I don’t know if the summer heat is lulling drivers into a haze, but I’ve been hearing about a lot of crashes with automobiles and cyclists lately. First in a bizare twist, fellow blogger and road racer Daniel Satowas hit by a car this morning just 12 hours after his sister was in a auto wreck while on her bike that sent her to the hospital. Both appear to be fine, but it’s strange to have a family touched this way in such a short period. At least they weren’t in Chicago where a man was convicted of hunting down cyclists with his car while under the influence of alcohol yet received ZERO jail time. Apparently in the Windy City, your life is really worth less because you get on a bike instead of in a car.
This morning, an A2W reader, Laura Carbonneau shared this story of her husband who was in a bad wreck last week.
My husband Shane was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on a group ride that he was leading on Tuesday 6/15/2010. Wearing a helmet saved his life!
The accident was on North Hills next to Murchison Middle School. The driver – a 17 year old boy- did stop and there were other cyclists with Shane who stopped to help. Also, a doctor was driving by and helped him before EMS arrived.
His injuries are multiple and terrible but all are things that will heal in time. He had a closed head injury – bleeding and bruising. He was responding to questions immediately and although he doesn’t *want* to talk much, he can, and is getting more alert every day.
He also broke his hip – which was repaired in surgery. On his right side, all of his ribs are broken. He had fractures to his neck and some other vertebrae that mean he will need to wear a neck brace for 3 months. He literally has some kind of bruise or scratch from top of his head to his toe.
He was in ICU at Brack but transferred to St. David’s Rehabilitation Hospital on Monday. He is now in in-patient rehab at St. David’s Rehabilitation Hospital.
Meanwhile a day later, a cyclist was killed on Cameron Road while attempting to turn left. The article on the Cameron Road crash illustrates a pet peeve of my about local coverage of wrecks that include cyclists. They always report whether the cyclists was wearing a helmet (in the Cameron Road case he was.) As if wearing a helmet would save your life when being hit by a 2 ton piece of steel at 30+ MPH? I don’t recall whether someone was wearing a seat belt or air bags were deployed mentioned in every report on car crashes. Unfortunately, I believe this sort of reporting breeds a “they had it coming for not wearing a helmet” mentality. We already know the local press likes to highlight the supposed lawless nature of cyclists. With dynamics like this, is it a surprise the Chicago case went down like it did?
Of course if the majority of our population could see cycling as a valid form of transportation, this would change. Making such a leap will only be possible with the creation of safer facilities that either separate bikes from cars or slow cars down enough while giving preference to cyclists and pedestrians. On this note, a small step forward will likely occur today to that end. City staff will brief the City Council (without comments from citizens) on their plan to implement a Downtown Bicycle Boulevard. What was once a signature bike priority facility on Nueces Street laid out in the Master Bike Plan has changed into a less ambitious facility on Rio Grande (though one that includes a bike/ped bridge across Shoal Creek) and a pretty non-impressive facility on Nueces. In fact, I believe the staff recommendation to put sharrows and bike lanes on Nueces while removing stop signs and not replacing them with other traffic calming makes Nueces more dangerous, not less for cyclists. These changes were made in a major concession to a handful of vocal property owners on Nueces — not a good sign for the future goal of creating world class bike facilities.
Based on communication from the League of Bicycling Voters in response to their work, it is believed the City Council will direct staff to move forward on the Rio Grande project, but put the Nueces project on hold until after a major water line project is finished in the next couple years. The LOBV believes this will allow the project on Rio Grande to show the positive effects of bike boulevard traffic calming on property values and businesses so that true bike boulevard facilities on Nueces may be addressed before those facilities are finalized.
So there you go. We will have less than a mile of bike priority streets out of the thousands of car priority streets in the rest of Austin. I wouldn’t pop open the champagne but maybe a wine cooler?
