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A Fatal Rear-End Collision

05.01.2012 by Ray Niekamp // 13 Comments

Like the rest of the Austin cycling community, I am saddened by the death of cyclist Verter Ginestra, 55, over the weekend. He was riding on the shoulder of Loop 360, a major highway on the west side of Austin. The shoulders on 360 are very generous.

Television news stories of the crash show the car in the shoulder. Sound bites from police did not lay blame on the cyclist; in fact, they urged motorists to watch out for them because 360 is such a popular cycling road. It features long hills and few stoplights. The worst part about riding 360 is having to cross exit and entrance ramps, and being on the outlook for fast-moving cars in those spaces.
Verter Ginestra (From KVUE Television website)
Crash scene (From KVUE Television website)

Ginestra apparently was not crossing an entrance or exit ramp. He appears to be the victim of a type of collision that is fairly rare — the daytime rear-ender. One statistic I saw (and cannot vouch for) says that only three percent of car-bike collisions are daytime rear-enders.

On top of it, the driver of the car is 85 years old. So you’ve got a bike on a wide shoulder, in bright daylight, and still he gets hit.

What can a cyclist do?

Not much, apparently. Cyclists should always be aware of what’s happening around them. “Scanning” — looking behind — is a riding technique everyone needs to learn. But if you’re riding with traffic, and you’re on the shoulder, you’re not likely to spend a lot of time looking behind you. The most common advice for avoiding rear-enders I’ve been able to dig up is to wear a rear-view mirror. That idea has its pros and cons. It might have alerted Ginestra to the car moving onto the shoulder, but since traffic on 360 is fast, it might not have given him enough time to react.

I didn’t know Verter Ginestra, but Dan Colvin, who joined me on my birthday ride, rode with him often. Dan says Verter was the kind of cyclist you’d want to ride with: “He was strong enough to ride with most A groups, but was not one to force the pace if others weren’t as strong. Interesting conversationalist. Helpful with mechanicals. The whole nine yards.”

Cyclists plan to converge on Austin City Hall Thursday evening to urge tougher enforcement against drivers who hit cyclists. As I write this, the 85-year-old driver has not been charged in the crash.

The KVUE story about the crash can be seen here.

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Categories // crash, Safety Tags // crash, fatality, rear end

You’re Going to Fall – Here’s How

04.17.2011 by Ray Niekamp // 31 Comments

Note: The series of guest posts on The Most Important Thing I’ve Learned About Cycling will reappear later this week. I must resume contributing to my own blog!

You might have noticed in the Twitter box on the right of this blog last week that I had a minor crash on my bike. I missed a shift on a hill, dropped my chain, was unable to clip out, and I went over.

Just a bruise on my hip and a sore hand, but that was enough to trigger this reprimand:

“Hands on the bars at all times,” commented Mike Weiland, who should know, because he’s had his share of hard falls.

But that’s the problem. When you find yourself going down, what’s the most natural reaction? To put out a hand to brace yourself when you hit the ground.

“You brace, you break a hand or a collarbone,” said Mike. Or an arm, or dislocate your shoulder…

Even experienced riders brace for falls. It’s a natural reaction.

Okay, so I’m going to resist the temptation to brace next time (yeah, right). What can I do instead?

It depends on the type of fall. If you find yourself going over the handlebars, you can plan to roll on your shoulder. I did this in the first bad fall I had on my road bike, and although I was sore, I wasn’t hurt badly.

The guy in this crash looks like he might be able to drop his right shoulder, and roll on it.

Ted Rogers, who runs the blog, Biking in L.A., urges cyclists to do two things: stay clipped in, and hold the handlebars tightly. He tucks his elbows into his body. “At the same time,” he says, “I tuck my head down between my shoulders, and round my shoulders to shape my upper body into a ball. My momentum will continue to move my body forward, rolling me over the handlebars, still attached to my bike, which helps me maintain my curved position.” With luck, you’ll be able to roll on your shoulder rather than fall on your face. If he finds himself going down sideways, instead of over the bars, he does pretty much the same thing. When I went down last week, I stayed clipped in (not intentionally). That may have prevented me from being hurt worse than I was.

The roll might work for low-speed crashes, says Mike Weiland, but at higher speeds, all you can do is just skid. “Of course the one a few months ago at 24 mph I ended up hurting my hand/wrist not from bracing, but more or less punching the ground as my hand was still in the drops when the bars made contact with the pavement,” he told me.

It appears the best place to land in a crash is on your side. Hitting your chest or back on the ground could mean worse injuries. “As you hit the ground,” said one commenter on a biking forum, “try to stay as loose as possible. If you’re tense or stiff, it’s easier to get hurt.”

In practice, none of this might be possible. One cyclist posted to a forum that he’d been in two bad road crashes. “In neither case, do I remember having any time to react,” he said. “I was aware that I was in trouble, and then on the ground bleeding.”

What’s the old saying? “There are two kinds of cyclists: Those who have crashed, and those who are going to.”

Keep the rubber side down.

During the coming week, Bike Noob will feature two more posts in the series, What’s the Most Important Thing You’ve Learned About Cycling? If you’d like to submit your thing, check here.

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Categories // crash, Injury, Technique Tags // crash, Injury

Bicycle Accident Victim’s Fund

12.12.2010 by Ray Niekamp // 4 Comments

Every so often, we hear of a car-bike accident that leaves the cyclist dead or severely injured.  We shake our heads and cluck about the sorry state of affairs.  Maybe we even keep tabs on the case, to see what (if any) penalty is imposed on the driver.

Now, there’s more concrete help for victims of car-bike crashes.  It’s called the Bicycle Accident Victim’s Fund.  Based on Boulder, Colorado, the BAVF actually comprises two separate funds — one to help with legal bills as a result of a car-bike crash, and one to help with non-legal expenses.

The Bicycle Accident Victims Assistance Fund is designed to help bicyclists defer non-legal expenses.  The Bicycle Accident VAF is made possible by donations and in-kind services from corporations, foundations, individuals, government agencies, participants of organized events, and philanthropists, club and team memberships.  They also sell RiderID — a sticker you attach to your bike that connects you to a national registry of rider information.

The second fund is called the Bicycle Accident Legal Defense Fund (LDF). This is the one that helps with legal bills, and according to the BAVF news release, is funded by annual memberships from law firms.

To qualify for assistance from these funds, the bicyclist must not be at fault in the crash, and must be in the 48 contiguous states or the District of Columbia.  Sorry, Alaska and Hawaii.

The fund is just starting up.  It will accept applications for funding for crashes that happen after December 31, 2010, and expects to start paying out sometime during the first quarter of 2011.

It’s an interesting — and in my view, welcome — concept.  I’m not sure about the RiderID, though.  It strikes me as much the same thing as RoadID — but stuck to the bike, instead of worn by the rider.  Frankly, I don’t want a sticker on my bike.  I’ve had bikes in the past that I had to put registration stickers on, and they’re not aesthetically pleasing.  I wonder if the BAVF could have partnered with RoadID to do something similar.

In fairness to the RiderID concept, the BAVF news release notes that 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of RiderID will go to the Bicycle Accident Victims Assistance Fund.

In any case, I’m glad to know that cyclists who find themselves on the losing end of a car-bike crash now have a way to recover some of the costs of recovery.

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Categories // crash Tags // advocacy, crash

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