Streetsblog Los Angeles

Lance Armstrong has said that, “if you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on.” But what happens when you have gotten on a bike… for 15 years and loved every minute of it—the physical activity, the camaraderie, the pure joy of experiencing new sights and sounds—and then you fall…and are seriously injured? What happens when that passion for cycling is eclipsed by fear? Fear for your own health and safety and fear of the possibility of putting your family through another touch-and-go trauma?

This is exactly what happened to a client of mine. Although he has recovered well physically, he has not been on a bicycle since his accident and doesn’t think he’ll ever ride again. That is a drastic change; one that has implications for all aspects of his life and that of his family.

My client is an experienced, skilled bicyclist who always rode with safety front and center in his mind. His injury wasn’t caused by him, but rather by the car-centric mindset and bureaucratic red tape that has often turned our streets and highways into danger zones—places where accidents are just waiting to happen. Read more…

George Skelton, the Los Angeles Times’ columnist in the state Capital generally writes about politics and policy in the Governor’s office or the legislature.  However, in today’s edition he changed courses and went on a full-throated attack against the idea that the people who cause car crashes should repay the city for the cost of sending emergency services to the crash scene.  The vitriol in this column is really something to behold, when you consider that all Sacramento is doing is making the people who cause car crashes pay for the city’s response instead of forcing tax payers to pay for someone else’s negligence.

Before we respond to the column, it’s important to note that unlike the proposed law in New York City, Sacramento’s city law only applies to drivers if fault is determined.  In other words, nobody is going to have to pay for a crash if they’re rear-ended.  Also, the law only applies to drivers from out of town.  Locals can hit whoever they want without paying the city a dime for emergency response.

Skelton claims his piece is about protecting the little guy from fees when he’s wrongly fingered for causing a crash.  But, if you read the whole column, you can’t help but come away with the feeling that he doesn’t believe that reckless drivers should be held accountable for the havoc they cause.  There’s no claim that the law should only apply to drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  No claim that there must be physical evidence of guilt before the fee is assessed to negligent drivers.  Nothing except a vicious condemnation of the idea that bad drivers who cause crashes should pay the municipality that has to deal with the physical, emotional, and structural destruction caused by their negligence.

Streetblog’s response to Skelton’s column can be found after the jump.  For the record, this is the first time he’s written about transportation in at least the last five years. Read more…

Motor vehicle crashes caused 28 percent of all deaths among people 24 and under in the United States in 2006. In 2009, nearly 34,000 people died on America’s roads, and that was considered a big improvement over previous years. More and more, it seems, Americans are wondering why our country is so far behind on creating safe transportation systems.

According to a new report, Achieving Traffic Safety Goals in the United States: Lessons from Other Nations, by the nongovernmental National Research Council:

Nearly every high-income country is reducing annual traffic fatalities and fatality rates faster than is the United States, and several countries where fatality rates per kilometer of travel were substantially higher than in the United States 15 years ago are now below the U.S. rate.

The report authors acknowledge that high-achieving countries attribute their own progress, in part, to road design, but that doesn’t make it into their own set of recommendations, which focus on management reforms, enforcement, and the building of political and public support for those changes.

Barbara McCann, director of the National Complete Streets Coalition, says that’s not enough. With current road design, she said, “the priority is put on speed and volume of travel, and that results in more deaths than if there were a higher priority put on safety in the actual road design.”

Read more…

There’s callous, there’s heartless, and then there’s this.

Via former Streetsblog.net writer Sarah Goodyear, now at GRIST, comes the surreal story of a driver who was convicted of manslaughter for running down Matthew Kenney from behind.  From his jail cell, David Weaving, who has been found guilty of drunk driving four times and was traveling at 83 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone at the time, is suing the Kenney’s parents for negligence because their son was not wearing a helmet at the time of the collision.

Goodyear, quoting an article in the Sacramento Bee, reports:

Attorney Andrew Cates calls Weaving’s countersuit a part of the legal process. Cates is representing Weaving in appeals aimed at overturning his convictions — which were recently upheld by the state Appellate Court — but is not involved with the lawsuit involving the Kenneys.

“I can see their side of it. I’m a parent,” Cates said. “But I can also see the other side of it. If you’re driving down the street and your car makes contact with a pedestrian and you think it’s the pedestrian’s fault, you have to raise the issue.”

As I worked on the daily “Today’s Headlines” roundup for this morning, there were three items I wanted to pull because they paint an ugly picture about what’s going on in our streets.

Ed Magos is left bleeding in the street next to his mangled bicycle as Angelina Everett speeds off.  Emely Aleman and Angela Rodriguez are thrown 50 feet after being hit by a Jeep Wrangler.   Moran Biton strikes and kills Conor Lynch in Sherman Oaks with a burgundy SUV.

