Cambridge Police report they are looking for the driver of a pick-up they say swerved towards a bicyclist on Webster Street shortly after 7 a.m. on Sept. 29:
Just before the hit and run, the operator of the pickup yelled, honked his horn and then made contact with the bicyclist's handle bar, causing him to fall.
The bicyclist, Geren Stone of Somerville, is a doctor at Mass. General. He required surgery for injuries to his left arm, police say.
tone writes of the aftermath of the collision and what it says about the state of roads in the Boston area today.
Anybody with leads on the identity of the pick-up driver can call Cambridge Police at 617-349-3364.
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Comments
Yawn
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:10pm
Just so stories != science.
Just take a walk, and get off the road.
Better yet, read this book: http://massrmv.com/rmv/dmanual/index.htm
Poor Driver
By Exremental Driver
Thu, 11/19/2015 - 2:17pm
That driver could have passed safely instead of pulling back right after overtaking. He struck another road user and did not stop. Incompetent Asshole and Lawbreaker is my verdict.
You didn't write it
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:54pm
But you said it nonetheless.
You clearly don't know the laws. You clearly don't understand your responsibilities and the rights of other road users. Turn in your license.
Fun fact
By Roman
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 11:32pm
If he drove his car the way many* people ride their bicycles, he *would* have to turn in his license. Correct me if I'm wrong, but one is not required to pass a driving test or have a license to operate a bicycle on public streets?
*Doesn't look like the victim did anything outlandish here, so statement doesn't apply to this case
This is a false equivalency.
By eherot
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:40pm
This is a false equivalency. Bicycles and pickup trucks do not carry even remotely similar risk profiles.
.
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:07pm
.
Count the number of people that drivers kill
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:07pm
Then count the number that cyclists kill.
There are something like four to five orders of magnitude difference.
But do persist in your idiocy. Your ignorance of basic traffic laws is rivalling Markkk's
Count the number of people opiates kill
By Markk02474
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:16pm
and those killed playing badminton and you'll have another irrelevant point.
BTW, opiates are on track to kill 4.5 times as many people in Massachusetts this year as all people dying on our roads in all collision types.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/22/mass-o...
Per my post above
By Stevil
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 8:41am
You clearly don't know the laws or understand your responsibilities. Turn in your license.
I hope that's your sick sense of humor
By Rose
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 7:30pm
because you're completely incorrect and a total asshole. Mass doesn't have a 3ft minimum passing distance yet, but there is a more general "safe passing" law on the books. You can see in the video there is no oncoming traffic (and yes, you are supposed to cross the yellow line to overtake a cyclist), and the driver seems to speed up and aim for the rider. The cyclist is not "taking the lane" by a long shot. In fact, it looks they were so far to the right they could have been in danger of getting doored. I'm assuming you're all for eliminating street parking on that stretch so cars can pass vulnerable road users without changing their path at all?
Just reporting the facts
By boo_urns
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 9:16pm
Given your past thoughts on cyclists....lol.
From the day it happened
By tachometer
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:00pm
"A male driver in a dark blue, gray and black Ford pickup passed my girlfriend and another cyclist and yelled out of the window "You fucking moron cyclist, get off the road!" then accelerated past them and intentionally swerved and struck a cyclist in front of them."
https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/3mu511/hi...
The above account was posted the very morning the collision happened and before any of the media coverage or this video footage emerged. The poster's girlfriend is one of the two mentioned cyclists who stopped to aid the doctor and you see them in the video. You, on the other hand, were not at the scene and have a deep history here of being anti-cycling at every opportunity. Yet, we're supposed to take your "impartial facts" based on your viewing of that video clip over the account of the witness which is also substantiated by the exact same video? I'd say the odds are not in your favor.
I can't wait to see what the demons of hell have in store for you. I'll bet that for all eternity you're late for the most important thing possible for you but you're stuck behind a slow moving bicyclist on a narrow road with no opportunity to pass and there's a cop on a bike with an itchy trigger finger behind you. For ever and ever. Amen.
And?
By Lecil
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:12pm
Is there anything in your *cough* unbiased *cough* summation of the situation which is relevant?
We know how you love false drama, but
By section77
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:39pm
Crossing over the double line to avoid crushing a bike is not "breaking the law", while running someone over is. Check with your local PD is need be.
Oh, Markkkkkkk
By TommyJeff
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:40pm
It's not even remotely cute anymore.
You're just a strange, strange person with many, many issues that for whatever reason manifests as a hatred for bicycles.
Have to agree with Mark*
By HenryAlan
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 9:59am
I don't see anything in the video to indicate intentionality. There is probable wreckless driving, and there is definitely a hit and run, but people who are calling this attempted murder must have some information that isn't in the video.
* and I really hate when I have to do that.
Hardly....
By Michael Kerpan
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 11:08am
... "wreckless".
;-)
A reckless wreck?
By HenryAlan
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 11:11am
But yes, I did mistype and neglected to proof. That certainly changes the meaning (not at all).
Get your facts straight
By Daniel
Sun, 11/01/2015 - 9:22am
If this is really you're version of "objectivity" when driving, remind me to keep my kids off the street when you're out. I know you're not supposed to stoop to personal attacks when making an argument but you're an idiot. The cyclists are legally allowed to take the entire lane regardless of whether you find this inconvenient or not. Despite the drivers "heroic" attempt to avoid the cyclist--he failed. And what kind of human being keeps driving after potentially killing someone? The same one who is so selfish and out of touch with reality that he doesn't mind using his 2 ton vehicle as a weapon against another completely unprotected human being because he was annoyed. Only in Boston could people come to this guys defense. Pull your head out of your ass.
