Seriously, I can only hope this guy has not bred. From Oregonlive.com:
“The SUV turns into Santos and almost hits him,” Sheffer said. “About a block later, the driver stopped so suddenly that Santos had to veer into oncoming traffic. As he went around the SUV he slapped the vehicle to let the driver know he was there. The driver put the vehicle in reverse and attempted to hit Santos.”
He actually backed up and tried to hit Santos. The mind reels. Turns out, Santos is a cop, and was riding his bike to work. OOPS. Massive FAIL here for Mr. Fornshell.
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While bicycles are legitimate vehicles under the (man-made) law, the reality is that they are too fast to operate on sidewalks yet too slow and vulnerable to operate in traffic. Nobody is above the laws of nature. Risking life and limb to save a gallon of gas is not worth it. While anyone at fault who kills a bicycle operator deserves to be prosecuted, the bicycle operator deserves their fate for tempting fate in the first place. You operate a bike in traffic at your own peril. Sure, the driver may get tossed in jail, but you are still dead.
First off, ALL laws are ‘man-made’. I agree bikes do not belong on sidewalks, except in areas where it is designated by law that bikes should be there. Those places do exist.
You operate ANY vehicle at your own peril. No one deserves to be hit and killed. That’s just a vicious point of view. Do you also believe motorcyclists hit by larger heavier vehicles deserve to be hit? How many people die in automobile collisions? Perhaps we should ban automobiles, since they seem to be the dangerous element in this equation. What about pedestrians hit by cars, while crossing the street, in crosswalks? Did they deserve their fate?
It’s the carelessness and inattention of drivers that is the problem here, not the cyclists. It’s illegal to talk on a handheld cellphone in Oregon while driving. I wish I could count how many I’ve seen doing it in the last week. Eating, applying makeup, shaving, texting… Bad driving habits are the issue. I saw a driver slurping cereal out of a bowl while driving. Does this seem like a reasonable thing to do?
You’re piloting 800 pounds of steel and glass. Is it too much to ask that you try to pay a little bit of attention?