Thursday, March 12, 2009

This isn't too hard to figure out

A motorcyclist hit a minivan in Watsonville, CA Thursday afternoon, amputating the biker's leg. According to the news article, "it's unclear who was at fault."

Below is the view from Bottius Street; the minivan driver pulled out from that stop sign to turn onto Lincoln. Note the stop sign that the van driver had. The motorcyclist was approaching from the left on Lincoln Street and clearly had the right of way. Witnesses say neither party was speeding.


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My guess is that something like this happened.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which are drivers going to see first, the elephant or the mouse? Most drivers get use to see their roads full of elephant herds and don't feel threatened by the mouse.
Jack

Yokota Fritz said...

I should've mentioned, of course, that every cyclist (motor and otherwise) is familiar with this 'driver pulls out' scenario.

Rita Campos pulled out from a side road in Morgan Hill, CA last October and killed cyclist Bruce Finch when he slammed into the side of her car. Finch had the clear right of way. The CHP initially declined to investigate that "accident" until local cyclists in an uproar demanded an investigation, after which Campos was charged with manslaughter.