77
04-12-2012, 02:48 PM
i'm a little confused, was he bombing down castro heading towards market on a fixed gear bike?
i'd go through there often en route to noe valley where i lived for awhile. that was a crazy intersection.
Really the question is:
"Was he wearing Rapha at the time of the incident?" :eek: :banana:
Apparently so.
Which is why the cyclist was aiming for him.
henry14
04-12-2012, 04:08 PM
there's video of the incident. No "sea of people" and trying to lay the bike down.
Burn this guy.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/11/BA8B1O1H44.DTL
banning the guy from 'riding' is ridiculous. the fact that a bicycle was involved is immaterial.
aren't there are laws regarding vehicular manslaughter/homicide?
just apply them.
People get banned from driving. Banned from cycling would be the minimum obligatory 'rubber stamp' action. I would expect the legal system to throw the book at him.
oldpotatoe
04-13-2012, 08:37 AM
People get banned from driving. Banned from cycling would be the minimum obligatory 'rubber stamp' action. I would expect the legal system to throw the book at him.
I really doubt that a car driver, if found negligent and having killed somebody in their car would just receive a suspended license. Banned from cycling after killing somebody is like being banned from drinking lattes.
I think, if guilty, he needs to spend some time behind bars.
benitosan1972
04-13-2012, 08:45 AM
Really the question is:
"Was he wearing Rapha at the time of the incident?" :eek: :banana:
Too soon
BumbleBeeDave
04-13-2012, 08:55 AM
People get banned from driving. Banned from cycling would be the minimum obligatory 'rubber stamp' action. I would expect the legal system to throw the book at him.
. . . and symbolic only. There's no way to enforce unless somebody follows him around to make sure he doesn't ride.
He's probably also practically judgment proof if the victim's family sued him. Shallow pockets.
Regardless of any perceptions about discrimination against cyclists that might have to be dealt with, this guy needs to spend some time behind bars to teach him a few things about how to be a human being.
BBD
fiamme red
03-08-2013, 09:34 AM
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/2013/03/san-francisco-cyclist-chris-bucchere-accused-felony-manslaughter-was-bike-safety
Chris Bucchere has been cycling all his life and even taught classes in bicycle safety. That’s why, his defense attorney said Thursday, Bucchere would not have violated any road rules last year when he struck and killed a pedestrian in the Castro district.
But prosecutors countered that the San Franciscan’s extensive cycling history — along with a callous act right after the collision in which he mourned his helmet in an Internet forum — is further proof the 36-year-old software engineer should face a felony charge for the death of 71-year-old Sutchi Hui...
thwart
03-08-2013, 10:25 AM
“The fact that he is an experienced cyclist I find more worrisome,” Assistant District Attorney Omid Talai argued during Thursday’s preliminary hearing.
Yeah, me too. Thanks for the bad PR for the rest of us.
35 mph through an intersection in the city during rush hour. Gimme a break.
Bruce K
03-08-2013, 10:32 AM
Strava, baby.
It's all about the seconds.....
BK
norcalbiker
03-08-2013, 10:57 AM
There's always a bad apple on a tree.
Sad situation, and the blog was callous.
Does SF have Walk/Don't Walk on their intersections/crossings? I didn't watch the video in the one post, but if, as the cyclist claims, the light was yellow when he entered the intersection, and turned red while he was in it, would the crossing lights have switched to Walk by then? Seems like most of them I see have a 2 second delay or so before they do so?
Not sticking up for the cyclist, because going that fast in a crowded area is reckless as all hell.
Ahneida Ride
03-08-2013, 11:53 AM
If I had a dollar for every idiot out there, I'd have lots of dollars.
you would also have 100000000000000000000000000000000000 frns :banana:
slidey
03-08-2013, 04:41 PM
What a heartless ass( ) - firstly to plough through pedestrians during a red light for him, in a fully committed manner and then to have the gall to mention the intent in full detail on a forum.
Man, if I could get a hold of this guy I'd swing my helmet at his face at 35mph.
Ken C
03-09-2013, 02:14 AM
That is why I think many are doubting the light turned red while he was in the intersection. I would speculate it was red before the cyclist entered it, which is why it was filled with pedestrians.
The use of Stravia as a personal time trial device kind of strikes me as pathetic. I can see using it to log training or time a hill climb, but to use it in a way that you would race (yourself) in a situation that clearly dictates a need for defensive riding is narcissistic at best.
If you want to race, get a license and enter an event.
Sad situation, and the blog was callous.
Does SF have Walk/Don't Walk on their intersections/crossings? I didn't watch the video in the one post, but if, as the cyclist claims, the light was yellow when he entered the intersection, and turned red while he was in it, would the crossing lights have switched to Walk by then? Seems like most of them I see have a 2 second delay or so before they do so?
Not sticking up for the cyclist, because going that fast in a crowded area is reckless as all hell.
BumbleBeeDave
03-09-2013, 08:06 AM
. . . rides around the city all the time and is NOT familiar with the fact that there will be traffic and lights and clueless pedestrians (including many tourists)? Or he IS familiar with it and rides like this anyway? No matter what the reason . . .
Criminal. Negligence.
BBD
malcolm
03-09-2013, 09:07 AM
. . . rides around the city all the time and is NOT familiar with the fact that there will be traffic and lights and clueless pedestrians (including many tourists)? Or he IS familiar with it and rides like this anyway? No matter what the reason . . .
Criminal. Negligence.
BBD
I think this is the meat of the argument. The fact that he was on a bike or is a cyclist is really irrelavent as is his amazingly callous and horribly failed attempt at humor or whatever on his blog. All that proves is he at best has incredibly poor judgement or at worst may be the most arrogant dick I've seen or heard in a while.
The only thing really relavent is his profound negligence that any reasonable human being would acknowledge as beyond the pale much less an experienced city rider. That and the fact that it lead to the loss of life.
We all do stupid stuff but when it leads to injury or death you have to expect society to hold you responsible. I don't even know what to say about someone that would be involved in such a thing then post what he did. I can't even imagine what I would feel if I was his parent. I think failure would be right up there.
canadasteep
04-13-2013, 01:56 AM
Seems pretty clear to me: experienced cyclist biking way too fast around
rush hour in an area they knew.
Also, isn't a cyclist treated like a vehicle?
The guy was going way too fast and he knew it, and on top of that,
he should have anticipated the slow down.
No excuses.
"In closing, I want to dedicate this story to my late helmet. She died in heroic fashion today as my head slammed into the tarmac. Like the Secret Service would do for a president, she took some serious pavement today, cracking through-and-through in five places and getting completely mauled by the ragged asphalt. May she die knowing that because she committed the ultimate sacrifice, her rider can live on and ride on. Can I get an amen?"
The helmet gets a mention. What TF.:confused:
As a pedestrian i was hit from behind by a speeding cyclist a couple of years ago. I had no clue as to what had happened or why i was suddenly on the floor with something heavy pinning me down. It was a quite shocking experience. The force of the impact was substantial. It's no laughing matter, and cyclists riding like that should be severely dealt with.
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