Saintless

I had just dropped my oldest son off at his day care, and was taking my younger son over to his, when I was stopped at a traffic light. I watched in horror as a small sedan made a left turn at the light and ran over a bicyclist. The bike was in pieces, and the cyclist was laying in a very unnatural position. I can’t remember feeling such horror in my life as I did right then.

I see people all the time doing careless and dangerous things when behind the wheel. Someone in a hurry speeds up to make their turn in front of oncoming traffic, doesn’t stop for the pedestrian who was already crossing the road, sends text messages while driving, the list goes on.

And those are the kind of drivers that hit bikes and pedestrians. I have no idea what the story was with the driver of the car that hit the bike this morning, s/he may have been a very cautious driver, who wasn’t doing anything stupid. But what I saw shouldn’t have happened. And as I drove up to Layton for work, I kept thinking about how, when you get behind the wheel, you have a huge responsibility to everyone around you, and accidents like this morning don’t have to happen.

I hear people bitching about cyclists, grumpy that they have to share the road with them, especially with all the new bike lanes in Salt Lake. It really makes me mad when I hear this, because those people on bikes have every right to be there.

It also makes me mad when I see cyclists doing stupid things, and give other people any reason to bitch about sharing the road. When a cyclist doesn’t wait for a light, runs a stop sign, uses a pedestrian walkway to avoid obeying the rules of the road, or anything else like that, they make me mad, too. The rules are there for safety, and a cyclist has to obey them, too. (The cyclist this morning was obeying those rules, btw).

I’m sick to my stomach still, though I’ve finally stopped shaking. My mind keeps replaying the sedan literally running over the bike, several feet in the air, and the bike pieces flying, and the cyclist laying in the road twisted. It didn’t have to happen, it shouldn’t happen again. I’m going to be buying a new bike soon, but this has me second guessing that decision.

And since I’m on a rant, the same goes for motorcyclists. There’s blame on both sides, but my most recent experience was on the freeway, in the fast lane. I was passing a semi, and a guy on a bullet bike was behind me. He was up close, and I figured he wanted to pass, and though I was a bit irritated, I decided to get out of his way after I’d passed the semi. So, right after I passed, I turned on my blinker to get over, and waited maybe 3 seconds as I moved far enough ahead to be safe. I checked, and the bike was still behind me, checked my side mirror to make sure the semi was where I thought it was, and began to get over. As I did, I also turned my head to verify that I was clear. Well, apparently, I wasn’t getting out of the way fast enough for the bullet bike, and he had squeezed in between the semi and me. There was absolutely no safe way for the bike to squeeze through, and it really pissed me off that his stupidity almost lead to me killing him.

So, be safe, remember that your hurry isn’t everyone else’s problem and be more aware of the world around you, ok? Oh, and think about what a favor the cyclists are doing you by saving the environment, and not increasing the demand for gasoline, and give them a break.

P.S. I’ll be back to blogging eventually. Family issues are taking all of my attention right now, and I barely have time to think.

Update: While looking for new of the accident I saw this morning, I came across two local news items that really add to my point that people need to pay more attention. First, from KSL:

A man has been seriously injured in a car crash that was caused by a distracted driver. Police say the driver was texting when the wreck happened.

And from KUTV 2:

A woman was struck by a vehicle and killed in Weber County late Tuesday night while walking to the grocery store, authorities said.

Investigators said it appears that Mary Deats was trying to cross Harrison and 15th Street in Ogden at approximately 10:00 p.m.  A driver traveling north on Harrison didn’t see the elderly woman until it was too late.

It’s no wonder we parents are so protective of our children that the childhood experience today is so much different than when we grew up. I sometimes wonder how it is that I don’t let my 10 year old son walk 3 blocks to the 7-11 for a Slurpee by himself, and then stuff like this happens, and I realize that he’s going to be 30 before that happens….

If anyone does have news on the cyclist accident from this morning, please share. I’d really like to know if the rider was ok.

Tags: bicycles