He's behind bars now, but should he stay there? Photo: Los Angeles Times

So here's the deal, you can email a letter of support to Stone at mstone@da.lacounty.gov. She stressed that the best letters open with a description of who you are and why you care before going in to other details. For example, you could say, "I'm a writer who focuses on transportation issues and I spend too much time writing about the tragedies created by unsafe driving."

Stephen Box also writes that this provides an opportunity to incorporate two planks of the Cyclists' Bill of Rights. Article one states that cyclists have the right to "travel safely and free of fear." Article Four states that cyclists "have the right to the full support of our judicial system and the right to expect that those who endanger, injure or kill cyclists be dealt with to the full extent of the law."

If you need more inspiration, you can read my letter after the jump.

A major hat tip to Ross Hirsch who did the majority of the legwork on this article.

To Whom It May Concern:

I'm a writer who focuses on transportation issues. I spend too much time writing about the tragedies created by unsafe driving. It seems that every week I have to make a choice on whether or not to write another story about an unsafe driver mowing down a defenseless pedestrian or cyclist. However, no matter how heart-rendering the story, no crash story has held my attention as had the prosecution of Christopher Thompson.

Typically, the reaction of drivers who cause a crash is either remorse or a desire to hide. Thompson's sense of self-pride about his actions, a view that has disgustingly been defended by too many members of the car-driving public, was completely shocking. Bragging on his cell phone to the dispatcher. Talking tough to the responding officer.

That Thompson has become a symbol to both unsafe drivers and cyclists of the worst instincts of the car-driving public is immaterial. That Thompson's unsafe driving caused serious injuries on two cyclists is reason enough to convict him. That he did so intentionally and proudly makes him deserving of jail time.

If we don't hold him accountable to the fullest extent of the law for his actions, what threshold would an unsafe driver have to meet to be deserving of jail-time? He didn't just cause a crash he did so with purpose.

All of us, safe drivers, cyclists and pedestrians, will be more safe with Thompson behind bars instead of behind a wheel.

As we mentioned last week, there is reason for concern about the way the traditional media is covering the "bike v car" controversy in the wake of the verdict in the trial of Dr. Christopher Thompson.  Sometimes there is a soft bias, such as in the wording of the question in  today's "Question of the Day" by KABC and sometimes it is more pronounced on radio shows or other two-way communications.

The wording of ABC's question, "As a driver, do you feel safe when sharing the road with cyclists" implies both that cyclists are guests on the car's road and that cyclists pose a danger to people surrounded by several hundred pounds of metal.  In the wake of a jury trial where a driver was convicted of intentionally causing a crash that hospitalized two cyclists, this implication is especially insulting.  Considering that two of ABC 7's top six stories for today are of a driver killing a pedestrian in a crosswalk in Long Beach and of a driver crashing into a store front in Woodland Hills maiming a five year old girl; the question must come from someone who doesn't even watch ABC 7 to witness the devastation that out-of-control drivers, not cyclists, wreck on our streets.  Or maybe those crashes were just "accidents" unlike the intentionally unsafe conditions that cyclists bring every time they pedal onto car's streets?

Meanwhile, KPCC is giving cyclists a second chance to air our views on Larry Mantle's AirTalk show this Wednesday at 10:20.  Last week, Mantle tackled the Mandeville Canyon Crash, Trial and Verdict with a distinct pro-car bias.  You can read KPCC's announcement to their cyclists list after the jump.

Due to the intense interest in this topic and response to this week’s bicycle show, AirTalk with Larry Mantle will revisit the issue, this time with some expert guests. It’s set for 10:20 to 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11. You can listen live on the air at 89.3 FM or online at  kpcc.org. We’ll have an archive of the broadcast available online after the show, and places on the show website for simultaneous comments, and to continue the discussion afterward.

Please feel free to pass the word. I’ll be e-mailing cyclists who are in the Insight Network an alert to the follow-up show. Also, anybody who wants to add their bicycle story and photo to our Insight Network of news sources is welcome to do so at this link: www.scpr.org/in/questions/bike

Thanks very much for making your voice heard on this issue.

