Fatality in Maine

[Robert Cooper]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 11:59 AM, David Lamb <dl...@rochester.rr.com> wrote:

I, too, Bob. It's a confusing scenario. What if anything have you read about accidents involving “...a draft created [as the truck passed] and it caused him to lose his balance and he fell over,”?

 Dave and Fast-Friends,

At the bottom of this I will append a note that I posted on the Facebook page of the Bangor Daily News. It’s not flattering to newspaper reporters. I shouldn’t have been so harsh, as their jobs, as presently defined, do not include crash analysis.

The other posters were saying, “Oh, Tragedy!” and so on. Or some variation of “Prosecute the trucker!” Well, yes, it does not take a rocket scientist to realize that a 23-year-old being killed in the first ten miles of a charity event is a tragedy.

Some perspective: Even when done badly, which it is by most people most of the time, cycling is extremely safe.

However, I have to wonder if “Safety in Numbers” is real or folklore.

If it is real, does it extend to 2,000 riders with wildly-varying goals and levels of ability who don’t know each other riding together down a stretch of road that they don’t know? (Compare this to five friends cycling around Mendon.)

To get my CDL, how many hours of on-road training and practice will I need to be able to safely overtake a few hundred cyclists over the course of a few minutes while steering my semi-tractor-trailer? (Zero.)

With scores of cyclists in view along that stretch of road, the trucker certainly was aware that there were cyclists present. By his own account, he overtook “hundreds.” (Translation: Dozens?)

Lack of conspicuity couldn’t have been much of an issue. Hannibal’s army going down that road on war elephants would not have been more conspicuous.

Why did David LeClair take a pull from his bottle while riding in a pack and simultaneously being overtaken by a semi? Did he, as witnesses said?

 Maybe as a result of having one or two or three lines of cyclists to his right, he couldn’t move farther right at the precise moment when he needed to give the trucker another foot of space. Maybe the “loss of control” that others observed was more of a case of “nowhere to go.”

For the wind from the semi to have been a significant factor, it seems that the semi would need to have been going faster than he probably would have when overtaking a large group of cyclists.

But I don’t think we know enough yet, and without trained observers on the scene, we probably won’t.
==============
to Bangor Daily News Facebook page:

Several possible reactions to news of this type: (1) sadness, horror: natural but not helpful in preventing recurrences; (2) assigning blame: natural but not helpful in preventing recurrences; (3) common-sense advice, like “Be Aware. Be Visible. Be Safe”: natural but not helpful in preventing recurrences; and (4) analysis.

 Newspaper reporters are not normally trained in crash analysis, and crash analysis is usually beyond the scope of newspaper reports, and so the readers normally don’t learn much from reading the reports. Still uninformed, the public experiences recurrences of the collision type.
==============

--

Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.

http://tinyurl.com/Why-do-you-ride-like-that

[Bob Cooper]

Longer and more-recent news article about the Trek-across-Maine fatality, posted 27 June 2013:

http://www.pressherald.com/news/Crash-report-cites-truck-draft-in-Trek-Across-Maine-cyclists-death.html 

[David Lamb]

Thanks, Bob.

I continue to have my doubts about this reported / speculated scenario:
"The Maine State Police's preliminary investigation concluded that the
possible cause of the June 14 crash was the draft created by the truck,
which caused Leclair to move to his left, hitting the rear tires of the
truck...Police have said that Leclair was riding about 2 feet inside the
breakdown lane, based on witness statements. The truck was about 2 feet
into the travel lane, leaving about 4 feet between the two as the truck
passed."

My bet is there was at least one additional contributing factor, perhaps
more, and / or that these estimations of separating distances are very
inaccurate; I just don't buy 4 feet of tuck draft, even if the truck was
speeding significantly above the 40 mph limit.

Lelair's bike came through pretty much unscathed and rideable; that
tells us what about the accident? How does a rider come off his bike so
cleanly if truck draft is even partly to blame?

Something is just not adding up for me.

dl

David Lamb

585-733-3604

www.linkedin.com/in/davidlambnyscpa

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[Steven Lee]

Time for me to add my two cents worth. When Ann and I were riding in
CA, a semi passed very close to us and Ann was pulled into the road by
the draft. She was pulled off her bike in the crash and fortunately
the following driver saw everything and swerved to avoid hitting her.
It was a very scary moment for both of us to say the least. Ann had
less than 2 feet of clearance from the truck as it passed and she
weighs nothing.

