Another Tucson bicycle fatality –Alexander Nuñez
From the AZ Daily Star:
Tucson police identify cyclist killed Thursday
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.03.2009A man killed Thursday evening while riding his bicycle on West 22nd Street near South Sixth Avenue has been identified as 49-year-old, Alexander Nuñez, police said.
Nuñez was hit by a van in the eastbound lanes of 22nd Street at about 5 p.m., said Officer Linda Galindo, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman.
According to a police, the driver of a Ford passenger van was eastbound on 22nd Street, just east of 6th Avenue. Nuñez was riding his bicycle across 22nd Street, in a northeast direction, and rode into the path of the van.
The driver of the van was unable to stop in time and struck Nuñez, police said. No citations have been issued.
Detectives are awaiting toxicology results to determine if drugs and/or alcohol were a factor in this collision. Speed does not appear to have been a factor. Nuñez was not wearing a helmet, police said.
As usual, the bicyclist “rode into the path” of the van. We hear this so often, and so often it turns out to be the vehicle that drove into the path of the cyclist. But that always comes out a lot later.
I know nothing about this case other than what is in the above article, but I notice that Mr. Nuñez was going diagonally (”northeast”) across 22nd, which may mean he was merging. Hopefully the police will do a good job analyzing this one and we will more shortly.
Thanks again Martha R. for pointing me to this article today.
–Erik Ryberg
If you see this guy, say hello
His name’s Ryan Van Duzer and he’s riding across the country on a three-speed. He’ll be in town any minute.
Here’s what he has to say for himself:
My motto for this ride is, “If I can ride a three speed cruiser across America, more people can ride to the grocery store and leave their cars behind. I’m also working with the America League of Bicyclists and stopping in bike friendly cities along the way.
Hooray for bikes!
–Erik Ryberg
Yoga for bicyclists . . . in the Barrio!
My friend Alexis just sent me this announcement:
Yoga for BicyclistsThursdays 6-7 pmStarts July 9, 2009Cost is $75 for the 8 week seriesSOUTHERN ARIZONA SCHOOL OF YOGA267 South Stone Avenue | Tucson 85701This class will teach classical yoga postures and breathing techniques, taught with an emphasis on specific issues frequently encountered by recreational and competitive cyclists, including shoulder, neck and upper-back tension, imbalances of the lumbo-sacral spine, and knee pain/injury.The course includes standing poses, seated poses, forward bends, back bends, inversions and restorative postures.
If you have ever wondered about classical yoga and what it might offer you, Alexis’s introductory courses like this one are a good way to test the waters. She doesn’t expect you to know anything when you start and she puts great emphasis on getting the poses right.
–Erik Ryberg
You want to get a ticket or dontcha?
One the things I find the most irksome about the Tucson Police Department’s various bad policies is their habit of telling wounded cyclists that if they have to write up an accident report they are going to give the cyclist a ticket.
Here’s how it works:
A cyclist gets hit by a car, and is lying in the pavement dazed. Assuming the cyclist is not suffering a serious injury, the officer will then try to determine fault. As I have written many times before, “carhead” tends to point toward the cyclist being at fault.
If the officer determines the cyclist was at fault, he will then often give the cyclist a choice: you can leave here and forget about all this, or you can stay and get a ticket. Which do you pick?
Most of the time the cyclist is in shock and is not thinking clearly. Add to that a lot of frowning motorists and an officer telling the cyclist to scram, the cyclist usually scrams.
Then, once home, the cyclist starts to calm down and maybe notice the broken rib or the unrelenting dizziness. Then the cyclist may start playing the accident through his or her mind and realize that the person at fault was actually the driver. But now the motorist is long gone and there is no record of the accident. There is no insurance company to call. And the police have no records because they didn’t make a report.
If this sounds preposterous to you, let me tell you: it happens all the time. I got another call today from someone who had this happen to him. He was dragged under a car that ran a red light. Miraculously, he escaped with a minor bone fracture, possible concussion, and soft tissue injuries. Wandering around in a daze afterwards, no one came to his aid and motorists would not even get out of the way for him to retrieve his things. The driver who hit him insisted he had done nothing wrong. By the time the police got there, the poor cyclist was really in a state, outnumbered and sore and terrified from being dragged down Aviation Parkway under a truck whose driver apparently never even saw him.
When offered the chance to either go home or get a ticket, he decided to go home.
But once he got home, of course, his adrenalin levels started to fall and he was able to see just how injured he really was.
