Jonny Gaudreau

[72gmc]

Just finished a ride. A driver stopped to allow a dad and two kids to ride thru an intersection, and I also rode through in the opposite direction. An impatient middle aged man in a sedan came up behind the stopped motorist and began to pass on the right. He then saw the family on bikes and me, and stopped. I thought of this story for the rest of the ride.

[benb]

This story really sucks. I had never heard of these guys and yet I’m pretty shook up.

Exactly the kind of scenario that’s just about impossible to avoid with defensive riding and yet should never happen if drivers are even remotely responsible.

[572cv]

Originally Posted by Turkle

No one will learn a lesson from this. Nothing will change.

I am so beyond distraught by this story. Such a terrible, terrible waste.

What are we going to do about this? What are we, as cyclists, going to do?

It is beyond insanity that this kind of thing can happen as often as it does in the USA. This loss of the Gaudreaus is heartbreaking to the family, to their communities, and for what?

While we have rules of the road and a process for dealing with violations, that process involves a contest in court and the ‘equal rights’ of everyone under the law. But the situation in any crash between a vehicle and a cyclist or pedestrian or a horse, all of which are examples of more vulnerable users of the road, is not equal. It is not a fair fight, It is invariably life threatening to the more vulnerable user. The law needs to reflect this, somehow, and the training for an operator’s permit for a vehicle needs to reflect and instill this better.

What we as cyclists need to do, I would offer, is to help advocate for laws that would recognize this disparity even to the extent of presuming initially that the vehicle operator is the guilty party in a crash, as a starting point. Driving school needs to be uniform to some basic degree nation wide, and needs to hammer home the reality that roads can have many different kinds of users, and they all have the right to use the road. Emphasizing that with new drivers especially would be a long term benefit. Maybe all drivers should have to take a ‘continuing education ‘ class at some interval (ten years?) to remind of the rules and consequences and demonstrate capability. And driving under the influence or distracted driving should have more serious and recognized/understood consequences. You blow high, you blow it.

There are certainly orgs and pols out there who have thought about this and perhaps developed a course of action. Getting them the support they need is one thing everyone can help with, one bike at a time. I know that some of these thoughts are aspirational, but getting started on this path is not aspirational, it is needed. Rant over, for now.

[Louis]

Terrible for the Gaudreau family.

Unfortunately, I was reminded again today that it isn't just cyclists who are being taken down by drivers:

Thursday night I left work a bit later than usual (actually quite late) and as I was heading SB on an almost deserted local highway I noticed that a pair of headlights in the NB lanes seemed bright. There were some gentle turns in the area, so I figured it was a truck that happened to be in a turn, and pointed right at me. I had the cruise control on at 65, and was in the middle of three SB lanes. A second or two later I realized that the NB headlights were still coming, but far enough to my left that I wasn't super concerned. Just to be safe I moved over to the right SB lane, and about a second later a car came flying by, going NB in the SB lanes, in the lane closest to the median. Luckily I had moved over, so they didn't pass right next to me. They were going at least as fast as I was, so the closing speed was almost certainly over 120 mph. Oooof.

Friday I did a search on "wrong-way driver St Louis" and sure enough, about 5 minutes after my incident a drunk wrong-way driver hit and killed a driver a few miles away, in the WB lanes of a highway that intersects the one I was on. The way the exits are set up there's a "left lane merge" from one highway to the other. The WWD took that shortly after they passed me, and was then headed EB in the WB lanes of the other highway, where they hit and killed the driver of the other car. Terrible.

And it could easily have been me...

[ojingoh]

Originally Posted by Louis

And it could easily have been me...

SMH - sorry that happened, chilling.

[marciero]

Saddening, sickening, beyond imagining. Of course this kid is the beaming image of youthful vitality, prime of life...

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by Turkle

No one will learn a lesson from this. Nothing will change.

I am so beyond distraught by this story. Such a terrible, terrible waste.

What are we going to do about this? What are we, as cyclists, going to do?

We, as cyclists, are for the most part powerless against a car culture and an infrastructure built (mostly) for same.

We can ride in groups. Except a group was massacred by a drunk driver in Tucson.

We can demand more bike lanes. Except cars, trucks and delivery vehicles park in bike lanes ... and aren't cited.

We can swear off road riding and hunt gravel. Except that would mean no longer enjoying the wonder of the road.

Yes, what can we do?

[vespasianus]

Originally Posted by Turkle

No one will learn a lesson from this. Nothing will change.

I am so beyond distraught by this story. Such a terrible, terrible waste.

What are we going to do about this? What are we, as cyclists, going to do?

This happens every day and nobody cares. About a month ago, in my town, a cyclist, 60 years of age was hit and killed while walking his bike in a pedestrian crossing. The cause, an eager driver that wanted to go around a slower car. This was an experienced cyclist, that had ridden his bike across country.

The USA has more auto associated pedestrian and cyclist deaths than Europe combined. We allow for "freedom" here but at the cost of peoples lives.

[AngryScientist]

Seemingly a good visual of what happened.

People take driving too casually. It's just not something you can do well drunk.