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
On the helmet thing, though, people like Laura are providing the message too (“his helmet saved his life!”). There’s no way of knowing what did and didn’t save his life, so stop claiming a piece of styrofoam has magic powers, please, given how many cyclists with helmets on still manage to get killed.
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
I agree with you, M1EK. Laura was sharing her difficult story, and in fairness to her, I published the entire thing. Maybe it saved him, maybe it prevented a brain injury, maybe it had no factor at all. Helmets are a modest risk reducer for brain injury, nothing more. I usually wear one, but I know that it will not protect me from a 2 ton piece of steel nor every other type of crash.
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
A female cyclist died on River Hills and Bee Cave Road yesterday. Do you know more about this incident?
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
austinreader,
I’m not sure if this is what you are talking about, but the Bicycle Sport Shop blog is reporting that Austin Flyer Evelyn Stehling died last night on a ride. They say that there was not a crash involved in the death. A memorial ride is planned for Saturday: http://bicyclesportshop.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/friends-of-evelyn-ride/
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Another rider who was with my husband said they were going at least 30 mph because they wer going downhill. So the helmet did save his life – even at high speed. And no his brain injury is not permanent.
I agree with you on the other points!
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
I’m just seeing your comments – I know that it won’t always prevent death. But I’m pretty sure it stopped me from being hospitalized when I had a run-in with a dog in Creedmore… the dog cut in front of me, under my wheel, and I went down pretty hard. When I lay down to go to bed that night, the room started spinning and I threw up, so I went in to have an MRI. It was “just” a concussion. It would have been worse without a helmet.
But yes we need better bike facilities and better driver education and all of that stuff.
on Jun 25th, 2010 at 9:06 am
“Pink was wearing a helmet, and police say that alcohol or speed were not factors of the crash.”
I just don’t understand how he could’ve died if he was wearing a helmet and alcohol wasn’t involved. In this circumstance he should’ve been able to take a leap off the dome of the capital and walk away. Freak accident I guess.
At least it didn’t inconvienence the driver of the car too much.
on Jun 25th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
dont bike ride on cameron!! got that . ! duh duh go somewhere where there is no traffic. like out in the country . works for me.
on Jun 28th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Hm. How is failing to yield on a left turn on a busy road amount to evidence of something wrong with automobile drivers? The bicyclist made a grievous error in judgment and paid the ultimate price. That’s a terrible thing to happen–but it isn’t the fault of the driver.
on Jun 28th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
“heres a good tip”, AKA too chicken put your name next to your comment,
My understanding is from others that that area of town is where the cyclist lived and that he could not afford a car. He was not riding around for fun, but for transportation. Are you saying the public streets are only supposed to be safe for those who can afford the $10,000 average cost/year (according to AAA) of car ownership? Public streets need to be built to be safe for all users including cyclists and pedestrians. To do otherwise, perpetuates our dependence on foreign oil and is undemocratic.
Blue,
I don’t think anyone was expressing fault in this crash. I think the point as the previous commenter pointed out is that Cameron Road is a very dangerous place for cyclists. If we want people to choose to cycle for transportation (not just the people who can’t afford cars), we need to make the roads safe for all users or create facilities that separate cars from cyclists.
on Jun 28th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
heres the deal. just because you go out on a group ride doesnt mean its safe. actually its 100 times more dangerous than riding alone. why? because you are putting your trust in other people( mostly idiots )that you dont know. never trust anybody in a group ride. they know nothing about nuttin..they ride on dangerous roads and they think a paceline is cool. and drafting is what cycling is all about. these are big cycling nono’s. . riding on 360 is just plain stupid. so is riding what everybody calls (the damn loop)on 620 a sure deathride mommy i wont be home for dinner last call for prayers. . the best place to ride your bicyc,le and you will still live another day to do it again, is at the veloway in south austin. there you will meet many others that ride bikes and you can ride there and be happy and look at all the other cyclists and you can socailize and drink lots of free ice water. its nonstop fun. no cars no bars just all the miles you can stand to put on that 80 dolla walmart piece of junk .just kidding. i like to take my $ 5000 italian steed there and i’m in heaven, theres so many cute girls there and i just love them when they skate around in their cute tight hot shorts. nothing better,. your missing out. see ya!!!!!!!
