Iowa City Pedestrian hit by car

[VeloClone]

A $1000 fine and up to 180 days in jail. Being a minor I would bet the jail doesn't happen, so effectively it costs $1000 to be negligent and kill someone.

Another motorist waved him across... This is exactly why I don't automatically cross when cars stop and wave me across.

We have an intersection of a bike trail and a suburban road with a 45 speed limit nearby. There are signs on the bike trail warning that it isn't a crosswalk and that road traffic has the right of way. Cars see the bike trail sign and often stop when they see cyclists waiting. They often then get mad when the cyclist doesn't immediately cross because the cyclist is waiting on traffic coming from the other way (traffic that sometimes stops but more often just speeds through). I'll take having a nice motorist mad at me rather than a trip in an ambulance or worse.

 

[MJ29]

Turns out the driver of another vehicle was the one who caused it even though young McCaffery was operating the vehicle that struck the pedestrian.

Just because the other person waved them through doesn't mean this was their fault. McCaffrey still has a duty to keep proper lookout and yield right-of-way to vehicles or pedestrians already established in the road/intersection.

 

[CloneJD]

Turns out the driver of another vehicle was the one who caused it even though young McCaffery was operating the vehicle that struck the pedestrian.

Fran acts like yielding to a pedestrian is a crime itself.

 

[TClone99]

Just because the other person waved them through doesn't mean this was their fault. McCaffrey still has a duty to keep proper lookout and yield right-of-way to vehicles or pedestrians already established in the road/intersection.

Unavoidable according to Fran and Marge.

 

[madguy30]

Another motorist waved him across... This is exactly why I don't automatically cross when cars stop and wave me across.

We have an intersection of a bike trail and a suburban road with a 45 speed limit nearby. There are signs on the bike trail warning that it isn't a crosswalk and that road traffic has the right of way. Cars see the bike trail sign and often stop when they see cyclists waiting. They often then get mad when the cyclist doesn't immediately cross because the cyclist is waiting on traffic coming from the other way (traffic that sometimes stops but more often just speeds through). I'll take having a nice motorist mad at me rather than a trip in an ambulance or worse.

Had a cyclist on the Cedar Valley trail blow through a stop sign the other day on a stretch of highway right in front of me.

Love the idea of biking, but **** people like that that don't even pretend to slow down.

 

[Gonzo]

Mostly.

"Texting" requires two hands and eyes unless I'm missing something. It's that act of typing on a horrifically bad device that I have always hated and welcome never doing that while driving.

I got a ticket 3 years ago because I picked up a phone with one hand and held it to my ear for a conversation. I'd argue that's LESS distracting than having a burger, fries and coke on the road. Since then I've gotten better about having a way to pick up calls hands free.

On same stretch of road a coworker of mine got a ticket for ONE earbud in an ear.

It's all tradeoffs. People won't admit it but we agree it's worth the risk to be able to eat/drink in the car.

I'm sure 16-year-olds do text as a form of communication but I highly doubt for that age group texting is the primary way of communicating over their phone. Snap and Facetime much more likely I'd think, and I don't think those are things that can be tracked the way talking/texting activity on your phone carrier bill can. Could be wrong.

 

[clone52]

A real big question is why texting drivers are treated that differently than OWI. Probably harder to prove but in cases where they can prove it, I don't really see a difference.

Really shouldn't be. Fatigue should be an issue too. In Germany, if you cause an accident and found that you worked more than a certain number of hours that day, you get in more trouble. At least this is what some German colleagues told me.

 

[CloneinWDSM]

Without knowing exact circumstances, it’s hard to pass judgement. If the image of the area from the last page is right, the other driver could’ve been right up against that line turning right and the jogger may not have even been visible to Jack. ****** situation on all fronts.

 

[Cyrocks]

I'm sure 16-year-olds do text as a form of communication but I highly doubt for that age group texting is the primary way of communicating over their phone. Snap and Facetime much more likely I'd think, and I don't think those are things that can be tracked the way talking/texting activity on your phone carrier bill can. Could be wrong.

I don't think you are wrong on that. Seems to me I either watched a news segment or read an article about how law enforcement can't track Snap or Facetime easily -- or at all

 

[1UNI2ISU]

Just because the other person waved them through doesn't mean this was their fault. McCaffrey still has a duty to keep proper lookout and yield right-of-way to vehicles or pedestrians already established in the road/intersection.

And he was cited for not doing so.

I'm sure there will be a civil settlement as well.

 

[clone52]

This will be entertaining ... Bring forth the research studies

I'm I'm certain that research studies show that texting is more dangerous than drinking, but its not the whole story. Hypothetically, if you are sober, you might decide to text if the traffic is low and you're on a straight stretch of road. If you are in a ton of traffic or going around curves, you could choose not to text. The idea being if you are making the exact same drive while drunk, you're drunk that entire time. If you are texting, you hypothetically can make good decisions about when to text.

Personally, I am a-ok with stronger laws about texting and cell phone use in the car. I am trying really hard to break my own habit of doing so. I wouldn't be opposed to mandatory sensors in the car that alert you if your eyes leave the road too long.

 

[VeloClone]

Unavoidable according to Fran and Marge.

You can't take comments by an officer on the scene at face value either.