The particulars of each case are different, but the outcome for the drivers are the same.  None will be charged with a felony, and it’s unlikely that any will face jail time.  Everett, Biton and the still anonymous killer of Aleman will face misdemeanor charges, as though they were caught shoplifting a candy bar, not maiming a fellow human being.  And some people wonder why the term “accident” is offensive when applied to these preventable, deadly, crashes.

In some ways, the Magos/Everett case is the most concerning even though Magos was not killed and Everett faces sentencing tomorrow.  Originally, neither the District Attorney or City Attorney was interested in prosecuting a clear hit and run until the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition drew attention to the case.  Tomorrow, the LACBC will be hosting its third, and hopefully final, “ride for justice” as they head to Everett’s sentencing.  You can get the details of the ride, and the trial, by visiting the LACBC’s blog here.

While the Bike Coalition deserves credit for bringing attention to Magos’ case, they probably aren’t capable of bringing attention to every bike crash in the city.  In other words, we need a change in the way that C.A.’s and D.A.’s look at these cases and more incentive for going after reckless and dangerous drivers. Read more…

In most of the United States, the general rule about harming people with automobiles goes like this: Stay at the scene, and if you’re sober, you probably won’t be looking at anything more substantial than a moving violation. Recent laws passed in Oregon, New York, and Delaware promise to hold motorists to a higher standard of care (if law enforcement employs the new tools), but one part of the country seems to be taking a step backward when it comes to condoning reckless driving.

Over in Vail, Colorado, the new rule seems to be that you don’t even have to stay at the scene, if you’re sufficiently rich and well-connected. Manage a billion dollar portfolio, and you can do whatever the hell you want with your car and get away with no felony charges.

Vail Daily reported last week that Martin Erzinger, a wealth manager for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and local resident, will not face felony charges stemming from a July 3 collision in which he reportedly ran down New York City physician Steven Milo, causing severe spinal injuries, and drove away. Over Milo’s objections, District Attorney Mark Hurlbert won’t pursue anything stronger than a misdemeanor charge for the hit-and-run. The decision has little to do with justice or deterrence and much to do with money:

“Mr. Erzinger struck me, fled and left me for dead on the highway,” Milo wrote. “Neither his financial prominence nor my financial situation should be factors in your prosecution of this case.”

Hurlbert said Thursday that, in part, this case is about the money.

“The money has never been a priority for them. It is for us,” Hurlbert said. “Justice in this case includes restitution and the ability to pay it.”

Hurlbert said Erzinger is willing to take responsibility and pay restitution.

“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger’s profession, and that entered into it,” Hurlbert said. “When you’re talking about restitution, you don’t want to take away his ability to pay.”

Blogger Felix Salmon says the decision amounts to Erzinger buying his way out of a felony charge. Over at Cyclelicious, Richard Masoner is calling for a Vail tourism boycott and points to other reactions around the web, including this petition to Hurlbert at Change.org.

Maybe the message that calling fatal crashes “accidents” that are  caused by negligence, distracted driving, DUI or some other form of negligence is finally catching on.

If you missed the news, yesterday three youths in a speeding BMW ran a red light, killed a pedestrian, caused a school bus to flip over and fled the scene.  The juvenile delinquents were caught by a construction crew and the three are now in a hospital being treated for injuries.  While researching the crash, I was surprised to see that most media outlets were reporting this horrific crash as just that, a crash, and not an “accident.”

Granted, the phrase “School Bus Crash” implies that the bus driver, and not the speeding youths, were at fault; but the absence of the word “accident,” at least in the headlines, is a good development.

But don’t worry, there is still plenty if shoddy headline writing on the crash.  Unfortunately, much of it is from the government.  Both The Source and the Mayor’s twitter account refer to the crash as an “accident” in their headlines.

You can see more headlines after the jump.

Read more…

Via Biking In L.A. comes news that Angelina Everett, the driver who ran down city employee and community activist Ed Magos in January, has plead “no contest” to two misdemeanor charges for leaving the scene of a collision resulting in physical injuries and property damage.  While it’s doubtful that Everett will face any jail time, after all she only crippled a person and left him lying in the street it’s not like she meant to hurt him, this outcome is still much better than what was expected after the City Attorney and District Attorney took a pass on prosecuting Everett last winter.

On the morning of January 6th, Magos was riding to work on his bicycle when he was struck by Everett who was driving a Cayman.  Everett fled the scene, leaving Magos lieing dazed and bleeding in the street.  Later, after Magos was in the hospital and finding his attacker was already a cause celeb among cyclists, Everett turned herself in to the LAPD saying she “might have hit something.”

The police let her go after taking a statement.  Then things got weird.