on Jun 29th, 2010 at 11:34 am
My helmet saved me, yes it did! I had just put it on and was taking my commuter bike out of it’s rack on the floor so I could go to work when I bumped my head on the seat of my mountain bike which was hanging upside down from the ceiling. Or was it my triathlon bike? I can’t remember. So many bikes, so many places and reasons to ride.
Good idea to just ride the veloway, though, only I would have to drive my car 30miles to get there. Oh wait, I don’t have a car anymore. Maybe I could get my boss to let me work from there. I could camp out on one end and cycle to work on the other end. I just can’t let my girlfriend find out about those pretty girls!
on Jun 29th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Laura, there’s a very basic logical flaw in your argument. Perhaps a story from my own days could shed some light.
The only time I ever crashed my bike was during an August ride down to New Braunfels to meet some friends driving down, go tubing, and ride back with them. Leaving San Marcos, it was drizzling (yeah, in August) and the road was pretty slick. Came to a stop light; it turned yellow; I thought “I’m way too close to stop; I’d better keep going”; and then it turned red very quickly – I wasn’t even to the intersection yet. Oops.
Slam on brakes; do Superman impression; land on chest; slide a few dozen feet; done. Main injuries to me were some scrapes on my knees and hands, and a bunch of chest hair that got ripped out.
Can I safely presume that my chest hair saved my life? It got ripped out. Without it, can I assume my skin would have been ripped open and my organs exposed? Can I say that anybody who rides with their shirt on (or without enough hair on their chest) is just asking for a Darwin award? Of course not – you’d rightly consider it ridiculous. You might even (HINT!) ask me if I repeated the same accident with my shirt on. Or (HINT HINT) ask me if I understand the concepts of correlation vs. causation.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 9:28 am
“heres a good tip:
dont bike ride on cameron!! got that . ! duh duh go somewhere where there is no traffic. like out in the country . works for me.”
I live near Cameron Rd. It’s the safest road between where I live and a few destinations. I find that the car drivers go faster than they need to. So it seems that the best tip is that road users treat other road users with respect — whether by car, bike, or foot. In this case, it means that people on the road shouldn’t go too fast because that is dangerous to other roads users. Whether I drive a car or ride a bike on Cameron Rd., I find that many car drivers go way too fast.
While I have no other route to take me to my destination, I can drive safely for the sake of the others around me. Since we need to share our public road space, it makes the most sense to behave in a way that does not create an undue danger to others using that space.
“speed was not a factor”: This is one of the most bogus lines to me. If speed weren’t a factor, the participants would have had more time to react and would have intentionally avoided a collision. Of course, speed was a factor, the question would be how much of a factor the speed was.
I find that when I drive, I can make my risks to other road users smaller by driving more slowly. I drive with the recognition that I could hit someone, but that I want to avoid that happening that I want to reduce the severity in the cases where it does happen. One can choose one’s own speed on the road, and we shouldn’t pretend as if it is beyond our control to drive at a reasonable speed.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
M1EK – Okay go ahead and ride your bike without your helmet. Just remember that the worst thing that can happen to you is NOT death.
Maybe it didn’t save his life, but I’m pretty sure it saved him from drooling on himself the rest of his life.
on Jun 30th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
And thanks for the effing sympathy, assholes.
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 1:42 am
Laura,
I am personally sorry to hear about your husband’s accident but know you treading on one of the most strongly argued debates in the cycling community, helmets. Proponents swear they save lives and prevent brain damage (I’m sure they do) while detractors say these arguments are overplayed and the helmet is engendered with more protective powers than they really provide (which I also agree with.)
Regardless of where one stands, I wish Shane a speedy recovery.