A buddy of mine was involved in a bike/auto accident recently on the roundabout by the research park. He checked his shoulder before a lane change and stayed in his lane because a car was coming up behind him. After car went by he checked again and only car was well behind so he started a slow smooth lane change. Young driver in the car well behind entered the roundabout at a high rate of speed and hit my buddy at a high rate of speed. He was knocked right out of his cycling shoes and destroyed her windshield.

Responding officer cited my buddy for failure to signal a lane change and didn't cite the driver because "she didn't see him". Next officer on site said that he just got the wrong officer because in his opinion the accident was clearly the fault of the driver who was driving at an unsafe speed and didn't yield to another who was already in the lane before the accident happened. He noted that buddy is 6'4" and had a bright orange messenger bag slung across his back in bright mid-day sun. She didn't see him only if she wasn't paying attention or distracted. It probably didn't help that buddy had a concussion and probably couldn't relate what happened very well. He was so messed up that he remembered the doctor that saw him in the ER as a man, when a woman saw him.

What an officer says and cites may be the law, but it may not always reflect who is really at fault in an accident.

Yes buddy should signal but probably never will.

 

[clone52]

Just because the other person waved them through doesn't mean this was their fault. McCaffrey still has a duty to keep proper lookout and yield right-of-way to vehicles or pedestrians already established in the road/intersection.

But I think a situation like this is why the criminal penalty is not so severe. If there were other circumstances, I'm sure there would be other charges they could add.

 

[VeloClone]

Had a cyclist on the Cedar Valley trail blow through a stop sign the other day on a stretch of highway right in front of me.

Love the idea of biking, but **** people like that that don't even pretend to slow down.

We have a ton of cyclists who bike in downtown Minneapolis like they own the road, blowing through red lights, etc. It pisses a lot of other cyclists off because we know it just pisses motorists off who end up driving more aggressively toward all of us cyclists.

 

[Jer]

Louk at al yu self-rightous jercs saeing we all txt and drvve.

Sry fir ane spellllng ers, drvyng in I-80.

 

[ljm4cy]

Just because the other person waved them through doesn't mean this was their fault. McCaffrey still has a duty to keep proper lookout and yield right-of-way to vehicles or pedestrians already established in the road/intersection.

Yeah, that is BS to blame the other driver. His signal to the jogger was his acknowledgement that the jogger was seen by him and he would await his passage. It had nothing to do with McCaffrey's actions.

 

[Trice]

Another motorist waved him across... This is exactly why I don't automatically cross when cars stop and wave me across.

We have an intersection of a bike trail and a suburban road with a 45 speed limit nearby. There are signs on the bike trail warning that it isn't a crosswalk and that road traffic has the right of way. Cars see the bike trail sign and often stop when they see cyclists waiting. They often then get mad when the cyclist doesn't immediately cross because the cyclist is waiting on traffic coming from the other way (traffic that sometimes stops but more often just speeds through). I'll take having a nice motorist mad at me rather than a trip in an ambulance or worse.

I ride local bike trails and I get waved across roads all the time even though I have the stop sign on the trail. I hate it when people do that.

A couple of months ago one guy stopped *on a 55mph road* to wave me across. I politely declined but he was insistent - his good deed for the day, I guess - and in negotiating my transaction with him I lost sight of a car coming over the hill from in the other lane, which did not slow. If I hadn't caught myself, I'd have been killed.

You'd never stop on a green light and wave someone with the red light through. We have systems for a reason. Obey them for everyone's safety.

 

[Jer]

I ride local bike trails and I get waved across roads all the time even though I have the stop sign on the trail. I hate it when people do that.

A couple of months ago one guy stopped *on a 55mph road* to wave me across. I politely declined but he was insistent - his good deed for the day, I guess - and in negotiating my transaction with him I lost sight of a car coming over the hill from in the other lane, which did not slow. If I hadn't caught myself, I'd have been killed.

You'd never stop on a green light and wave someone with the red light through. We have systems for a reason. Obey them for everyone's safety.

I fully agree with this - but I also think bikers need to actually pay attention when crossing the side-streets going into businesses and not just assume everybody is going to give them room. I've seen a lot of riders along Hickman in Waukee that have to be on their 1st of 9 lives with the way they go full-speed and don't look up or around.

 

[madguy30]

We have a ton of cyclists who bike in downtown Minneapolis like they own the road, blowing through red lights, etc. It pisses a lot of other cyclists off because we know it just pisses motorists off who end up driving more aggressively toward all of us cyclists.

Imo (and it might be the case in some places) stop signs/lights should be treated like Yield signs for bikes: slow with the intent to stop, check for traffic, and proceed if clear.

It's a happy medium and could be promoted widely so bikers had lenty of reminders.

 

[Ankency]

I ride local bike trails and I get waved across roads all the time even though I have the stop sign on the trail. I hate it when people do that.

A couple of months ago one guy stopped *on a 55mph road* to wave me across. I politely declined but he was insistent - his good deed for the day, I guess - and in negotiating my transaction with him I lost sight of a car coming over the hill from in the other lane, which did not slow. If I hadn't caught myself, I'd have been killed.

You'd never stop on a green light and wave someone with the red light through. We have systems for a reason. Obey them for everyone's safety.

THIS EXACTLY!!! I get motorists are trying to be nice, but they should NEVER stop for a bicyclist in those crossings!! If cars behind or coming the other way do not stop (since they are not required to) then bicyclist is toast!!