Carhead: Mercury News can’t seem to face the reality in recent bicyclist fatalities
I’ve reported before on Carhead, the subtle prejudice we Americans have that always supports the car and blames the cyclist. There’s a nice example of it in recent reporting by the Mercury News over yesterday’s horrific and tragic accident in which two cyclists were killed by a sheriff’s deputy who appears to have fallen asleep at the wheel and hit them head-on.
The article begins with a straightforward account:
Two bicyclists were killed when a Santa Clara County sheriff’s patrol car crossed the double-yellow line on Stevens Canyon Road in Cupertino and hit a group of riders shortly before 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
But then comes the carhead thinking. First, this: “The opportunities for hill climbing and downhill coasting along Stevens Canyon make the road tempting for cyclists.” On its own, an innocuous statement, but do you see the set-up here? This road is very dangerous but, like so many things, it is tempting. The cyclists fell into temptation.
Then: “The group collided with the deputy’s car.” True enough, but by making the cyclists the subject of the sentence, and the car the object, it transforms the cyclists into the actors, not the deputy’s car, even though it was the deputy’s car that plowed into them after crossing the centerline, with a (presumably) sleeping deputy at the wheel.
Next:
“Local cyclists noted that riders in large groups will sometimes ride two-abreast. The practice is not illegal but can be extremely dangerous on narrow, winding roads with a large amount of traffic.”
This again is a true or at least true-ish statement, but how is it relevant to a story about a car that crossed the center-line with a sleeping driver and killed people in a head-on crash? What does it do except reinforce the constant carhead refrain that cyclists bring this upon themselves?
–Erik Ryberg
March 10th, 2008 at 11:13 am
I live in the area and I’m familiar with the road. I admit the very first thing I thought when I heard about this tragic collision was that the cyclists must have crossed the centerline on a fast downhill.
I gave you a mention on the Spokesmen podcast this morning as we talked about the Shootout incident and the baseball bat incident. Watch for it probably tonight.
March 10th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
totally agreed.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
good points! I live in the area and am thankful for the bikelanes and havn’t had any confrontations with drivers. well once