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 8:40 am
Ever since helmets showed up I have always worn both a helmet and cycling gloves. I figure they both provide about the same level of protection. If I happen to fall off my bike for whatever reason these things MIGHT help reduce the damage done. I figure that it’s worth the minor inconvenience, but I also get why others disagree.
I never had strong feelings about the helmet argument one way or the other UNTIL I got hit by a car. The driver was speeding along the shoulder on Parmer, blew through an intersection and right into me making a very legal left turn onto a side street. The driver took off. Of course.
Within minutes the police, EMS and Fire were on the scene. Other drivers had also stopped to help me. And everyone seemed to want to know one thing above everything else. And you know what that was.
And the answer was ‘Yes I was’, but no one seemed as interested in the fact that my head never touched the ground anyway. I guess the EMS guys listened, but I got the very distinct impression that since I was wearing a helmet, everything was going to be just fine. That’s when I saw the light on the helmet issue.
It’s not that helmets are that big a deal per se, it’s that they are a HUGE distraction to the real issues of cyclist rights and safety. I commute by bike every day that I don’t commute by running. My coworkers tell me to be safe and sometimes comment on how glad they are that I wear a helmet. Then they get in their cars and drive off chatting on their cell phones.
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:12 am
Very well said, John.
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:23 am
Laura, I’m also really sorry about your husband’s accident – but the overpromotion of helmets makes us all less safe (makes suburban moms think cycling is dangerous, and then they just don’t let their kids ride at all – leading to fewer cyclists, leading to less safety for those that remain AND those who are now being driven around in their SUVs – less safe than riding their bike with or without a helmet).
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:24 am
Also, if helmets offered anything more than trivial protection against cuts and scrapes, we’d have seen some difference in the population-wide data as a lot of people started wearing helmets in the last decade or two.
Newsflash: We haven’t; you can’t tease out any positive effect on major head injuries or death that can be attributed to helmets. They don’t work. If they were a drug (that had shown promise in trials but not in the general population), they’d be recalled and sent back for more study to figure out why.
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:32 am
M1EK,
There has been a correlation in lower head injuries and deaths in pro cycling since helmets became required. High speeds in a pack, lots of risk taking. That’s why I always wear one on a club ride or race regardless of whether they are required. As for the day to day transportation cycling, I’m agnostic. I wear one when riding with my kids and irregularly other than that.
on Jul 1st, 2010 at 9:35 am
BTW, I totally agree with all the statements you’ve made about helmets overall negative impact on the bike safety of our facilities and how the majority culture views cycling. I was just stating my person preference.
on Jul 2nd, 2010 at 9:10 am
And I’d agree with your position about wearing one when racing, too. I also wore one when mountain biking.
Those who engage in those activities should feel free to tell each other to wear helmets all they want; but leave the transportation cyclists the hell alone.
on Jul 3rd, 2010 at 12:57 am
Was reading all the helmet commentary, so I went to try and find some evidence that says helmets really do help… I didn’t find much, and there’s quite a lot of dispute about methods and etc. I would say that there really hasn’t been a good study on this subject that would effectively deal with all the various factors around accidents.
I wear a helmet all the time, and I don’t really mind wearing it, but it has nothing to do with safe cycling, all it is is something that might make an accident a little less severe.
One of this interesting things that really stuck in my mind was the comment “Ordinary cycling is not demonstrably more dangerous than walking or driving, yet no country promotes helmets for either of these modes.”
How dangerous is cycling? To know that, you must make a lot of assumptions about how many cyclists there are, how much they ride, and how many accidents there are. I have read, for instance, that cycling is a little less dangerous than skiing. Is that good or bad?
Another little nugget, “Of 28 publicly funded cycle safety interventions listed in a report in 2002, 24 were helmet promotions.”
OK, so, the *focus* is not on reducing the number of accidents, but just ensuring that if there is one, your mangled body will still retain the capacity of thought, even though you might be paralyzed.