Could the rider in Maine have hit something that would have ejected
him from the bike or caused him to steer into the road thus being
sucked in by the draft of the truck?

Steve "I always ride defensively" Lee

[David Lamb]

That was close, Steve. Yikes.

You mentioned 2 feet of clearance from the truck as it passed...that I
can believe and corroborates my suspicion that there may not have been
four feet of clearance as reported in the Maine instance. Another point,
it sounds like Ann was pulled into the road BEHIND the truck, not into
it as it passed also as the reports seem to insinuate in the Maine instance.

And of course, your closing questions are good ones, could he have hit
something, etc., those are the possible (probable, in my mind)
additional contributing factors I mentioned...somehow, I just suspect
that those factors were more essential to the Maine instance than truck
draft in and of itself.

dl

David Lamb

585-733-3604

www.linkedin.com/in/davidlambnyscpa

[Steven Lee]

Dave,

About 13 years ago I dropped my front wheel into a hole the was not
easily seen because of the lighting. I did an OTB and shattered part
of my elbow. The bike was rideable and I was not. I wasn't on the
road, but on the paved part of the canal path. Just tossing that out
there.

Steve

[Robert Cooper]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:16 PM, Steven Lee <sle...@frontiernet.net> wrote:

Time for me to add my two cents worth.  When Ann and I were riding in CA, a semi passed very close to us and Ann was pulled into the road by the draft

[...]

Steve,

Thanks for that story about Ann. Very valuable information.

Over on the BicycleDriving list, a Google Group, a lot of the heavy hitters like John S. Allen are trying to figure out what might have happened, mostly speculation, of course.

One thought offered: A wheel touch precipitated by the draft from the truck or other steering input, exacerbated by the young cyclist’s having only one hand on the handlebar.

Typically, the front cyclist does not even know that his rear wheel was touched and so would not be rushing to the police station to make a report.

A wheel touch could have been caused by the push of air from the *front* of the truck. As Steve suggests, the suck from the back of the truck is going to affect the cyclist mostly just after the rear of the truck clears.

The takeaway for me is to be very wary around big trucks, and around big groups of cyclists, and when one hand is off the handlebar

And also, whenever possible, to ride in the middle of the lane.

Cycling is an insanely-safe behavior, twice as safe per hour as motoring, but there are two cyclists killed every 24 hours in the US, on average.

Bob Coope

r

[David Lamb]

Sure, I can see that. Another yikes! Again, more contributing factors -
or at least one significant one, a pothole. No truck suck in this case
at all!

My point is that the rider and bike were not sucked into or under the
truck, based on the lack of damage to the bike, and as morbid as it may
seem, David Leclair was not in fact "run over" by the truck. Reports are
that his arm may have been, but the fatal head injury was caused by
blunt impact, even possibly with the road or truck's mudflap. There MAY
have been turbulence and that combined with other more essential
factors, such as a wheel touch with another rider, or an untimely drop
off the edge of the pavement and subsequent veering back onto the
shoulder and / or travel lane, or impact with a pot hole or broken
pavement or road debris or another rider's dropped water bottle or a
snapping turtle attempting to cross the road...there's just more to this
than truck suck alone, not if in fact as reported there was 4 feet of
clearance and the truck was not speeding. Defies logic and experience.

Just by way of explanation, I'm paying much attention to this one
because I was there that day, conditions were about as good as it gets,
Leclair could not have been tired (10 miles into the Trek), etc., and
I'm just trying to make some sense of it all, if possible.

dl

David Lamb

585-733-3604

www.linkedin.com/in/davidlambnyscpa

[Robert Cooper]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:43 PM, Steven Lee <sle...@frontiernet.net> wrote:

Dave,

About 13 years ago

[...]

January 1, 2000, if I recall correctly.

Best,

Bob

[Robert Cooper]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 10:02 PM, David Lamb <dl...@rochester.rr.com> wrote:

[...] Just by way of explanation, I'm paying much attention to this one because I was there that day, conditions were about as good as it gets, Leclair could not have been tired (10 miles into the Trek), etc., and I'm just trying to make some sense of it all, if possible.

