Ghost bike erected for Andrew Runciman. Image courtesy of Doug McLaren. Click image to see all of Doug's photos from the ride.
Saturday evening, Austin cyclists rode to pay their respects and to erect a Ghost Bike in memory of Andrew Runciman, a cyclist killed in a hit and run crash the previous Saturday night. The Statesman reported 300 cyclists joined the ride lead by Social Cycling Austin and Be Kind to Cyclists and escorted by Austin Police courtesy of BikeTexas. KEYE and KXAN also covered the event, but thankfully the coverage did not include any of the previous finger wagging over Andrew’s helmet wearing status or the “what was he thinking by riding on Lamar” reaction to a citizen riding legally on a public street.
One of the ride participants recorded these touching memories of Andrew including the fellow rider who witnessed his death.
on May 2nd, 2011 at 12:51 pm
I wish they call it an homicide instead of an accident.
on May 2nd, 2011 at 1:01 pm
Alonso,
Homicide is a legal term that requires certain actions to occur to satisfy such a conviction. If the perpetrator is caught, who knows what will be the best avenue to prosecute and have justice served.
I do think it is reasonable to stop referring to any of these incidents as accidents and instead just call them crashes. The word accident infers a lack of responsibility among the parties that gets ingrained with motorists.
on May 2nd, 2011 at 2:10 pm
I believe when someone is killed by someone else, it is a homicide regardless of intention. If it was intentional, it could also be called a murder.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicide)
We cannot say it was a murder yet; but certainly the description Emily (the witness) gave, makes me think it was a random hate killing, since the perpetrator did not even attempt to brake, and fled the scene.
on May 6th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
“Random hate killing” ? That would be murder.
It probably wasn’t a murder. The most likely explanation is that the driver was drunk, hit Andrew and then fled to avoid the penalties. Not murder, but certainly homicide and manslaughter.
As wikipedia says, homicide means a human kills another human. It doesn’t matter if it’s legal or not legal, justified or not, with intent or not — it’s still homicide. Murder and manslaughter narrow things down — murder requires intent, and manslaughter requires that it be an illegal killing (killing somebody in self defense isn’t manslaughter, for example.)