This diversion of attention from accident prevention strikes me as the biggest problem with helmet promotion.
on Jul 3rd, 2010 at 1:26 am
A further comment. Rereading my post, I couldn’t say it any better than John did. In particular the part in the last paragraph about the coworkers.
People are always telling me to be safe. The truth is that I cannot be safe through my efforts alone. There are others on the road, and there are always times when I am going to be vulnerable to them. On their part, they are safer in their vehicles now than at any time in the past, with air bags and seat belts, etc. and also less attentive to driving than ever before.
on Jul 3rd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
The elephant in the room.
What a JOKE it is to get a drivers license in the country. When I got mine 30 years ago I at least had to have a real live and very intimidating DPS officer ride with me for the test. I had recently moved from Europe where I had lived since I was five. In England, student drivers had to display a big red letter L on the front and back of their vehicles. Everyone got a fair warning that a noobie was behind the wheel. What a smart idea for everyone concerned! Many people who took the test there did NOT pass it on the first try.
Flash forward to my kids learning to drive. The Great State of Texas in it’s infinite wisdom has decided that parents can teach their own kids to drive. I took that option with both of mine – because I’m cheap and didn’t want to pay for them to learn to drive a car. And, I was a teacher, so I knew how to deal with high school kids.
What a joke. It was damn near impossible to get a straight answer from DPS about exactly how many hours the kids needed to log before they could come in and get their licenses. Not that it really mattered to me, because I intended on actually teaching them to drive and was not about to let them get a license until they could actually do it right.
I love my daughter like she was my own daughter, but it took her a month to figure out which way to turn the steering wheel to back out of the driveway. I was scared a lot of the time at first. Did you know that cars weigh 2000 pounds and go at 60 miles per hour? Think about that for a minute. I mean really think about it.
I decided it wasn’t enough for them to be able to drive their moms minivan. They would also have to master my car with its standard transmission. If you can’t drive a stick shift, you can’t drive.
Finally, my kids got it right and we drove down to the DPs HQ and they turned in their silly meaningless driving logs and walked out with their licenses from the state so they could make a 2000 pound piece of metal go 65 mph through the dark and rain on Mopac at 0200 on a Saturday night when the bars are closing (not that I would let them do that – but they COULD legally). No driving test was given. No scary DPS officer with reflective aviator glasses scowling from the passenger seat. No final written test. That was done months ago. It was 20 multiple guess questions long. It had four answer choices for each question and a student only had to get 75% of them correct to get that driving permit. The only other thing you needed to have was a pulse and body temperature above 96F.
My kids are pretty good drivers, but how many other people out there took this Parent Driving Program as seriously?
Yeah, exactly.
What we should start with:
1. Make tinted windows illegal. How can cyclists, pedestrians, or other drivers for that matter, make eye contact when people can’t see one another?
2. Ban cell phone use while driving. Execute people who text.
3. Make cars so that when the engine comes on, so do the headlights. Even on a July afternoon in Death Valley.
4. Make the driving test significantly difficult.
5. Do away with automatic transmissions and cruise control. If you are driving a car you need to be on full alert every single second.
6. Ban Hummers. If you want to drive one, go join the Marines and do it in Kabul.
7. Set the price of gas so that it covers the real but hidden costs of driving.
8. Make helmets mandatory for car drivers and passengers. Do you have any idea how many lives we could save that way. People in cars must also wear full protective gear. Cars are dangerous and the people in them should look like goalies in a hockey game. Yes, even in Texas in the summer.
9. Provide free Cialis to the guys that have to compensate by driving jacked up trucks with balls hanging off the trailer hitch.
10. Make the cops have to spend a certain amount of their time patrolling on bicycles. They would get to know the folks they are supposed to be protecting better. They would see more of whats going on and so be better able to do their jobs. They might even begin to have more empathy for cyclists.
It would be a start.