Dave,

That’s what we need to do.

In the event of a cycling-related injury, especially a fatal injury, the usual news report that we read begins with a short summary of the scene, for example, “He was riding with his team on Rickenbacker Road,” followed by a description of the victim, or example, “He taught

S

unday school for forty years,” followed by quotes from family and friends who loved him and who will miss him now that he’s gone.

There is often an announcement of a twilight vigil in his honor.

And then we get over our grief and go back to making the same mistakes and taking the same risks.

What we almost never see, and what we as cyclists desperately need, if we are to avoid a similar crash ourselves, is a gathering of the facts followed by analysis.

We need to know what happened. We need much more detail than is normally provided.

This is the point at which speculation is not idle. We try to imagine what might have happened, and that’s better than not thinking about the crash at all.

Best,

Bob

[David Lamb]

That sort of questioning is appropriate because this story doesn't add up to me, in large part because "the suck from the back of the truck is going to affect the cyclist mostly just after the rear of the truck clears." So, if wheel suck were the primary cause, Leclair's arm would not have been run over (at least not by the truck; as Steve / Ann's scarey event pointed out, she was in danger of being run over by a following vehicle), nor would his head have hit the truck's mudflap...

I can't see how this accident occurred the way the story is being told by the media. The witness accounts are sketchy and limited as reported. Does the Freedom of Information Act apply to obtaining a transcript of what they might have said to the investigators, that which has so far not been released publicly?

I wonder how satisfied David's loved one's are as to the explanation of what happened?

dl

David Lamb 
 
585-733-3604

www.linkedin.com/in/davidlambnyscpa

On 6/28/2013 10:01 PM, Robert Cooper wrote:

On Fri, Jun 28, 2013 at 9:16 PM, Steven Lee <sle...@frontiernet.net> wrote:

Time for me to add my two cents worth. �When Ann and I were riding in CA, a semi passed very close to us and Ann was pulled into the road by the draft

[...]

Steve,

Thanks for that story about Ann. Very valuable information.

Over on the BicycleDriving list, a Google Group, a lot of the heavy hitters like John S. Allen are trying to figure out what might have happened, mostly speculation, of course.

One thought offered: A wheel touch precipitated by the draft from the truck or other steering input, exacerbated by the young cyclist�s having only one hand on the handlebar.

Typically, the front cyclist does not even know that his rear wheel was touched and so would not be rushing to the police station to make a report.

A wheel touch could have been caused by the push of air from the *front* of the truck. As Steve suggests, the suck from the back of the truck is going to affect the cyclist mostly just after the rear of the truck clears.

The takeaway for me is to be very wary around big trucks, and around big groups of cyclists, and when one hand is off the handlebar

And also, whenever possible, to ride in the middle of the lane.

Cycling is an insanely-safe behavior, twice as safe per hour as motoring, but there are two cyclists killed every 24 hours in the US, on average.

Bob Coope

r

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[Robert Cooper]

On Sat, Jun 29, 2013 at 6:29 AM, David Lamb <dl...@rochester.rr.com> wrote:

[...] I wonder how satisfied David's loved one's are as to the explanation of what happened?

Dave and Fast Friends,

Just an hour ago I posted this to the Cyclists Are Drivers FaceBook page:

Robert Cooper Susan Haas “Advocacy in any realm *must* encompass criminal defense, litigation, and court watching. I don't think LAB does any of that, do they?”

Not sure what LAB does in this regard, but it would be nice, if we had an organization, similar to the NEA (national teacher’s union) with deep pockets and an inter-state reach that could and would take on cases of discrimination, defending cyclists in court. Half a dozen high-profile cases in half a dozen diverse states would practically settle the issue.

The converse of this was succinctly and eloquently expressed by Jay Gould in 1886 (apocryphal) “I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.” Divided we fall, et cetera.

Bob Cooper

[Robert Cooper]

P

S: I used the term "discrimination" in my post to the Cyclists Are Drivers FaceBook page, because that was the essence of the thread that I was posting to.