DJ Wheels, an attorney who happens to be a bicycle rider, has been updating the folks at Midnight Ridazz on the ongoing case of the "Road Rage Doctor" as it is heard at the LAX Courthouse.  Wheels was gracious enough to summarize his posts on Monday and Tuesday's hearings.  If you can't get enough Dr. Road Rage, Ted Rogers has more at Biking In L.A.:

Ron Peterson was a great witness...calm, composed...said all the right things when Swarth, the defense attorney, tried to corner him on cross exam. The presentation of the pictures of his injuries and the blood on the back of Thompson's car was powerful stuff. They even brought in Ron's broken Specialized Tarmac. The damn head tube and fork were completely split off from the top tube and down tube!

When pressed by Swarth on still being furious about the incident and the injuries he suffered, Peterson calmly testified, "I just want justice, that's why I'm here."

On direct exam on Monday, Officer Rodriguez said that when he heard Thompson say, "I wanted to teach them a lesson," he stopped investigating it as an accidental traffic collision and called for another patrol unit to investigate it as assault with a deadly weapon.

Tuesday on cross examination, Swarth was trying to establish that Officer Rodriguez basically did a crappy investigation and jumped to the conclusion that it was an intentional and deliberate act on the part of Thompson based solely on his statement, "I wanted to teach them a lesson."  Rodriguez is a veteran police officer and former Marine, so he wasn't cracking and repeated that it wasn't up to him to follow up and ask what Thompson meant by that statement because it was not protocol. Another investigator would have to do that follow up.

Two doctors also testified yesterday. One who was actually at the scene going home and stopped to help.   The other doctor was a plastic surgeon who assessed Ron Peterson's injuries a few days after the incident. Not only did Peterson suffer lacerations to the face, but he also had a broken nose as well as internal fractures to his nasal passage.  Apparently, he still can't feel his nose.

The last witness called yesterday was Patrick Watson, who had reported a prior similar incident on Mandeville Canyon involving this same vehicle and Thompson back in March 2008. He testified that he had to bunny hop on to the curb twice to avoid getting hit by Thompson's vehicle. He also said that when another cyclist that was there yelled at him to get out of the car and actually punched his car, Thompson started to drive away and come right toward Watson, but then swerved away and drove off.

Swarth is still cross examining Watson and will continue on Thursday. (NOTE: Wednesday the courts are closed because of state-wide furloughs.)

I dunno about Watson though. He looks sincere, but not as calm and composed on the stand as Ron Peterson. Swarth is grilling him on stuff he posted about the incident to his cycling club's email list on Yahoo Groups. Swarth is trying to point out inconsistencies and bias that are pretty obvious in his email. The defense is probing into his state of mind and feelings toward his incident and Thompson in order to suggest that he has a motive to lie and therefore not a credible witness. 

Swarth will finish with Watson's cross examination Thursday morning.  The prosecution will then call the cyclist who was there with Watson during the March 2008 incident, followed by another two detectives.  Friday district attorney intends to call two expert witnesses. 

The defense may begin calling their first witness on Friday if time and schedules permit.

In the last year and a half, there have been several drunk driving and road rage incidents that have shaken the cycling community, leaving a trail of dead and broken bodies behind along with a general feeling of frustration and despair for the friends and families of the victims.

Dr. Christopher T. Thompson is charged with 2 counts of Assault with a Deadly Weapon (245a) 2 counts of Battery with Serious Bodily Injury (243d) reckless driving (23103a) and reckless driving causing specified injury (23105a) and Mayhem (203) all stemming from the Mandeville Canyon Road Rage incident that left two cyclists broken, bleeding and lying on the road. Thompson's case is slowly working itself through the system at the LAX Courthouse. Today, they will pick a judge to replace Judge Cynthia Reyvis and will then hear pre-trial motions. Tomorow, they start jury selection.

Alejandro Hidalgo is charged with vehicular manslaughter (191.5a) and DUI (23153a) (23153b) in the death of Jesus Castillo on Glendale Boulevard and his case is coming up in the Downtown Criminal Courthouse. The next hearing is on October 30 at 8:30 and no trial date has been set for this case.

