A french cyclist from Paris.

That's awful. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope that your friend recovers fully, and that you find some information.

What bothers me is how much responsibility these riders may bear in bringing this incident upon themselves. They were reportedly blocking the road by not riding single file. In fact, the eyewitness account I just read stated that they were in the middle of the road And it has been reported that when the driver shouted an insult at them, one or both shouted back at him.

This incident is yet one more example of the all too common road rage. But, it also sheds a very negative light on inconsiderate bikers, or groups of bikers, who essentially take over a road, and impede the safe flow of traffic. Yes, us bikers every right to use the road. But common sense and common courtesy dictates that if we are going slower than the flow of traffic, or much slower than the typical automobile would travel on a road, we should move over and allow automobiles to safely pass us. I have been riding for over 20 years, and have never experienced any problems by adhering to this simple principle.

Please, think of that the next time you are in a large group of bikers, riding 5 or 6 wide, riding much slower than the flow of traffic (blocking traffic). And don’t be so surprised when motorists honk at you to move over, or when they become upset when you act as-if it’s your right to ride in the middle of traffic at 20MPH.

Subject: July 4th Road Rage

This is a description of what happened.

The mood was great as we all had a great, safe and uneventful ride to the top of Mandeville Cyn. We then all left at different times down the Canyon. My friend Ed, was riding about 40 yards ahead of me. I was traveling at approximately 25 mph. I was then passed by 2 cyclists, Ron and Christian, who I have seen many times before on our weekly rides in the South Bay and these Holiday rides. I would estimate their speed at probably 3 to 5 mph faster than myself. They slowly pulled ahead of me and when they were about 50 ft. in front of me, a car started approaching from my rear with it's horn blaring intermittently and passed me in a very aggressive way. The red Infinity, which was traveling at a speed that I would estimate to be between 40 to 45 mph, passed around to my left over the dividing line with it's right side tires still in the right lane. I would guess the car to have been about 3-4 ft. away from me on my left. My position was just to the right of center of the lane. Ron and Christian were ahead of me and Ron was close to the center of the lane and Christian was to his right. The car continued on the same line and as it approached Ron and Christian, it passed them and then immediately cut in front of them in an intimidating deliberate, aggressive way. The driver was about 3-5 ft in front of Ron
and Christian, who then yelled out to the driver in startled amazement and the driver then abruptly and with no notification whatsoever, slammed the brakes of his car. Ron immediately slammed into the back endof the car impacting the trunk portion and shattering the rear windshield with his face.

Christian, who at the moment just prior to impact was about 2 feet behind and to the right of Ron, attempted to stop and hit Ron's bike and flew over the trunk of the car to the left into the opposite lane of traffic. I immediately applied my brakes to stop at the scene. The time lapse from the car veering into their path and the impact and crash was about 2-3 seconds. As I approached the car
about 4 to 5 seconds later, Ron was leaning against the trunk
motionless, bleeding profusely from the face, his hands over his face, clearly in shock. Christian was lying on the ground moaning in severe pain.

As I was holding onto Ron, the driver got out of his car and
approached towards us. I yelled at him in utter amazement "Why did you do this? What are you doing, get the fuck away". He was aggressive in his response saying, "Don't tell me what to do". I said to him "Look what you've done, get away." I then yelled at him to turn his car off.

He again said "don't tell me what to do." I again ordered him in a very
terse and commanding tone to turn his car off, which he then did. I then sat Ron down and headed towards Christian who was lying on the ground in severe pain. I looked at his shoulder and it was protruding out which appeared to be either a dislocation or broken collar bone. Cars then approached and I went to the first car and the woman driver already had her cell phone out and ready to give me. I called 911 and told the operator that we need an ambulance, that there were severely injured cyclists and the police, as a blatant crime of assault with a car had just happened.

About 3 to 5 minutes had elapsed at this point when numerous drivers and neighbors had stopped and were assisting in the
care of Ron and Christian. When I walked back to Ron, a gentleman named Bruce Rogan was tending to him. He was making a suggestion about hiscare when the road rage driver interjected something about what to do regarding Ron's care saying he was a Doctor. The man attending to Ron then stated that he was a Doctor also. It was about 10 minutes later that Fire Department Paramedics personnel arrived and took over the care of Ron and Christian. I then walked over to Christian, who by this time was on the side of the road in a neighbor arms. She was comforting him until paramedics arrived. Her name was Wendy Lynch. Christian was in
obvious pain and I could see his shoulder bone protruding and he was stating that he felt like he was going to faint. Wendy stated that she and her husband were walking their dog when she heard the commotion of the "accident". She pointed out her husband about 50 to 100 yards away slowing traffic approaching the scene. About 5 minutes later, the first of many LAPD arrived. I was subsequently asked by paramedics as I was walking around to assist in holding Ron's head stationary as the rescue personnel were concerned about possible neck injuries to him while they applied a body brace. I was also asked a few minutes later to assist in keeping Christian's arm still as the paramedics applied stabilizing straps to him.

Shortly thereafter the police officer approached me for my statement.

chunk
07.8.08 - 1:40 pm

someone should hook these guys up with the bicycle lawyer.