bay area cycling news

The Mercury News is reporting that a San Jose man, David Garcia, was hit and dragged by a car around 10am Sunday morning near Crucero Drive and Dubert Lane in San Jose. He's now in a coma and the police are looking for the car. Josette Garcia said her brother was bicycling, with no helmet, about 9:30 a.m., home after a trip to Jack's Liquor Store, where his parents had asked him to buy lottery tickets. Apparently, people from an apartment complex near McLaughlin Avenue saw what happened, Josette Garcia said, and pulled her brother out of the street. Police asked anyone with information about this hit-and-run to contact the San Jose Police Department's Traffic Investigation Unit at 408-277-4654.

The newly launched Bay Citizen has an interesting article about cyclist vs car accidents in San Francisco. One September morning last year, Mary Jenn, a San Francisco massage therapist, was riding her bike to work when a police officer who was parked on O’Farrell Street opened the door of his cruiser in her path. ... The police officer was one of 101 drivers to “door” a cyclist in San Francisco over the past two years, according to an analysis by The Bay Citizen of 1,147 bicycle accidents recorded by the San Francisco Police Department during that period. That's from an article about dooring in the city , which references a nicely statistical article cataloguing cyclist vs car accidents up there. Additionally, they're releasing much of the raw data in various formats .

Lauren Ward was killed last November when an eighteen-wheeler collided with her on Alpine Road at highway 280 in western Palo Alto / Los Altos Hills. A month later the CHP concluded that Lauren had made an "unsafe turn" into the big-rig, and that the driver was not at fault, despite having a history of previous accidental deaths . Today, however, the Los Altos Town Crier is reporting that the CHP is reopening the investigation , prompted by "new information" about the accident. The CHP spokesman is careful to not assume anything about the new information, however: "Our original investigation is completed and everything’s still the same (regarding the party found at fault),” [ CHP spokesman Art Montiel ] said. “We don’t know if the additional info will make that change." Read (only a few more) details on the Los Altos Town Crier's website .

Lists are abuzz today with some firsthand reports of cyclists witnessing an elderly gentlemen in a Mercedes drift into the southbound bike lane on Foothill Boulevard just south of Arastradero Road in Palo Alto, hitting a female cyclist. The driver had stopped but the woman was transported to the hospital for severe back pain. At the moment there seem to be no official news articles or police statements. Foothill Boulevard is a very common thoroughfare for cyclist either commuting north and south, or out on lunchtime rides from around the prolific companies in Silicon Valley. The bike lanes are sometimes unmarked but very wide shoulders that usually provide comfort to cyclists who can stay away from the 45mph (and often faster) traffic.

The Santa Cruz City Council is voting today on moving the Pacific Coast Bike Route from Mission Drive to West Cliff Drive. Transportation officials have sought to relocate the route, which is part of an 1,800-mile stretch from British Columbia to Southern California, to share West Cliff’s unparalleled view of Monterey Bay with visiting riders and reduce their risk of collisions with vehicles. Since 2007, two bicyclists have been killed after being struck on Mission Street, which has no bike lanes, and police have recorded three other crashes there since 2009. Read the full reasoning at the Santa Cruz Sentinal .

Hours after the CHP release a report on how Lauren Ward allegedly biked into a big rig, her family is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the big rig driver, Gabriel Manzur Vera, and his company, Randazzo Enterprises Inc. “Lauren was an experienced cyclist who was strong and confident on her bike, knew the rules of the road and advocated for bicycle safety. While the CHP was conducting its investigation, we brought in scientists and other experts to evaluate the circumstances surrounding Lauren’s tragic death, and the team disagrees with the CHP’s conclusions as to the cause. As a result, Bob and the Ward children would like a jury to hear the evidence and decide,” said John Feder of Rouda, Feder, Tietjen & McGuinn. Read more on the family's press release .

The Palo Alto Daily News (hosted by Mercury News) is covering last night's CHP report detailing Lauren Ward's fatal accident with a big rig on November 4. According to a redacted CHP report released Monday night, Vera was driving his truck west on Alpine Road in the right lane between 10 and 15 mph at about 3:40 p.m. and Ward was to the immediate left of the vehicle sharing the lane. Ward, who was riding at an unknown speed, "unsafely turned" her Trek bicycle and fell to her right side, the report states. ... The trucker told the CHP the collision happened as he was moving from the right westbound lane into a lane that turned right onto southbound Interstate Highway 280. Vera told the CHP he had his right blinker on and was looking at his right rear view mirror, but when he looked forward he heard a "bump." It strikes me that short of swerving across the entire lane, even an "unsafe turn" causing a crash means that the driver was *way* too close to...