Robert Sam Sanchez is charged with Vehicular Manslaughter (191.5a) and DUI (23153a) and Hit-and-Run with serious bodily injury (20001a) in the death of Rodrigo "Rod" Armas and the injury to his son, Christian Armas on PCH and that case is coming up in the Malibu Courthouse. The next hearing is on October 20 at 8:30 am and no trial date has been set.

Marco Antonio Valencia is charged with Vehicular Manslaughter (191.5a) and DUI (23153a) and Hit-and-Run with serious bodily injury (20001a) and in the death of Joe Novotny on Bouquet Canyon Road in Santa Clarita and that case is coming up in San Fernando Courthouse. The next hearing is on October 28 at 8:30 am and no trial date has been set.

Jim Azpilicueta is charged with two counts of Assault with a Deadly Weapon (245a) and Hit-and-Run with serious bodily injury (20001a) in an incident that caused a cyclist to sustain significant injuries including severe damage to her face. The arraignment is set for October 14 at 8:30 am.

There is another case pending in the Hit-and-Run with Serious Bodily Injury (20001a) incident that left Roadblock lying on Glendale Boulevard after being hit from behind and flipped into the air, landing with just enough consciousness and awareness to catch a partial license plate of the car as it sped off into the distance. The arraignment is set for Nov. 2 at 8:30 am in Dept. 60 Metro Court.

Missing from the dockets of the Southland Courthouses is the infamous Hummer vs. Cyclists case. The LAPD response to the Hummer vs. Cyclists incident received much attention and resulted in a City Council motion directing an LAPD report on police activity and the resulting investigation. It also stirred a Storm the Bastille ride to City Hall, three visits to the Police Commission, and claims filed with the LAPD Inspector General. But it did not result in a court case.

This is why cyclists need the Cyclists' Bill of Rights. The CBR has picked up endorsements from the City Council, from the City's Bicycle Advisory Committee and from neighborhood councils around LA. The CBR claims as right #4 "Cyclists have the right to the full support of our judicial system and the right to expect that those who endanger, injure or kill cyclists be dealt with to the full extent of the law."

Now is the time for the cycling community to embrace the Cyclists' Bill of Rights
and to insist that it be included, as written, in LA's Draft Bike Plan, just released and already under attack for having a 42 day window for public participation and not using imperative language that will support the rights of cyclists on the streets of Los Angeles.

Pay close attention to what's happening in City Council, in the Courts and, most of all, on the Streets!

The really amazing thing about this story is that somehow Yasman Fausto emerges from this over-the-top level of driver negligence physically unscathed.  The driver was driving on a suspended license, adding more anecdotal evidence to the idea that suspending a license does little to alter driver behavior and is being charged with "reckless driving."  If that's all he's charged with, then Washington either needs new cops, new D.A.'s or new laws.

I can't help but mentally going back to the reporter repeatedly asserting that the girl is "unhurt."  I can't imagine a world where she doesn't mentally carry this with her for the rest of her life.

On another note, was it just me that got the commercial on what kind of gas to put in my car to get it "rocking and rolling" before this story?  That's in at least slightly bad taste, right?

A driver was charged with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, driving under the influence, hit-and-run and driving with a suspended license after crashing into a family in a crosswalk in Long Beach.  The parents were pulling their two children, ages one and two, in a trailer when the vehicle struck them. 

The wagon was caught in the wheel-well of the vehicle and was drug for a block.  The driver stopped the car and the boy and part of the wagon was dislodged, but after the vehicle sped away the one-year-old daughter was drug for another mile.  Even as pedestrians and other drivers screamed at the driver to stop, he kept going.  The baby, Kaylee Alvarez was pronounced dead at the scene.

The description of the parents reactions, as related by the Long Beach Press-Telegram are heart-breaking for their candor and sadness:

"They guy hit us and he didn't even stop," Alvarez said. "I was going crazy looking for my kids."

Kaylee Alvarez was dragged about another mile until the driver stopped at his residence near the corner of Wilton Street and Redondo, neighbors said.

"He dragged my little girl. I wanted to run, but I was in shock," Alvarez said.

