My last word
on this subject, at least for now.
LAPD arrests motorist for assault with a deadly weapon (his car) that sent two to the hospital. [LA Times]
There are two things interesting about this. First is that a motorist was actually arrested. It’s far more common for the police to view it as an unavoidable accident, cluck their teeth and say “what a shame”. Except that in this case there was severe bodily injury.
“head crashed through the car window, suffered broken teeth and serious cuts on his face, including one that left his broken nose dangling… The other cyclist … suffered a shoulder separation that would require surgery.”
The police can’t send someone to the hospital without making a report, but it’s interesting that the motorist was charged. We’ll see whether the district attorney pursues it, but it’s a start.
The second interesting but thoroughly expected thing is the comments on the article, many of which say the cyclists “deserved it” and so on. Some of these a trolls, but some are not.
Northboro woman killed in DC [Globe]
This is, by far, the most common collision. Again, no claims that she (the cyclist) was doing anything wrong. She was “right crossed” by the truck. The driver of the truck “apparently did not see her” and “no charges have been filed”. The Globe does not allow comments on its articles, but I have no doubt what comments would appear there if they were.
And lastly, today at 1:00 is an online chat with Bella English, the woman who wrote the Globe Green Blog entry that (so far) has generated over 400 comments, most of them caustic straw man arguments or completely irrelevant to the post. Unfortunately, I have a meeting at 1:00 and will not be able to see what happens. I’ll have to settle for reading the transcript. Globe chats are moderated, so it’s unlikely to get out of control, but I’m interested to see what will happen.
