14 Cyclist (1 driver) Crash in Miami Area

Motorist hit group ride this morning. IMO, distracted driving should be criminal. Not happy with the assessment by police going easy on a driver that was reckless and killed a cyclist, hurting 6 others.

Article: https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Seven-Cyclists-Recovering-After...

One cyclist is dead and six others were injured after being struck by a car in Davie Sunday morning.

The incident happened near State Road 84 and Weston Road.

According to officials, one of the cyclists died, another is in critical condition. Five others were being treated for minor injuries.

The driver of the vehicle remained on the scene. Officials said she was distracted, but it wasn't a phone-related distraction. Police went on to say that speed and alcohol did not play a factor in this crash and they are not investigating this as a criminal case.

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on November 25, 2018 at 10:05am

Another article:

http://www.winknews.com/2018/11/25/1-cyclist-dead-1-critically-inju...

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Permalink Reply by Alex Z on November 26, 2018 at 6:48am

Any idea what the non-phone-related distraction might have been? I guess something on the dashboard perhaps.

I rented a zipcar the other week where to use the radio you had to manipulate a touch screen. I hated that. Analog controls are much safer and do not require you to take your eyes off the road.

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on November 26, 2018 at 7:00am

The cynical side of me thinks she isn't being honest and she knows exactly what distracted her but doesn't want to say. She has a history of speeding which also makes me think she was driving too fast to course correct. Hard to read this and not be angry at the driver.

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Hutchinson on November 26, 2018 at 11:02am

Agree 100%. The new Tesla Model 3 is the worst example of this that I've seen. Every single thing in the car is controlled through the central touch screen. There is nothing on the dash where you'd normally find the speedometer, so the driver has to look to the middle of the car for everything.

You have to click through several menus to do normally simple things like adjust the mirrors, move the seats, adjust the climate control, etc. It feels exactly as distracting as tapping away on a phone while driving.

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on November 26, 2018 at 7:02am

More detail about the woman that died. Really sad.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/davie/fl-ne-car-hits-pac...

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Permalink Reply by Mark on November 26, 2018 at 10:27am

SR-84 is basically a divided, one-way, three-lane expressway frontage road that runs along I-595. There are sporadic 2-foot wide bike lanes that appear to be an after-thought in the road design. I drove it a couple years ago and was amazed by how dangerous this was for a marked bike lane. Add in the blinding sunrise into the mix and tragically, this was bound to happen.

https://goo.gl/maps/Sx5pmrr9Su12

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on November 26, 2018 at 10:38am

I agree, sometimes bike lane infrastructure contributes to danger to cyclists.

I struggle with the sunrise defense when the sunrise was an hour and a half before the crash. I feel like there's a protective defense that happens for the motorist. She wouldn't admit to what distracted her either.

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Permalink Reply by Phillip Hutchinson on November 26, 2018 at 10:42am

This is awful. This person should never be allowed to obtain a driver's license again.

Even more awful is the immediate conclusion that "speed wasn't a factor" when I think what they really mean to say is that the driver wasn't exceeding the posted speed limit. If you look at those photos, it's hard not to conclude that a lower vehicle speed might have reduced the severity of the crash or allowed the driver to avoid it entirely.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but a really effective and simple solution to "sun blindness" is to slow down. If the sun is so blinding that a driver can't see 25 cyclists in the roadway after slowing down, they should pull over and wait it out, just like a reasonable person would do during a heavy downpour, dense fog, a blinding snowstorm, etc. There are many situations where the speed limit is not a safe speed to be driving.