"I know he's a father and I feel bad for his family," Alvarez said of Dinkins. "But I don't understand why he didn't stop. It's like he didn't have a heart."

Almost equally shocking is the reaction of the driver, allegedly Neely Lejon Dinkins.

A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the driver pulled into the driveway of his residence, said, "I think I hit a baby," and ran in the front door.

Neighbors said a police officer shined a flashlight underneath the SUV and discovered the tiny body with pieces of the red plastic wagon. The baby was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Alvarez family has set up an account at the Wescom Credit Union for those who wish to donate for Kaylee's funeral expenses. The account number is 708248. 

The California State Assembly recently passed legislation that will allow the family of victims of highway crashes to pay Caltrans to erect signs memorializing the fallen and reminding drivers to drive safely.  However, thanks to opposition from a group of what the Times terms "environmentalists," the legislation is actually watered down so that our state's highways aren't littered with signs ruining the view.

No, really.

"Our highways are not intended to be repositories for memorials," said Mary Tracy, president of Scenic America, a group that advocates against unnecessary signage. "A clutter of signs is the last thing we need along our roadways."

Critics of the bill also note that California already has dozens of signs that name freeway interchanges and bridges in honor of CHP officers and state engineers who have died. The state also has posted hundreds of "Adopt-A-Freeway" signs advertising that an individual or company is sponsoring cleanup of a stretch of freeway.

I'm not actually sure where to go with this story.  Should I point out the traffic calming value of crash memorials, or just wonder how many of these signs Scenic America thinks are going to be on the highways?  I know California's highways aren't exactly "safe" but "a clutter of signs?"

Here's the real kicker.  The state already allows for the "official" placement of DUI memorials, as though an alcohol-related deadly accident is somehow more tragic than one caused by an "accident."

The first draft of this legislation allowed families or friends of any any victim of a traffic fatality to pay $1,000 to have Caltrans officials place a sign at the sight of the deadly crash to both pay tribute to their loved ones and warn others to drive safely.  The families hoped that having professionals place the memorial would remove danger to the mourners and that the more professional signage would last the test of time.

In response to the opposition to this nefarious legislation that would allow families to safely memorialize loved ones killed on our highways, the legislature changed the text so that it now limits the number of new non-DUI memorial signs statewide to twenty a year and each sign can stay up for no longer than seven years.  I'd hate to be the official that has to tell a grieving widow that her loss just wasn't tragic enough to merit a memorial after this year's allocated number of signs has run out.

According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, there were 3,434 traffic fatalities in California in 2008.  While I'm sure that more of them occured on local streets than highways, I'm also sure that twenty signs a year is going to be much lower than the demand.

A grand jury in Asheville, North Carolina has reduced the charge against a motorist who allegedly shot a cyclist in the head from attempted first-degree murder to felony assault.

Charles Diez

Wheras Diez originally faced up to 13 years in prison, felony assault carries a penalty of around two years. Reports the weekly Mountain Xpress:

Grand juries deliberate in secret, and District Attorney Ron Moore submitted both the assault and attempted-murder charges. He told Xpress that he doesn’t know why the grand jury rejected the murder charge.

We don't either, but we can guess. 

(h/t Cookster)

This weekend television actor Shemar Moore, currently a cast member of CBS's Criminal Minds, was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in Los Angeles.  This crash has been widely, and badly, reported by all sorts of media outlets who view the crash as a cause for cheap jokes and bad writing.

Exhibit A in the catalog of bad and insulting reporting comes from E! Entertainment.  The celebrity-obsessed cable channel takes the time to make a joke about Moore misunderstanding the actors' expression to "break a leg;" which is both disrespectful to Moore and implies that he was at fault.  E! also goes on to report that the crash occurred when Moore was "tooling around on his bicycle."  While Moore's broken leg is cause for jokes, the driver is absolved in the piece; after all it was just an "accident."

Thanks to that side-splitting "break a leg" joke appearing in the Associated Press' reporting of the crash, it appears in over fifty articles, at the time of publication of this story, that appear on a simple google search of the crash.

