Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:
Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!
Ad:Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Another Garbage Truck!??
By anon
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 6:49pm
That sucks.
Is it just me or does it seem like people on bikes are getting killed by garbage trucks on a regular basis? Did it have those yellow metal bars on the side? Not that I'd want to get hit by those things if I were on a bike but maybe I wouldn't die.
I don't want to go crazy with bureaucracy but people are dying out there a little too often for me. Starting to side with the bikers.
At my work I've seen the
By tenfortyseven
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 7:49am
At my work I've seen the garbage truck on separate occasions take down two large light poles, demolish a fence, and back into a tree. I don't think the drivers were even aware they hit anything. For safety sake pedestrians and bicyclists should if possible avoid getting any where near the damn things.
Awful
By Felicity
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 6:56pm
Just awful. This is so sad and scary. My condolences to the friends and family.
If the truck involved is the
By kvn
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 6:59pm
If the truck involved is the red and yellow one in the picture , it looks like it is a Capitol Waste and not Waste Management.
This is a (temporary) bike path endpoint
By Ron Newman
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 7:13pm
The Northern Strand (Bike to the Sea) path in Malden ends right at this intersection now. (By this time next year, it will continue east into Revere and connect with the already-built trail in Saugus, but that's still under construction.)
Boston Urb-ex has been providing great
By Chris Rich
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 7:06am
..updates about final stage progress of that section. And you made valuable contributions to my limited knowledge of Lynn city gov.
It's probably a hell intersection from what I recall of it.
May meaningful condolences find those who were close to the victim.
Mid-block accident from video
By Markk02474
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 10:42pm
It was reported (WCVB) that the cyclist was crossing the street when hit.
Cyclist intoxicated
By Markk02474
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 11:05pm
WBZ reported that the cyclist appeared intoxicated and surveillance video at a liquor store showed the cyclist purchasing alcohol and unsteadily riding off.
Massachusetts road laws have no offence for anyone bicycling under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The laws only apply to operators of motor vehicles.
Really?
By Scratchie
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 11:28pm
There's nothing about it on the website. You sure you didn't hallucinate that?
Why not?
By Markk02474
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 6:22am
Something like 15% of pedestrians hit and killed by motor vehicles every year are drunk or under the influence of drugs. So, why not a bicyclist (though some minimum of balance is required to ride)? It only makes sense that some people who have lost their driving license for DUI will turn to bicycles for transportation.
Oh, Markk...
By whyaduck
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 8:59am
yes, from what has been reported, it appears that the poor man was somehow impaired. Police reported that he appeared unsteady to witnesses . He tried to get on his bike to ride off (a few times) and then, horrifically, fell over in front of the truck.
I have yet to read anywhere that he was intoxicated or under the influence of something else. Maybe he was or maybe he was not.
And if he was, does it really matter? It is still a tragic accident.
Impaired or intoxicated
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:24pm
If that is the case, then the counterfactual world where everybody drives cars and nobody rides bikes, the world that some here seem to desperately desire, would not be a happy one for either him or for the people that he would have driven over/into.
Sad that one life was lost, but this is a clear example of why we need more cycling and not less - when people do not pilot large motorized vehicles while impaired, and choose smaller, human powered vehicles, major damage is generally limited to the intoxicated party.
Good luck collecting trash
By Markk02474
Fri, 09/19/2014 - 1:05am
with a fleet of bicycles.
Ah yes
By anon
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:03pm
So much better that they still be allowed to drive drunk, where they kill others, than ride drunk, where they kill themselves.
Sorry about all those old school chums in Arlington who keep running afoul of all those nasty and scary new traffic islands, striping schemes, and signals while impaired. Just so unfair!
We got some amateurish sock puppetry attempts going
By Chris Rich
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 6:56am
..in the latest round of "blame the dead guy".
It's always an interesting pathology excursion when being right is more important than being ethical, honest or sane.
Ironic post is ironic
By violator
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 9:04am
Ironic post is ironic
You much rather play blame the motorist
By Markk02474
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 10:19am
All the Pee Wee Hermans and Lance Armstrongs here love to think its always the driver's fault even when its not.
Your personal addiction
By Belmont
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:06pm
We already know what you love to think so you're welcome to take a sabbatical at anytime.
Article must have been
By gotdatwmd
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 8:55am
Article must have been recently updated. It looked like he ODed on something and fell over behind the truck and it ran over him.
WBZ report
By Mark-
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 12:47am
I saw that report also. They reported that witnesses saw the intoxicated bicyclist buy alcohol at the liquor store, then he climbed on his bike and drove it straight into the trash truck. The info on channel 4 left little doubt about what these witnesses said they saw.
Two things
By ElizaLeila
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 9:16am
1. My condolences to the family of the cyclist.
2. We don't need road laws to cover impaired bicyclists. They can be charged (and have been, as a friend of mine was) with public intoxication.
