Casualties du Jour

Clearwater, FL: "[the bicyclist] failed to yield to a GMC van..."

Farmingdale, NY: "a 14-year-old... was fatally struck by a car Sunday..."

Orange County, CA: "Bicyclist only moderately hurt in crash"

Flagstaff, AZ: "bicyclist has been killed ... after a collision with a city dump truck."

Chillicothe, OH: "...killed Sunday afternoon as he rode his bicycle on U.S. 23"

Saugerties, NY: "A 16-year-old bicyclist remained hospitalized Monday after being struck by a patrol car..."

In the interest of fair and balanced reporting:

Boston, MA: "An 84-year-old ... who was hit by a bicyclist Friday afternoon died later that night..."

Since I am of course in NO WAY fair OR balanced, I feel I should point out that the bicyclist stayed at the scene of the accident, at least tried to help, and was not charged.

Today's Casualties

Wellfleet, MA: "... it is believed that a dog in the vehicle may have impeded [the driver's] point of view."

Salt Lake City, UT: "The driver was not cited as he had a green light..."

Clearwater, FL: "The bicyclist ... crashed into the back of a parked mail truck..."

Edmond, OK: "The man was riding a bicycle on a sidewalk ... and lost control..."

Logan Township, NJ: "[The bicyclist] was traveling on the shoulder ... when he was struck by a pick-up truck."

Charleston, SC: "The bicyclist was given a warning citation for disregarding a stop sign."

Utica, NY: "The unidentified driver was found at his residence and ticketed for leaving the scene of an accident."

News of SUV's Death Greatly Exaggerated

The US Dept. of Transportation's CARS program, popularly known as "Cash for Clunkers," reports that the top four clunkers being dumped are Ford Explorers, and top new vehicles being bought are mostly foreign-made economy cars like the Toyota Corolla and the Prius.



Cash for Clunkers (Yahoo)

Is it the death of the SUV? Well, not quite. Edmunds challenged the numbers, pointing out that if you count simply by make and model, instead of treating each configuration (e.g., 2WD and 4WD) separately, the top vehicle purchased is actually another SUV, the Ford Escape, and two pickup trucks actually made the top-10 list.



Analyst disputes top replacements for clunkers (Toledo Blade)

Edmunds: DOT’s Cash for Clunkers Top Ten List Gets It Wrong

Well, it is a bit smaller.

Valencia Hit-and-Run Suspect Arrested

Many other blogs have covered the story of Andrew Bennett, who was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding with his 4-year-old son on July 1. The driver was reportedly talking on a cell phone, and ran a red light.

The good news in this story is that a suspect was just arrested by the SFPD.

Hopefully the medical costs of Andrew's injuries won't break his family, and he'll be able to work again. I suppose we should simply be glad he and his son are alive at all.

No props to the Chron on this one, sadly: not only did they not cover the story, but actually published several anti-cyclist Letters to the Editor on the days following.

I'm especially impressed with this comment of Andrew's:

"... even if you ride a little bit around the city it makes you feel really good. I really miss the best way to move in San Francisco."

Amen.