However, in a broader sense, discrimination could include a tendency of law enforcement to inadequately investigate crashes, because, "as everyone knows," cyclists are merely risk-taking scofflaws and not real traffic.

Another Facebook page that I follow is "I Am Traffic."

Bob Cooper

[Robert Cooper]

Here’s an interesting story about a club cyclist crashing:

On one of my earliest rides with the RBC, just after I had joined, maybe 1995-6, we were coming back north along Gray Road near Lima. I guy was maybe fifty yards ahead riding alone in the middle of a smooth road on a nice, windless day and he crashed. No motor traffic, no cyclists near, no dogs, no potholes that I saw, no deer…

The only thing I can think of was that the guy was trying to ride no-hands, and he just didn’t have the experience needed to do that. I had seen him earlier trying to ride no-hands, and succeeding but not gracefully. Maybe the Wobble Gods finally decided to call his bluff. No one said anything, and we rode on.

Anyway, clearly, riding a bike is not as simple as some seem to think.

Bob Cooper

[Bob Cooper]

On the subject of riding a bicycle perhaps being not quite so simple as some might believe, here is the story of a guy who is dead now, maybe in part because he chose the wrong gear for the hill he was climbing.

Johnstown, New York, 25 June 2013:

http://tinyurl.com/Johnstown-driver-not-charged

[Roger Weston]

Wrong gear for pedaling maybe? Not enough gear/helmet for sure as well as no observance of Three Foot Rule. Based on info about shoulder and white line. If neither crossed it vehicle was to damn close to cyclist. Line or no line.

Sent from my iPhone

--

[Robert Cooper]

Right, the story implies that he was struggling on the hill and lost his line. My point was simply that cycling is not simple, and the even a seemingly simple thing like shifting down for a hill can have significant consequences.

OTOH, if he had positioned in the middle of the lane, what almost no one does, this fatality might not have occurred.

[Robert Cooper]

Changes in Maine’s traffic laws that affect cyclists, and an incident of a cyclist hugging the edge and thus endangering himself:

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2013/06/29/sharing-road/1385187

The comments, especially the ones by John Brooking -- a CyclingSavvy Instructor based in Portland -- are worth your time.

The whole conflict between cyclists and motorists comes down to the cultural climate in the United States.

In Ireland, for example, motorists are LOOKING for reasons to slow down. Not getting to work on time seems to be part of the plan.

Remember what they say about the Irish -- They’re just like the Spanish, you know, Mañana, Mañana ... without the same sense of urgency.

What would happen if American motorists just slowed down five percent?

(1) End of dependence on foreign oil, and

(2) End of hypertension as a public health menace, and

(3) Less noise pollution, and

(4) Cars would last longer, and

(5) Oh, boy, this is a big one, fewer traffic fatalities.

All I can say,

Bob Cooper

[Michael B Burkett]

Of course the tired old argument that bicycles should be registered/liscensed/insured came back again.  We all now that's ridiculous and nearly impossible to administer and enforce and I hope that it never happens.  But a part of me also realizes that it's a "be careful what you wish for" scenario because then that does give legitimacy to cyclists on the roads.  It does provides more obstacles to cycling (which is what I think the people that propose these requirements really want), but If you are a duely liscensed bicycle operator by the state and granted by them the legal authority to follow the rules of the road anywhere at anytime who can say to you "get off the road"?  I imagine as a part of all this the state would then have to provide safe cycling education, especially for teenaged cyclists which may not be such a bad thing either.  Double edged swords. 

 

 

--

[Robert Cooper]

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:47 PM, Michael B Burkett <mbb...@alum.rit.edu> wrote:

Of course

,

the tired old argument that bicycles should be registered/liscensed/insured

comes

 back again. We all

k

now that's ridiculous

[...]

And as civilized, intelligent, well-mannered club cyclists, we are the best ambassadors for cycling's being a swift, courteous, confident, safe and legal means of travel under human power.

We teach by example, and we don't need any special rules, special licensing or special infrastructure aimed at us.

Ride Fun and Have Safe,

Bob Cooper

[tomste...@frontiernet.net]

I concur!

---

From: Robert Cooper <robertco...@gmail.com>
To: Fast Friends <fast-f...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, July 1, 2013 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: Fatality in Maine