No Blame Here.........
By anon
Tue, 09/23/2014 - 4:13pm
There is no liquor store where the accident happened. He was seen coming out of a convenience store, and no one has confirmed if he was or was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, although he was definitely unsteady according to the surveillance video.......I don't believe in blaming the dead guy, but the driver was understandably so shaken up that they had to take him away in an ambulance.........no one is to blame here, it is just an extremely unfortunate & tragic accident.....I can't imagine how that driver feels - my heart goes out to both of them
A tragedy but dont blame the
By anon
Wed, 09/17/2014 - 11:26pm
A tragedy but dont blame the truck or truck driver. According to witnesses Bike rider was riding impaired stumbling and he was riding on the sidewalk when he fell off his bike rolled under the truck just as the light turned green and the truck driver went forward on the green and rolled over him. Not the trucks drivers fault at all. The video and the report speaks for itself.
Please keep all sane and
By Charlieandjacks...
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 10:44am
Please keep all sane and logical comments to yourself. This is neither the time not the place for rational thinking. We all know the mantra, repeat after me: "the motorized vehicle is always wrong, the bicyclist is always right. Every time."
Wow--I didn't know that there was room
By Sally
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 4:03pm
in Markk's basement for two people!
Maybe if you guys ever decide to get out and about you can pay a compassion visit to all of those drivers who are unfairly imprisoned because they ran over a cyclist and were brutally prosecuted after pressure from the all-powerful bike lobby...oh wait.
Repeat after me--it never happens. The guy on the bike dies; the guy in the car goes free. And aside from people commenting on what a tragic accident this was, I'm not seeing the mysterious posts you reference where everyone's blaming the driver here.
So then, why do cyclists behave like idiots?
By Markk02474
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 4:57pm
If your claims were true, cyclists would know not to do stupid shit all the time because drivers would get away with hitting them. Yet, cyclists are doing stupid shit all the time with little regard for self preservation. The empirical evidence is that bicyclists as a whole, are getting what they deserve.
Why do you behave like an idiot?
By anon
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:06pm
Oh, the internet makes it okay.
As we know, your idiotic behavior IRL wasn't okay, and nobody will vote for you or listen to you in Arlington anymore.
Speaking of "getting what they deserve"
By Belmont
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:14pm
And how many motorists/drivers/passengers are killed each each in the USA alone?
And I won't include the number injured for life.
And all those people murdered, raped, assaulted, etc.
But of course, all of them are getting what they deserve as well, right?
You're totally beyond a troll at this point.
I'll leave it to someone else to diagnose your thinking.
When a skydiver or base jumper dies
By Markk02474
Fri, 09/19/2014 - 1:19am
what do people say? Is it "Oh, he must have had defective equipment" or "whomever packed his 'chute must be to blame"? No, the reaction is more likely "too bad", because the "victim" jumped out of a perfectly good plane or off a building or bridge. These and other activities like hang gliding, bungee jumping, powerboat racing, car racing, motorcycle racing (hell, even just motorcycling), and bicycling in traffic are simply dangerous activities that the "victims" have chosen to engage in. Doing them drunk or high is all the more reason to put the responsibility on the participant for their choices and actions, not anyone else.
I drive a trash truck in
By Vincent
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 4:29pm
I drive a trash truck in Cambridge. People on bikes are constantly cutting in front of me, they don't stop at stop signs or red lights and when they get hit by a trash truck people automatically want to blame the truck driver. I don't want to see anybody on a bike get hurt or killed, but I hate to say it. You got what you were asking for because of the way you rode your bike. Take a drive thru Harvard Square someday and watch all the assholes on bikes. they have no regard for their own safety because they're in too much of hurry, but the law says they can ride in the street, and consequences come with that.
The law says they can ride in the street
By anon
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:18pm
WTF are you doing driving anything in the city with that attitude? Seriously
THE LAW SAYS THAT THEY CAN RIDE IN THE STREET. Well then, grow up, man up, follow the law, OR GET OUT.
How sweet
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 5:28pm
You don't like the law, so you think it is okay to drive such that people with legal rights to the road aren't there?
Really. How cute. It isn't your fault if you hit somebody, because other people are just in the way, and it is the fault of the law not your impatience, inattention, lack of giving a shit, etc.
Nice.
"Citations Please"
By tenfortyseven
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 8:39pm
Show us where the trash truck driver said he/she didn't like the law and thus drives as though others aren't there.
READ what the person wrote. All he/she said that shitty drivers are subject to the consequences of their own actions and the realities of the road.
By the way, that goes for everyone, not just people on bikes.
I'm sure there are plenty of car and truck drivers that are guilty of what you're unjustly accusing trash man/lady of, but the unfortunate reality is, regardless of who is right or wrong, the poor soul on the bike ALWAYS loses. Not a very comforting thought.
Add comment