Those people more annoyed with the implication that Moore "broke his leg" would be happy to know that this writing trick, which implies that it was Moore's actions that led to his leg being broken, appears in only thirty-four stories, far less than the side-splitting joke mentioned above.  Moore didn't "break his leg," it was broken for him by a driver that chose to side-swipe him.

Details on the crash are sparse.  From the accumulated stories, I've been able to gather that Moore was biking "in Los Angeles" on Saturday when he was clipped by a passing car.  Moore was released from the hospital after getting treated for a broken leg and is now resting at home.  Somehow, typing those words doesn't make me feel like making light of the crash.  Must be why I don't write for the "traditional media."

When a well known actor can't get a break from the news media when he's hit by a car while biking, what hope do the Roadblock's, Andres Tena's or any of us have if we are unfortunate enough to have a driver crash into us?

(Update: Leave it to the Midnight Ridazz to find out where the crash occured.)

A local Santa Clarita news blog is reporting that Marco Valencia, the hit-and-run drunk driver who crossed two lanes of traffic to plow into a group of cyclists over the weekend is not a first time drunk driver.  From a KHTS article posted in 2008.

In what is becoming a regular weekend morning experience, Canyon County residents woke up Sunday morning without power because of a traffic accident.

Canyon Country resident Marco Valencia, 20, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after he struck and knocked down a power pole at Ranier Street and Whites Canyon Road.

The power went out at 6:38 a.m. and was restored by 8:20 a.m.

Just another in the long line of examples about how our justice system's leniency towards drunk and unsafe drivers is literally killing us out there.

From the Santa Clarita Signal:

"It appears the drunk driver ran into a group of bicyclists that were riding in the canyon," said Sgt. Brian Allen of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station. "Two of them were injured and taken to the hospital, and one additional bicyclist was killed."

The dead cyclist was identified as Joseph Novotny, 43, of Stevenson Ranch....

...Valencia's pickup truck allegedly crossed the double yellow lines, traveling into the southbound traffic lane toward a group of cyclists, including Novotny. Valencia's truck allegedly struck three of the riders and continued northbound, leaving the scene of the collision, according to a CHP news release. Valencia also allegedly sideswiped a Hyundai; the driver was uninjured....

...Valencia, who was suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, was arrested and taken to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station to be booked for investigation of several felony charges, including murder, driving while under the influence and/or drugs causing death and hit-and-run causing death, the CHP report said.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the Novotny family.

Earlier this morning the trial was set for People vs Christopher Thompson, the "Road Rage Doctor" who caused a crash with two cyclists over Fourth of July weekend in 2008 in Mandeville Canyon.  The case against Thompson will begin on September 17 at the LAX Courthouse.

For a quick refresher, witnesses state that during a July 4th training ride along Mandeville Canyon, Dr. Christopher Thompson, not to be confused with Dr. Alex Thompson, began tailgating and harassing two cyclists that were riding abreast.  As Thompson passed them, one of the cyclists made an angry gesture at him.  The good doctor responded by cutting the cyclists off and slamming on his breaks.  Pictures of the incapacitated cyclists and the bloody hole left in the back of Thompson's window became a rallying cry for cyclists and created a media storm after they were first posted at LAist.

Outraged cyclists have been attending all of the criminal pre-trial hearings against Thompson and provided details to each other.  Through his attorneys, Thompson has maintained his innocence and that this crash was just an "accident."

Late Monday night, "Roadblock" one of the most prominent of the Midnight Ridazz, was rear-ended and left in the street during a hit-and-run assault on Glendale Blvd.  As he wrote on Midnight Ridazz:

Was heading N. On glendale blvd. Was in far right lane preparing for a change to left lane to make left at park. I looked back and saw a car approaching at extremely high speed. I aborted my lane transfer and the car swerved into my lane and rear ended me at about 45mph. I flew up onto hood and probably dented hood and windshield. Drive applied breaks and I flew off into the street in the right lane. My read wheel is taco-ed and rear of bike smashed.

I had a helmet on. I was solo. Rear light on. Reflectors on shoes and headlight on flash minewt night rider.

Anyone that witnessed the crash or has other information is urged to contact him at the information above.  The dark colored sedan should have dents on its hood and windshield and the license plate is close to 6GYC11.