I think it is completely irresponsible for TPD to do this to people. Cyclists who have been dragged down Aviation Parkway underneath trucks are guaranteed to be in shock. I don’t care how many times you have read this and other bike safety blogs, if it happens to you, you are not going to be thinking clearly either. In my experience, cyclists nearly always feel guilt and shame after being hit by a car, and they just want to clear out of there, even if they were not even remotely at fault.
For police to take advantage of this and make deals on the street with cyclists to just go away or get ticketed is, in my view, offensively improper behavior.
–Erik Ryberg
Yehuda Moon is back!
Back daily! Check it out.
Don’t forget to make a donation, too, if you find yourself a daily reader.
–Erik Ryberg
What do you think of this?
Just wondering.
–Erik Ryberg
Report from the William Wilson sentencing
I couldn’t attend, but a reader has written this:
The sentencing for the Mr. Wilson was this morning and I attended. Tucson’s TV channel 13 crew was also there so it will be on today’s news. Bottom line: no jail time, 3 years of probation, he never drives again and he is to remain in an assisted living center in Georgia.
The whole thing had nothing to do with the accident that the driver caused but the fact that he left the scene of the accident. The judge felt that since the driver did contact an attorney (2 freakin’ days AFTER the accident!!!) he complied with the law’s intent that a driver accept responsibility. Never mind the fact that he went home and removed human tissue and bike paint from his car to try to cover up the accident. Whatever. They did mention that a civil suit is going on, that the driver has a $3 million insurance policy, yada yada yada. But the victim with the most serious injuries, the one who was in a coma for 3 months, the one who had multiple brain surgeries, the one who was declared mentally incompetent by the court and now has his wife as his legal guardian because of his brain injury, the one who already has $1.5 million in medical bills hanging over his head…..he had to sit there and watch the driver get off with a slap on the wrist. I was actually crying there in court, the whole thing was so sad. I should also mention that one of the other bicyclists who was injured that day gave an extremely emotional plea to the judge, asking for no leniency in the case. That had to have been so difficult to do, and my hat goes off to him.
I just have a very empty feeling in my stomach now. Damn, damn, damn
–Peter
Update: The Arizona Daily Star’s article on the sentencing is here (but I think Peter’s report is much better).
Second update: more thorough AZ Daily Star article here.
EBR
Memorial Service for Drake Okusako — June 29 at 5:30 PM
I just got notified of this:
Memorial Service for Drake G. Okusako
To be held at:
Randolph Golf Complex, Copper Room
600 S. Alvernon
Monday
June 29, 2009
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Drake G. Okusako, 55
Please join Randolph Soccer Club as we honor the memory of a fine man, Drake G. Okusako. Coach Oak was a youth soccer coach and avid bicyclist whose life was cut short on Friday, May 29, 2009, when he was fatally struck by a motorist on Alvernon near Broadway.
We would like to invite you to attend and share in honoring his memory. In keeping with Drake’s lifestyle, this will not be a formal affair but rather a more casual, come as you are, celebration of his life. Please contact Karen Hymer-Thompson, Vice-President of the Randolph Soccer Club, at 240-7075 or khymerthompson@gmail.com to share your memories, thoughts, or photos to be included in the service.
–EBR
Wacky bikes from way back
Tom Thivener, the Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Manager for Tucson, sent me this. Incredible footage of wacky bikes from long ago, including several designs I’ve never thought of or heard of.
I particularly like the three-person pedal-powered sewing machine on a bicycle. That is, three people pedal, one person sews.
Vail man reminds us of life’s dangers, urges everyone to stay inside forever
Martha R sent me this from today’s AZ Daily Star:
Re: the June 10 article “Man faces additional charges in cyclist death.”
Having a stroke or some other medical impairment, a tire blowout, equipment failure, are all potential causes for a driver accidentally killing a cyclist riding on the shoulder of a road.
Every person who chooses to exercise or train for competition via roadside biking (and that would constitute the lion’s share of all roadside cyclists) needs to recognize that there is ever-present danger, even when all parties are abiding by the rules of the road. I personally find it illogical to take on such a risk when the same goals may be accomplished in safer environments.
What of the lives affected and possibly ruined by the accidental taking of a human life? Given current road conditions and laws governing these matters, roadside cycling seems selfish.
John M. Towle
Self-employed, Vail
Of course, the incident Mr. Towle is referring to is the Drake Okusako case, where a young driver, probably intoxicated. veered into the bike lane and killed Mr. Okusako.