Higgins allegedly told an officer who responded to the scene that he had five or six beers before the collision and said he had consumed alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint, which was obtained by the Associated Press. The complaint also stated that Higgins failed a field sobriety test, per AP.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . from a British website.

https://road.cc/content/news/ice-hoc...-driver-310111

[BumbleBeeDave]

There's not much we can do except keep wearing hi-viz, buying flashing lights and radar units to warn us, and using video cameras to record our rides in the faint hope that if we do get hit, someone will be held accountable in some way after the fact.

Even sadder, I don't think this is just about cars. I read recently an op-ed that called the US today "a cult of selfishness." And so it is. In the past 8-10 years things have gotten so much worse with both overt and casual selfishness, plus casual arrogance, casual aggression, casual bigotry, and an increasing refusal to take personal responsibility for just about anything that ends up hurting others in any way.

I just don't remember it being this way when I took up cycling 40 odd years ago. Was I just young and naive then? Maybe more naive than I am now, but not to the degree that I wouldn't notice this much failure of morals, empathy, and the humanity that separates us from wild animals..

Seems best I can do now is keep charging all these warning gadgets, grow another set of eyes in the back of my head, and keep seeking out rail trails and roads out in the middle of nowhere. That's the reality, and it's depressing.

BBD

Originally Posted by Elefantino

We, as cyclists, are for the most part powerless against a car culture and an infrastructure built (mostly) for same.

We can ride in groups. Except a group was massacred by a drunk driver in Tucson.

We can demand more bike lanes. Except cars, trucks and delivery vehicles park in bike lanes ... and aren't cited.

We can swear off road riding and hunt gravel. Except that would mean no longer enjoying the wonder of the road.

Yes, what can we do?

[Elefantino]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

I just don't remember it being this way when I took up cycling 40 odd years ago. Was I just young and naive then?

50 years ago we spent the summer at Tahoe and I rode my Raleigh nearly every day (because there were some cute girls on the west side of the lake). It was a long "commute" and of course we didn't wear helmets. But the idea of drivers being angry (or impatient) on the road never seemed to enter the equation, or at least into my teenage brain.

I would no more ride around Tahoe now without rolling closures than I would jump off a cornice on Granite Chief. Either would be too chancy.

[Black Dog]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeDave

There's not much we can do except keep wearing hi-viz, buying flashing lights and radar units to warn us, and using video cameras to record our rides in the faint hope that if we do get hit, someone will be held accountable in some way after the fact.

Even sadder, I don't think this is just about cars. I read recently an op-ed that called the US today "a cult of selfishness." And so it is. In the past 8-10 years things have gotten so much worse with both overt and casual selfishness, plus casual arrogance, casual aggression, casual bigotry, and an increasing refusal to take personal responsibility for just about anything that ends up hurting others in any way.

I just don't remember it being this way when I took up cycling 40 odd years ago. Was I just young and naive then? Maybe more naive than I am now, but not to the degree that I wouldn't notice this much failure of morals, empathy, and the humanity that separates us from wild animals..

Seems best I can do now is keep charging all these warning gadgets, grow another set of eyes in the back of my head, and keep seeking out rail trails and roads out in the middle of nowhere. That's the reality, and it's depressing.

BBD

Do you think that the shift you observe is related to our increasing use of social media over the last decade or so?

[BumbleBeeDave]

Originally Posted by Black Dog

Do you think that the shift you observe is related to our increasing use of social media over the last decade or so?

. . . because people can now say all sorts of vile things to each other online that would get them a mouth full of knuckles if they were said face to face.

Of course, it could also be argued that there's public figures who have also normalized this type of behavior. I'll leave that up to your speculation.

But my overwhelming impression is that people have overall just gotten more selfish, less caring, and more open about taking advantage of each other over recent years. Doing anything "for the public good" has gotten rare. slowly but surely, the social contract that we learned about in college Western Civ classes is breaking down and is just more obviously reflected in the way people drive their vehicles.

BBD

[Spoker]

Originally Posted by Louis

Terrible for the Gaudreau family.

Unfortunately, I was reminded again today that it isn't just cyclists who are being taken down by drivers:

Thursday night I left work a bit later than usual (actually quite late) and as I was heading SB on an almost deserted local highway I noticed that a pair of headlights in the NB lanes seemed bright. There were some gentle turns in the area, so I figured it was a truck that happened to be in a turn, and pointed right at me. I had the cruise control on at 65, and was in the middle of three SB lanes. A second or two later I realized that the NB headlights were still coming, but far enough to my left that I wasn't super concerned. Just to be safe I moved over to the right SB lane, and about a second later a car came flying by, going NB in the SB lanes, in the lane closest to the median. Luckily I had moved over, so they didn't pass right next to me. They were going at least as fast as I was, so the closing speed was almost certainly over 120 mph. Oooof.

Friday I did a search on "wrong-way driver St Louis" and sure enough, about 5 minutes after my incident a drunk wrong-way driver hit and killed a driver a few miles away, in the WB lanes of a highway that intersects the one I was on. The way the exits are set up there's a "left lane merge" from one highway to the other. The WWD took that shortly after they passed me, and was then headed EB in the WB lanes of the other highway, where they hit and killed the driver of the other car. Terrible.

And it could easily have been me...

Did you call 911 immediately?