“Accidents”

Via LAist:  Dr. Christopher Thompson, the driver in the alleged “Road Rage Crash” on July 4th in Mandeville Canyon, had his day in court today.  The good doctor pleaded innocent at 8:30 A.M., the moment the courts opened and got permission to not attend any of the future hearings after pleading innocent because the crash … Continued

Last night, Councilman Rosendahl's Task Force on bicycle safety issues a in Mandeville Canyon met for the first time. Occasional Streetsblog contributer Kent Strumpell was there, and offers these notes from the meeting. Some of the highlights include many points of agreement between the community and the cyclists and that there will be a public community forum sometime this fall.

I'll have a full report on the Transportation Committee's big bike meeting earlier today, but one piece of quick news that doesn't require an in-depth report is an announcement by Councilman Bill Rosendahl that he will be holding a community meeting about the state of cycling within Mandeville Canyon Road. The Councilmember hopes to bring the community together to discuss how everyone can best share the road. Some ideas on the table include: signage, road improvements, road-sharing guidelines, and public education about the vehicle code.

Yesterday LAist broke the story, with graphic images, of a road rage-caused crash between two experienced cyclists and an emergency room doctor with a bid of a trigger temper.  Unlike past incidents, the mainstream media jumped on this story with graphic images making the story more “viewer friendly.”  KNBC and CBS2 both ran stories on last night’s news and the Bottleneck Blog and KFI 640 both have stories online. 

Sometimes a picture is just so horrifying that nothing else needs to be said.  The above shot is from a bike race in Monterrey, Mexico.  Amazingly, only one cyclist was killed.  The driver, an American, was drunk and asleep at the wheel.  Photo: Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez / AP

Less pressing for whom?  When the Federal Highway Administration discusses the conflict between pedestrians and automobiles it ranks “right on red” as the top concern.  A look at crash fatality statistics nationwide shows that in Los Angeles, almost one quarter of all crash fatalities are pedestrians.