Because Don has become something of a well-known face at City Hall in recent months, his crash could help highlight the unsafe streets that many cyclists face.  Hopefully this crash can lead to better street protections for all of us.  This trend of hitting cyclists and fleeing the scene needs to be addressed, and addressed soon.

For as long as I've been in Los Angeles, there has been a side bar on the Midnight Ridazz official website which reads:

RIDAZZ SALUTE LAPD

The Midnight Ridazz would like to extend a sincere thanks to the LAPD and especially to the officer (whose name we did not get) who recently helped to escort our ride through the streets of Los Angeles. We are all part of the neighborhoods we ride and we support the LAPD!

However, over at least the last year, the relationship has been souring.  Anecdotally, cyclists have complained about unequel treatment or a presumption of guilt from officers when there is a conflict.  While cyclists have had success in getting tickets revoked either by LAPD management or judges; these victories are akin to treating the symptoms of an illness but not the virus itself.  This morning, a group of cyclists headed down to the Parker Center to finally address the virus but testifying on our shared experiences to the board charged with providing oversite to the LAPD.

The infection of unequal treatment is best illustrated by the sarcastic callousness of Officer Cho last week after a hummer ran down a group of cyclists from beyond hospitalizing one, ran through the group again while they tried to get the driver's information, and threatened the cyclists with gang violence.  Cho was the commanding officer of the "investigation" which allowed the hummer driver to head off without a ticket while Cho lectured the cyclists on how he "knows how you people bike" and threatening them with a little violence of his own.

The first rider to testify was Andres Tena, the hospitalized victim from last week's attack-by-hummer driver.  Tena was visibly emotional during his testimony where he outlined his experience from last Friday morning.  He concluded by stating that even though he's a life-long cyclist, he's been scared on his bike since the attack.  While Tena wasn't the most polished speaker of the day, longtime activist Stephen Box, LACBC Staffer Aurisha Smolarski or cyclist/lawyer Daniel Jimenez hold that honor, his powerful, personal testimony provided the heart that drove the rest of the testimony.

Other witnesses to last week's attacks included John Dorsey who tried to report the threat of gun violence to Cho and Matthew Simmons who tried to block the SUV after his attack on Tena and was run off the road.  Simmons noted that because the attack was deemed an "accident" in the official police report means that the cyclists will get no help recouping the bicycles that were destroyed, even the one that was dragged underneath the hummer for several blocks.

Jimenez described how the attack of last Thursday and the ambivalence of the responding officers when he stated that, "Cyclists deserve to expect reasonable behavior when police come in contact with one cyclist or a group of cyclists...that is not happening right now.  That is unacceptable."

Also testifying was ride leader "Roadblock" discussed how recently, police actions against group rides such as Critical Mass or other rides promoted by the Midnight Ridazz have been unfair and perhaps illegal.  When reports come in that "cyclists are running red lights" the police respond by ticketing random cyclists claiming they saw them ran a red light, sometimes five to ten minutes after the light was "run."  Also, attempts to pull cyclists over have included police cars driving in to groups of cyclists endangering all of them.

By rule, the Commission is unable to respond to comments as the City Council or Metro Board is able to.  However, at the end of testimony, Commission President Anthony Pacheo thanked the cyclist for attending and urged them to contact the office of Inspector General Andre Girotte Jr.

And that's exactly what the cyclists did.  A group of twenty cyclists mounted at LAPD headquarters and headed across town to the Inspector General's office.  Girotte was still at the Parker Center to help the Commission during its closed session  However, Girotte spoke to several of the cyclists present and talked in some length to Box about the last time that cyclists spoke at the Police Commission about the bike license ticketing at the last CRANK MOB.

When they arrived, the cyclists broke into two groups.  The witnesses and victims from last week's hummer attack and a group making more general complaints about "group by association" ticketing and the lack of an official code for the LAPD to stop cyclists and police group rides.  The Inspector General's office will look investigate last week's attack and police policies and write official reports and make recommendations to the LAPD.

