Free Republic

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón is preparing to file felony vehicular manslaughter charges against Chris Bucchere, the bicyclist who fatally struck a 71-year-old pedestrian in the Castro district last month. The felony charge - which could result in a 16-month sentence for Bucchere if he is convicted - is a sharp contrast to the misdemeanor count prosecutors filed in a case last year in which a bicyclist struck and killed a woman along the Embarcadero. The difference this time is prosecutors' conclusion that Bucchere, 35, was grossly negligent in his riding before he ran into Sutchi Hui in a...

Stories of bears getting hit by automobiles aren't that uncommon in the Sierra Nevada. In fact, it happened 28 times last year in Yosemite National Park alone. But stories of bears getting hit by someone on a bicycle? Those are practically unheard of. Practically. Until Jon Woodard came along. The 61-year-old from Agua Dulce, Calif., was riding his bike at about 25 mph along Dinkey Creek Road about 4 miles from Shaver Lake in Fresno County, Calif., on the morning of July 5 when the unthinkable happened. "I saw something brown out of the side of my eye, and it...

A woman crossing a street along San Francisco's waterfront was struck and seriously injured today by a bicyclist who ran a red light, police said.

ST. FLOUR, France - Tour de France riders were furious after two of their number were injured in a crash involving a television car on Sunday's ninth stage. Spaniard Juan-Antonio Flecha crashed to the ground while Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland went flying into a barbed-wire fence. "He was lying in the barbed wire, completely in it, in the barbs, his pants were completely off, he was completely naked," said Michale Cornelisse, the sports director of Hoogerland's Vacansoleil team after rescuing his rider from a ditch. "I just saw him flying through the air. He has deep cuts in his legs, he...

A Panama City man is recovering after a black bear attacked him while he was riding his bike to work. John Hearn said he saw something out of the corner of his eye early Thursday morning. The nearly 300-pound bear smacked him off his bicycle and then fled into some nearby woods. Passing motorists stopped to help

DeWine's assistance not enough for bicyclist who collided with car Monday, January 24, 2011 11:29 PM By Alan Johnson The Columbus Dispatch In Mike DeWine's first week as Ohio attorney general, his car collided with a bicyclist Downtown - and he ended up having the man taken on a 100-mile round trip to be treated by the officeholder's personal physician. Jonathan Kirk, 28, a dishwasher at Tip Top Kitchen & Cocktails, wasn't seriously injured, but he was shaken up in the Jan. 13 morning accident. According to a Columbus police report, confirmed by accounts from DeWine and Kirk, Kirk rode...

A Berks County man paralyzed in a bicycling accident several years ago was killed Thursday when he collided with an ambulance near his home while riding an adaptive cycle recently donated to him. Stephen B. Johnson, 49, of Exeter Township, was riding the three-wheel cycle modified for people with leg paralysis west on Rugby Road in Exeter Township when he veered into the path of the ambulance, according to police. The ambulance was returning to its station from a call and was not carrying any patients, police said.

A former New York City police officer convicted of lying about a confrontation with a bicyclist in Times Square was given a conditional discharge on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. The former officer, Patrick Pogan, had faced up to four years in prison, but will avoid any time behind bars. He also will not be placed on probation. In April, a jury found Mr. Pogan guilty of filing a criminal complaint that contained false statements concerning a 2008 collision with Christopher Long, who was participating in a Critical Mass bike ride. Mr. Pogan’s complaint alleged that Mr. Long...

On a windy Monday night, Pete’s Candy Store—a bar in Williamsburg with a railcar-shaped performance space in the back—is crammed to capacity with the thin and the bearded. Almost no one is drinking. The mood is pregame, expectant and nervous. We’re at one of the oddest New York City powwows in recent memory: a panel designed to quell a metastasizing dispute between bicyclists and Hasidic Jews. Except no Hasids are present. For a moment, it looks like the bicyclists will have to debate themselves. At immediate issue is the Bedford Avenue bike lane. It’s the longest in Brooklyn and runs...

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Military vehicle operated by the D.C. National Guard fatally struck a bicyclist Monday at approximately 6:05 p.m. while providing security near the Nuclear Security Summit, according to D.C. police and eyewitnesses. ABC 7's Jennifer Donelan reports the Humvee backed up over the female cyclist at 12th Street NW and New York Avenue, about five blocks from the Walter E Washington Convention Center. The Humvee was assigned to the motorcade security route when the incident took place. Much of the area around the convention center is blocked off as part of security restrictions for the summit. The...

A 16-year-old boy who tried to rob another youth with a pellet gun was in critical condition late Thursday when his intended victim pulled out a real gun and shot him in the head, police said.

