Posted on 04/06/2012 12:34:21 PM PDT by Navy Patriot
The San Francisco bicyclist involved in a fatal collision with a San Bruno man could face criminal charges, and his flippant early account of the tragedy may not help his case in a city where bikes, cars and pedestrians must increasingly coexist.
Chris Bucchere collided in a Castro crosswalk March 29 with 71-year-old Sutchi Hui, who ultimately died Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital.
In an online missive posted just hours after the crash, Bucchere expressed little remorse for his behavior. His irreverent account focused instead on his broken helmet, his own relatively minor injuries and the police seizure of his bike.
“It was commuter hour and it was crowded as all getup,” Bucchere wrote. “I couldn’t see a line through the crowd and I couldn’t stop, so I laid it down and just plowed through the crowded crosswalk in the least-populated place I could find.”
Bucchere did express hope that Hui “ends up OK,” but he spent far more energy praising his own headgear.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfexaminer.com ...
It’s time to require licensing for bicycle drivers in SF. Must pass safety training and background checks before purchase is allowed. No criminals or miscreants should be allowed to get a license. Bicycles to be locked when not in use by owner. In SF, it’s a lethal weapon and people are dying. Besides, the city could use the licensing fees to pay for all the bike lanes and loss of car lanes that taxpayers are being gouged on.
Downtown San Francisco intersections are areas of chaotic lawlessness where selfishness and force are the determinant in regulating moves between drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. Each of the 3 groups is well stocked with opportunistic asshats stealing the right of way from everyone else on the street.
It is Calcutta California. So when you analyze accidents there, laws and rules have no meaning, you just have to let the facts speak for themselves.
At this point, I have no clue if the cyclists blew the red light, which is frequent and typical, or if the old man stole the intersection from the cyclists, equally frequent and typical.
This accident was at Castro and Market, which is notorious for violations of traffic among all three groups, cars, cycles and pedestrians, along with violations by taxis and transit buses. You can throw in the motor cycles and scooters that squeeze in between rows of cars to push their way to the front of stop lights.
I wish there was a sidebar on the accident itself.
OK, the idiot cyclist admits blowing a red light, which he lies about calling it a “yellow light”. So at least we know the party to blame. Still and all, these intersections are death traps, and anyone starting in on a green light without checking for red-light runners in both directions, runs a serious risk of death or injury, as happened here.
I agree and licenses for the bicycles themselves with big plates, yearly tags and brake inspections. A significant number of these jackasses ride "Fixer" bikes with no brakes at all.
Some sort of bicycle cult devotees or some other nonsense.
AMEN!!!
Yet another reason to avoid San Francisco.
As cities are more and more—warning motorists to “share the road” with cyclists—just imagine a driver in a car saying something similar: “I was looking for a line through the crosswalk, but there were just so many kids getting on that school bus...”
“was he riding a track bike? he should have not been riding a bike w/o brakes on the public roads.”
You mean a “fixie.” Virtually all fixies for city use have at least one brake.
“was he riding a track bike? he should have not been riding a bike w/o brakes on the public roads.”
You mean a “fixie.” Virtually all fixies for city use have at least one brake.
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