Attorneys for David Jassy, the Swedish rapper who beat and ran over jazz pianist James Osnes for touching his SUV which was waiting in the crosswalk that Osnes was trying to cross, came up with a strategy designed to sway someone who a) believes that crashes where cars hit and kill pedestrians are unavoidable and b) is incredibly gullible.

The defense?  These two people are just the victims of circumstance.  They should have been friends!

After a long description of the brutality of Jassy's attack, the Times outlines the thrust of the defense.

In court papers, the lawyer wrote that Osnes' death fit the thesis of the film "Crash" -- "that random interactions of diverse people in a city as frenetic as Los Angeles can lead to disastrous consequences." He said the case begged a series of "what ifs," starting with, "What would have happened if Mr. Jassy and Mr. Osnes had not arrived on the same corner at the same time?"

Earlier, in the article, Jassy's attorney objects to the classification of Osnes, who again was punched to the ground and kicked in the head before being repeatedly run over for touching Jassy's SUV, as a victim.  Why, these two musicians were equal participants in the skirmish where only one person attacked the other and ran over him with a two-ton vehicle while a police officer tried in vain to stop him.

In a clear attempt to just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, Jassy's attorney claimed the thin Osnes and the police officer were intimidating the "Swedish Rapper" who was surrounded by two tons of steel.  Oddly, the LAPD itself seemed to believe the same thing about some gang-bangers in a hummer earlier that morning.

Cyclists are known for throwing their bikes under moving hummers.  Photo: Matt Stilline

The incident occurred at 2:00 A.M. Friday morning, and perhaps more horrific than the crash itself is the reaction of Officer Cho, who seemingly believed that the people surrounded by 2,000 pounds of steel were threatened by a dozen unarmed people on bicycles.  That the hummer's inhabitants actually threatened to return "60 crips deep" didn't seem to register to Officer Cho as a threat.

So, you have an SUV filled with gang-bangers, running through a group of cyclists and this is the best the LAPD can offer as a response:

After a large group of police officers interviewed the witnesses and the suspects they released the driver, who drove off without a ticket.  Officer Cho, the officer in charge at the scene then approached the cyclists.  He first told the group:

Get everyone together because I don’t want to say this twice.   If anyone says anything I’m gonna walk away and I’m not going to talk to you guys.  Based on the evidence right now it looks like the cyclist hit the car, not that the car hit the cyclist.

Cyclist then argued with him, pointing out that the driver of the Hummer was dislodging a bicycle from underneath his vehicle when the police pulled him over.  Officer Cho then responded, saying “if it had been me with my family in that car, I’d have done the same thing, and I carry a gun in my car.”

Wait, was that quote not offensive enough to tickle your outrage bone?  Well, how about this one?  While it's reported at Westside BikeSIDE! this is from an eyewitness that is not Alex Thompson:

Sometime between when the police stopped him and they ran over the bikes, the black man in the white long t shirt got out of the car and started to walk back towards 7th and Los Angeles. I urged the police officer that this man was guilty of a crime and claimed to have had a gun, but the police officer told me ”Did you see a gun?” I told him that I believed the man and that I didn't need visual verification to be terrified. The officer then told me quote ”I have a lightsaber, do you believe me?” and walked away.

First it was ticketing pedestrians for crossing against a flashing red hand to improve pedestrian safety at lights where cars run reds habitually, then it was bike licenses, and now this.  Maybe they should amend their slogan to "To protect and to serve, as long as you own and are driving a car."

Yesterday morning, the sun rose on the corner of La Brea and Fountain to a new occupant on the street corner.  A Ghost Bike had been erected by a group of bike activists to memorialize two pedestrians, one of whom may have been walking her bike across the street, who "lost their lives to a motorist" on March 31 while walking their bikes across the street.

When Alina Sheyman and Maria Velasquez, both in their 70's, stepped off the curb they weren't expecting to be placing their lives on the line.  Yet, when a left turning car hit another car; the second car was sent careening out of control into the two women, both were killed.  Of course, neither driver was charged in the crash because of a little-known, but oft-cited, part of the vehicle code that clearly states, "Unless a driver is drunk, runs away from the crash or does something else horrific but telegenic action; said driver can kill as many pedestrians as he or she desires."  I guess causing a chain reaction of crashes that kills two elderly women, and injured a third pedestrian, wasn't quite exciting enough.

