A cyclist in Charlottesville died this Monday, April 9, after a collision with a city truck. Matthew Steven King, a mathematics graduate student at the University of Virginia, had just been volunteering on the breakfast shift at a local homeless shelter, when the incident happened at around 9am. He died 30 minutes later.
Charlottesville has recently had several bike and pedestrian incidents. As the Daily Progress reports, “The quick succession of wrecks has put bicycle safety — and by extension, pedestrian safety — very much in the public eye.” Worth a read.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-ffAr_0M34f91E.gif\")
Comments on this entry are closed.
Hey that’s great. Glad their blaming the bicyclists. I mean that’s what “bike safety education” is about, safety aimed at the bikers. Oh oh I have an idea. How about some automobile safety education, aimed at the car drivers – telling them to STAY AWAY from the bikes, stop running them over, yield to them as if they are legitimate vehicles, and grab a clue that if they hit a biker they are likely to *kill* the biker. Could we perhaps have some automobile safety education.
I’m sure the driver of the large truck that hit that cyclist did not wake up desiring to do so that day. Cyclists must consider their vulnerable state on the road compared to motor vehicles, and ride accordingly. Negative attitudes and sarcasm never contribute to any solution. Our country will begin making strides toward real safety on our roads between cyclists and motorists when people can control their tongues and speak in ways that cause all ears to open, not close.