Question: When is the right time to stop for a cyclist who has the right of way?

Answer: Before you hit her and drag her 20 feet under your giant SUV.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20121108/NEWS01/121109595/0/FR...

The good news is, she's recovering.

http://durangoherald.com/article/20121109/NEWS01/121109511/-1/News0...

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on November 14, 2012 at 11:11am

Wrong.

A manual transmission will not stall on the spot after a collision unless it hits something solid enough to slow the vehicle to a speed where engine RPM would be below idle speed.

Tricolor said:

It has a lot to do with how the car behaves after the collision. Combined with the indecision and panic of of the situation it's the difference between stalling on the spot and continuing to drive ahead until you have the presence of mind to apply the brake.

notoriousDUG said:

What would that have to do with anything?

It has nothing to do with the car; this is purely somebody not paying attention.

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Permalink Reply by Will on November 14, 2012 at 12:18pm

Just because cars are stopped to allow a car to turn left, doesn't absolve the driver of that car from making sure there is no other oncoming traffic. I agree the cyclist should be extra aware in that particular situation, but it's still the driver's fault, if a crash occurs.

kiltedcelt said:

As with all of these articles, we can't know exactly what occurred and whether the cyclist was to blame in any way. I'm certainly not saying this is the case here, but since the SUV was turning across traffic into a parking lot, a lot of people will do that at a very quick speed to avoid being held up by rapidly approaching oncoming traffic. There was a video over on Bikeforums I think in the commuter forum. Anyway that thread was about bike cam usage and a guy posted a video where he got creamed by a guy in an SUV turning into a parking lot. The kicker is the cyclist was riding in the bike lane past stopped cars towards the gap that other drivers had left going into the parking lot. Sure the SUV driver should have been more aware so that he would see the approaching cyclist, but at the same time, the cyclist should have been doubly aware that he was approaching a gap where there could be vehicles turning across his path. We don't know all the facts in this case and of course I wish the cyclist a full recovery. We have to be careful to not always demonize the driver of a car in an collision with a cyclist. It's not always only the driver's fault. I'm not trying to play devil's advocate here, I'm just saying we all get worked up when a news article makes mention of a cyclist as not wearing a helmet as if somehow they were thus, asking to be hit. Let's try to apply the same even-handedness when reading these articles.

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Permalink Reply by Will on November 14, 2012 at 12:21pm

I've seen automatic transmission vehicles stall on very sudden stops. I don't think the transmission had anything to do with this crash, it seems like the driver was either turning left at a somewhat high rate of speed, or was distracted enough to have a seriously impaired response time.

notoriousDUG said:

Wrong.

A manual transmission will not stall on the spot after a collision unless it hits something solid enough to slow the vehicle to a speed where engine RPM would be below idle speed.

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Permalink Reply by Will on November 14, 2012 at 2:15pm

No one is calling the driver an oblivious murdering psychopath, but according to the story, the Durango police seem determined to cite her.

kiltedcelt said:

I'm not absolving the driver, simply making a point that unless we know all the facts we shouldn't roundly condemn every driver for being an oblivious murdering psychopath. Yeah, the SUV driver was probably driving and not paying close enough attention and it might be the case that the cyclist wasn't paying attention either. Just because she (the cyclist), had some impressive cycling under her belt doesn't mean that she was incapable of making simple stupid mistakes. When I read these stories I don't automatically jump to being enraged at the "cagers". Instead, I try to read between the lines and figure out if there's any indication as to why the collision occurred. Collisions aren't always blameless. In these sorts of discussion it's not always the best idea to demonize the drivers but instead to try to figure out why it happened, and if the cyclist was somewhat at fault, what can we learn from their misfortune to prevent such a thing happening to ourselves?

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on November 14, 2012 at 2:59pm

So important. I have a brother-in-law who has been in a lot of car on car crashes. In most of them, he had the "right of way". But, so what? He was still involved in a crash and there was still damage/injury. If each of us is a defensive driver, we lessen the chance of having such a thing happen.

kiltedcelt said: