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They're called brakes, people - try using them
By adamg on Sat, 09/10/2005 - 3:09pm
Matt's been thinking about that poor doctor crushed by that truck:
... The focus always seems to be, to me, on faster-faster-faster. We're always in a rush, always pissed off if someone else makes us even 5 seconds later than we were before. What's so important? Certainly, nothing that truck driver could have been doing is more important that that man's life. Think of the people he's probably saved in his job as a doctor. Now think of the people he cannot ever help. ...
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Comments
I would be more inclined to
I would be more inclined to say that people riding tiny scooters in highly trafficed on-ramps need to be more careful about riding into the path of an 18-wheeler. They have no idea yet if the driver even knew he hit somebody. I live in the neighborhood, and all of the cyclists and scooter riders around here seem to feel that not only are they invulnerable, the rules of the road simply don't apply. They ride through the red lights on Mass Ave, they weave from sidewalk to traffic without any sort of signal, and behave as if pedestrians have a lot of nerve to be using the sidewalks. I can't say for sure if the truck was blameless or not...but if you're riding a tiny, nimble scooter in amongst 18 wheelers, you need to be vigilant.
Not the scooter rider's fault, no way
If you read the account of the accident in Saturday's Globe, you'll see that the late doctor did not ride his scooter into the on-ramp, nor "into the path of an 18-wheeler". The criminally negligent truck driver simply passed him on the left and then cut him off with a right turn, from southbound Mass. Ave. into the Newbury Street on-ramp to the Mass Pike.
Bicyclists are all too familiar with this scenario, which we call a "right hook".