> This is also the type of crash that killed my friend Al Lester and another
> competitor in the same 24-hour race in upstate New York, in two separate
> incidents. Both motorists were teenagers who had been at the same drinking
> party, were going way above the speed limit and failed to negotiate
> right-hand curves. One of them died too when his car smashed into a boulder
> and, according to news reports, "exploded."

> As I recall, there was a woman cyclist, a masters racer, killed this way
> somewhere in the mid-Atlantic states a few years ago -- she was third in
> line with two other cyclists who both saw the car coming, and swerved out
> of the way, but she didn't. Can anyone recall her name?

> A year ago I could have got this from a police car headed for some
> incident with lights flashing -- but no siren -- though I had heard other
> police cars with sirens and it wasn't that police were in stealth mode. I
> was on a left-hand curve and had no warning of the police car that  pulled
> out to overtake a van on a narrow two-lane road. If I had been riding in
> the middle of the lane rather than near its right (my choice, as there was
> no traffic behind me), this would have been a major blemish on the
> reputation of the Weston, Massachusetts police department. A motorcyclist
> would have been riding in the middle of the lane, would definitely have had
> a head-on collision and almost certainly been killed.

> Commonly, as in my Weston incident, this kind of crash occurs when a
> vehicle pulls out to overtake on a two-lane rural road or highway. It gives
> me second thoughts about claiming the right lane on rural roads if there is
> no traffic  or sight line problem on the right requiring lane control.
> Sight lines ahead and the prospect of avoiding a head-on are better when
> closer to the right side of the road.

> This is of course a kind of crash that is not specific to cyclists. It
> also kills motorists. I easily could have died or been seriously injured
> with my wife and son in Bethel, Vermont a few years ago, driving home from
> vacation. A 16-year-old driver was looking over his right shoulder for
> something in the back of his pickup truck, on a gentle right curve. I was
> glancing at the speedometer and didn't see the truck start to drift into my
> lane-- my wife called out and I managed to swerve right so the crash was
> only a sideswipe. The car had air bags (that didn't go off-- it was a light
> impact -- , and we all were seatbelted, but the car was a station wagon and
> the back was packed with stuff which would have launched itself at us over
> the seat backs at us. Our rather old car was driveable once I pulled out
> part of the left rear quarter panel that was dragging on the tire, but it
> was totaled, as repairs would cost more than its book value.

> At 08:59 PM 10/27/2012, Wayne Pein wrote:

>> The only countermeasure is bicyclist awareness and skill. But that may
>> not be enough without luck. There's no way to know how many crazy almost
>> crashes are avoided due to skill and luck.

>> In the rain a motorist Left Crossed me on a 5 lane road. I did a
>> countersteer Quick Right, and went into a 2-wheel power slide on my road
>> bike, barely avoiding collision as the pickup truck zipped by. I wasn't
>> planning on skidding sideways but since it was slick that's what happened.
>> Somehow I stayed up. Not sure what would have happened had it been dry and
>> the Quick Right executed as designed; maybe avoided, maybe collided.

>> Wayne

>> On 10/27/12 8:06 PM, Serge Issakov wrote:

>>> This is the type of crash that killed Ken Kifer, and I don't know how
>>> this type of crash can be avoided.

>>>     Trent Graham, 30, was riding his bicycle along Evergreen Way just
>>>     south of the intersection with SW Everett Mall Way.

>>>     Just after 7:15 p.m., a southbound pickup drifted left across three
>>>     northbound lanes and struck the curb, Graham and a power pole,
>>>     Everett police officer Aaron Snell said.

>>> http://heraldnet.com/article/**20121018/NEWS01/710189899<http://heraldnet.com/article/20121018/NEWS01/710189899>

> John S. Allen

> jsallen *at* bikexprt.com

> http://bikexprt.com

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