BOULDER — A cyclist in Boulder County was injured after a run-in, literally, with a bear. Tim Egan, 53, was riding on Old Stage Road Tuesday afternoon when suddenly a bear appeared in front of him. Egan hit the bear and ended up skidding across the road. "This bear looked at me with a look of terror on his face and sort of made a noise," said Egan. "I looked at him with a look of terror and we went, 'aaaahhhhh.'"

Bicyclists were twice as likely as drivers to be at fault in the nearly 2,000 collisions that killed or severely injured Bay Area bike riders in the past decade, an analysis by The Chronicle shows. Bicycle and safety advocates say the deaths two weeks ago of two cyclists hit by a Santa Clara sheriff's deputy's cruiser should serve as a call to improve relations between cars and bikes on the roadways.The advocates say large numbers of cyclists fail to follow the rules of the road, running stop signs and red lights, and drivers are becoming more aggressive. "There is a...

NEW YORK - A small bomb caused minor damage to a landmark military recruiting station in the heart of Times Square before dawn Thursday, and police were searching for a hooded bicyclist seen on a surveillance video pedaling away. The video shows the bicyclist getting off a bike at 3:40 a.m. Thursday and walking toward the building. A minute or so later, the person returned to the bike and rode away. A brief flash and a cloud of white smoke follows. A bike, believed used in the crime, was later found in the trash on West 38th Street, Police Commissioner...

DANA POINT, Calif. A San Juan Capistrano woman whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when her BMW veered off a Dana Point road early Monday and fatally struck a man on a bicycle was booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, authorities said. Michelle Stearns, 26, was arrested at the scene of the roughly 1:55 a.m. accident along Del Obispo Street near Quail Run, Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said. Stearns was driving north on Del Obispo when she lost control of the car, went over the curb, hit a traffic sign and struck...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – U.S. soldiers in Baghdad pursued and detained a bicyclist yesterday after being tipped off by concerned residents that he was transporting bomb-making materials on his bike. "We set up a screen around the area where we knew he would be, so that any direction he took off in we could grab him," said Army 2nd Lt. Kyle Graham, from 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, who led the patrol. Once troops spotted the bicycle, the soldiers gave chase in Humvees and cut the suspect off near a market. Graham, a former football player, was halfway out...

Armstrong Doesn’t See Kerry as a Bicyclist Sunday, July 24, 2005 (SAINT-ETIENNE, France) Lance Armstrong does not think that Sen. John Kerry would make a terrific bicyclist but fears he'll try anyway. During his warmup for Saturday's time trial, the Texan watched the Democrat from Massachusetts who was sitting in the back seat of a black Peugeot limousine under the Eiffel Tower. Armstrong listed the Senator's losing qualities. "What made him so awful during the presidential election was the lack of focus, discipline, intelligence and strategic ability-- his inability to just take it on and go," Armstrong said. Those qualities...

It began as a shouting match on a busy Capitol Hill street corner during the frenetic morning commute, a bike-vs.-car incident not uncommon in a big city. But then the silver-haired, retired Navy lieutenant got out of his car, approached the red-headed ballet dancer riding a bike and allegedly shoved her to the ground, authorities said. He got back into his car and, as bystanders followed him, drove down the block to his nearby office, the bicyclist said. The man was identified as Ted E. Schelenski, 64, vice president for finance and operations at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank...

A 15-year-old pregnant girl fatally shot while driving with a group of friends on the north side early Tuesday was the victim of road rage, police say. Shooting Victim Montrise Conley was fatally shot while driving with a group of friends. That girl, identified as Montrise Conley by family, had just called her parents to let them know she was coming home. She never made it. Conley, who was three months pregnant, had been at a friend's house and was heading home with a group of friends shortly before 2:30 a.m. when the vehicle in which she was riding cut...

Joseph H. Gottschalk, whose habit of riding a bicycle while wearing only a thong brought him both local celebrity and notoriety, was found dead over the weekend in Big Bend National Park. Park officials said hikers spotted some clothing near the edge of a cliff some 30 feet from the South Rim trail Saturday afternoon. Peering down a sharp drop, the hikers saw Gottschalk’s naked body on a wide ledge about 100 feet below, park spokesman David Elkowitz said. A search-and-rescue team used pulleys to raise and retrieve Gottschalk’s corpse, and a Brewster County justice of the peace examined it...

Thong-clad biker has some eyes sore   By Jesse Bogan San Antonio Express-News   Web Posted : 05/05/2003 12:00 AM   Though he appears nearly naked from time to time, Joseph Gottschalk is legally covered. Joseph Gottschalk causes controversy by choosing to wear the minimum amount of clothing required by law while bicycling. The thong-clad Gottschalk was riding in his neighborhood near Southside Lions Park on Saturday.Bob Owen/Express-News React What do you think of thong-clad cyclist? "Don't they call that a thong? I think it's disgusting," said Norm Sutton, 66, of the undressed man who rides his bike around Southside...