Following up with LAPD, Carlos Morales of the Eastside Bike Club and La Voz newspapers got his hands on a press release which he published in the Streetsblog comments section.  It turns out that the LAPD brass didn’t approve the release and a controversy broke out what to do with the information contained therein.  Eventually, Streetsblog scrubbed Everett’s name from the release and let the rest stand, after Stephen Box served as a conduit between myself and the LAPD leadership.  However, some statements in the release showed that the LAPD itself wasn’t all that clear about hit and run laws.

In late February, news broke that both the City Attorney and District Attorney would not be pressing charges against a woman who had basically admitted to the crime.  More outrage ensued.

A couple of days later, after the LACBC organized a ride protesting the C.A. and D.A.’s decisions to Chief Beck’s Town Hall meeting with cyclists in City Hall; Beck announced that the City Attorney would take a second look at the case.  Eventually, they decided to press the two misdemeanor charges listed above.

Yesterday, Everett pleaded guilty.  But the story doesn’t end there, sentencing won’t take place until November 1.  We’ll keep you posted.

It's been a common theme when Streetsblog covers crashes to note the soft bias of the writing and headlines in more traditional news sources.  This bias nearly always deflect guilt away from the people who cause the crashes. It amazes me when I watch coverage of a tragedy where change is demanded, say for example when a fifteen year old died of a drug overdose at a "rave", versus the ho-hum when there is a traffic crash.

The crash involving cyclist Villaraigosa this weekend is a great example. I can't find one headline that doesn't exonerate the driver and/or cast blame on Villaraigosa. One could argue that we've only heard the Mayor's version of the story, but one could also argue that there hasn't been any attempt any where to refute his version of the events that led the Mayor's broken elbow. Yet, every headline either calls the crash an "accident," blames the Mayor by saying he "broke his elbow," or sometimes both. Here's a sample of the headlines.

• LA mayor breaks elbow in bike crash (UPI)
• LA mayor breaks elbow in bicycle accident (SacBee)
• Mayor Villaraigosa Injures Elbow in Bike Accident (NBC4)
• Mayor Villaraigosa undergoes surgery for fracture after bike accident (LA_Now)
• Mayor Villaraigosa is injured in bike accident (Daily News)

In April of 2009, Andres Tena didn't "run into" a hummer.  Later that year, Shemar Moore wasn't "tooling around on a bicycle" when he was struck by a car.  And this weekend, the Mayor didn't "break his elbow" in an "accident."  A driver cut him off, caused a crash, and in that crash the Mayor's arm was broken.  To write it another way either lets the driver off the hook or places the blame on the victim.

In the comments section on yesterday's story, Spokker writes "All car accidents are called just that, accidents, no matter who caused it. Why would bike accidents be any different?"  Villaraigosa's twitter feed also reflects the "these things happen" attitude with a comment that

Last night I broke my elbow in a bicycling accident. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes. It means a lot to me!

When we use language such as "accident" to describe an incident where a cyclist is forced from his bike because he was cut off, we do a disservice to the cyclist.  When we say someone "broke his elbow" we imply it was his actions that caused the crash.

Well, that didn't take long.

On Friday, Metblogs' Will Campbell noticed a tweet from Mayor Villaraigosa about how much he enjoyed riding his bicycle as part of the Summer Night Lights program.  Campbell spent the time to page through the Mayor's flickr feed and even found a picture of Villaraigosa laughing it up mounted on a slick looking bicycle.

On Saturday, the Mayor was involved in a bicycle crash.  The Times has the details:

The mayor was riding in the bicycle lane on Venice Boulevard in Mid-City at about 6:50 p.m. when a taxi abruptly pulled in front of him. The mayor hit his brakes and fell off the bike.

While I appreciate the tone of the LA_Now article posted by the Times, which focuses on the efforts to make the streets safer for cyclists; I have to take issue with the title of the piece.  The piece, and many more like it, feature the title "Mayor Villaraigosa breaks elbow in bicycle accident."  This wasn't an "accident" and the Mayor did not "break his elbow."  A dangerous driver decided that wherever he was going was more important than driving safely.  The driver's negligence caused a crash resulting in a broken elbow.  Villaraigosa deserves the same respect any victim of negligent driving, and the blame for the crash and the damage should not be his to bear.

While the Mayor heals, many are already wondering what impact his crash will have on city policy which has been turning in cyclists' favor recently.  While that's a worthy discussion, I'm content to give the Mayor the weekend off to heal and hopefully contemplate the many safety issues with the city's streets.  So rest up Mr. Mayor.  But tomorrow, it's back to work.  Having ridden a mile "in our shoes" and learned a painful lesson about drivers' attitudes towards cyclists; the bar has been raised.