However, the boredom shown by the LAPD doesn't extend to the family and friends of the victim nor the cycling community at large.  Spear-headed by User1, a group of Ridazz and Bike Oven volunteers constructed, moved and set-up the make shift memorial late on Monday night.

Similar projects are underway for riders downed in Echo Park over the weekend and another to the victim of a drunk driver in Glendale.

For more pictures of the Ghost Bike, you can find some at Streetsblog's or User1's Flickr pools.

Following the outcry after two USC students were run down in the Crosswalk at Hoover and Jefferson, the parents of one of the students, the one who was slain, demanded that the city "fix" this intersection.  Some Streetsblog readers noted that this intersection already has one of the safest designs, a Scramble-crosswalk.  Given that pedestrians are being mowed down throughout the city, is the LADOT really going to focus on this one intersection?

Never underestimate the power and influence grieving parents can have on the political system.  The Daily Trojan reports that USC and the LADOT have worked on a plan to further improve the crosswalk.  In the short term, speed sensors, repainted crosswalks and better lighting.  In the long-term, we can expect either a pedestrian bridge or tunnel to completely separate motorized and non-motorized transportation.

However, would any of these changes really prevented the crash that killed Adriana Bachan last month?  After all, if I were a USC student coming home from a party in the early morning, I would take my chances crossing at street level rather than walk into a tunnel where who-knows-what is waiting for me. Similarly, all the lighting and paint in the world isn't going to stop a drivers so deranged that after carrying a student 500 yards on their hood they calmly get out of the car, remove the victim, and drive off.  Yet, the article doesn't mention any effort to increase traffic enforcement near campus.

All the engineering in the world can't stop unsafe, uncaring drivers.  While the LADOT and USC's intersection plans may make the intersection safer, the only thing that is going to stop deranged drivers is better and more consistant enforcement of traffic laws.  Police in the Valley seem to have already learned this lesson.  It's a lesson that should be carried city-wide.

Last weekend, the lives of a family were changed forever, when a distracted driver decided that shaving a couple of seconds of off the trip home for his family was more important than making sure he protected other users of the road.  He plowed through the intersection of Jefferson and Hoover, killing USC freshman Adriana Bachan and maiming her companion.

Bachan's family has not been camera-shy in demanding that their daughter's murderer be brought to justice, the alleged driver of the vehicle has been brought in but her passenger who helped remove bodies from the car before it sped off is still at large; but now they're setting their sights on a different target: improving the deadly intersection where Adriana was killed.  The Santa Barbara news website Noozhawk has the story:

Welch also spoke for Bachan’s father.

“Jim will be back, and he will be the biggest advocate for that intersection at Jefferson and Hoover,” he said.

The intersection where Bachan was killed is notoriously treacherous for pedestrians, and her mother said she’s on a mission to see that the area’s safety is improved. She said she’d like to see a pedestrian bridge constructed.

“You’ve all been there and you’ve seen the children crossing and the cars almost hitting them,” she said. “Somebody will do something, that I can assure you.”

Keeping the intersection foremost in the public’s memory is paramount for Carmen Bachan, and she thanked the media for covering the memorial.

“Keep my baby’s story alive,” she said. “Don’t let it go away.”

While it's more than inspiring to see a family try and turn a tragedy into something positive, it's also a sad statement that the only time people focus on the deadly conditions pedestrians face is when someone dies and their survivors demand it.

Photo: Fetchy/Flickr

No news story ever began saying, "A person was killed yesterday when he collided with a bullet moving at high speed in the opposite direction." Yet that's exactly how news stories about traffic "accidents" often begin.

Our habit of dehumanizing the actions of cars tends to create assumptions that their actions are not actually someone's responsibility. A driver hit and killed some people in another car in Culpeper. It's extremely unlikely his car magically malfunctioned. And even if it did, we don't engage in the same linguistic contortions to say, for example, that a police officer's bullet impacted a suspected robber, who had himself been holding a gun which fired into someone else earlier in the day. That would be silly. So is this.