This happens to me weekly
By spin_o_rama
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 8:21pm
Only difference is, they manage to "just miss." Beyond this, I'll save the comments for everyone else, this gets too depressing.
I will agree just misses are too frequent
By Markk02474
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:35pm
and its wrong to happen leaving too little margin for error that depends on a cyclist to make an effort at self-preservation by slowing and moving right. The pickup truck driver was driving a really long vehicle and cut back in too soon such that about 10' behind his sitting position made contact. That's poor judgement on his part and he was wrong to cut things so close.
Poor judgement?
By tachometer
Sun, 11/01/2015 - 10:08pm
So, the cyclist was legally taking the lane and the truck driver only had a bit of "poor judgement" in making an illegal pass but you're coming down on the side of the driver. Logic is not your strong suit for sure.
I also notice that you have not responded to the link I provided above with the account of the truck driver bitching out the other riders who appear in the video which was posted prior to any media coverage of this event but is corroborated by the video.
It makes perfect sense that a truck driver who would pass cyclists in an unsafe manner on a narrow street while hurling insults at them just had a bit of "poor judgement" when he cut back into the lane colliding with the rider ahead of them and there was no possible way that he had any kind of animosity toward the person on the bike. Again, logic is not your strong suit.
Drivers have no monopoly on poor judgement
By Markk02474
Sun, 11/01/2015 - 11:12pm
Clearly the doctor here did too, even if it was legal. Legislators acted in poor judgement signing the current laws. The doctor should have acted to preserve his own safety when being passed by slowing and moving right, but failed to. No, he was not obligated to legally, but he should have considered the advantages of doing so versus not.
Over the decades while driving or riding a motorcycle I have avoided crashes where the other driver would be at fault by slowing or taking some sort of evasive action. Its the normal response of a good driver/rider. I don't blithely assert my legal "rights" in the face of danger and bodily harm when it could be avoided. Its a stupid argument to claim its my right to get into an accident and perhaps collect insurance money and sympathy. Scammers and bicycle martyrs I guess think that way...
Its also really obnoxious how the doc and others wrongly claimed the truck driver tried to kill him. The video clearly shows that to be false. The cyclist made errors in judgement and so too did the truck driver.
The video doesn't show enough
By tachometer
Mon, 11/02/2015 - 7:47am
The video doesn't show enough to demonstrate your assertion, you're seeing what you want to see and the account of the eyewitness I linked above is more likely to be true than your armchair position.
Also, in the video the doctor is putting himself in a safer situation by taking the lane and avoiding the door zone which is the potential accident with much higher odds there. The standard behavior I've seen is that riders will take the lane but as soon as there is extended curb space they will move over and allow any backed up cars to pass. Horror of horror for the driver but that could take somewhere around thirty seconds if it's a long stretch before that appears.
I ride a motorcycle too and I hate the expression "ride like everyone is trying to kill you" because at nearly any time someone could cross the double yellow and take you out in a head on collision. Obviously there is an expectation that someone will not willfully commit vehicular homicide in that way. In the same way the doctor was riding in a way that lessened the danger until his path was crossed by someone with the symptoms of a sociopath (putting someone's life below their need to get somewhere). It seems from your postings here that you share those tendencies. Would you strike someone with a baseball bat to get them out of your way if you were stuck on the sidewalk behind someone who was walking more slowly than you? That is essentially what you're trying to justify.
From the video you can see there was a car coming in the opposite direction but there appears to be plenty of room to pull off the illegal pass without clipping the rider. Keep in mind that legally the truck should not have been passing even if there was no car coming but they crossed back over the line way before overtaking the cyclist. There is nothing that justifies the truck doing anything other than waiting until it was safe to pass and the more you prattle on here the more ignorant you sound.
Imagine if the doctor were in a car instead of on a bicycle
By Markk02474
Mon, 11/02/2015 - 11:12am
and getting passed on a double yellow by a yahoo in a pickup truck. Is that attempted murder? No.
But, What to do?
Slow, and try to keep right to expedite the pass? Yes, its what many drivers would do. Did the doctor do that? No.
Would keeping to the right put the doctor in the door zone? Yes, but that risk of one to two vehicles, likely unoccupied was less than the risk from the truck, so the lesser of two evils and the better choice.
In a car, the doctor has the right to drive down the middle of the single travel lane in that direction just as he did on his bicycle, yet, still moving over to the right would have helped to possibly avoid a collision and his personal injury.
What?
By tachometer
Mon, 11/02/2015 - 3:00pm
What if it was a mountain road and the pickup intentionally ran the doctor in a car down the embankment? Would you consider that attempted homicide or do you just never let the circumstances of an event inform your "critical thinking" process?
The pickup truck driver is likely a sociopath based on the eyewitness account and your defense of him puts you right in the same category.
Watch the video again
By tachometer
Mon, 11/02/2015 - 3:45pm
The cyclist is in contact with the truck at the front part of the bed which is right behind the driver when the vehicle enters the view of the camera, the actual contact may have begun at the door for all you can see in the video. Yet you claim that the poor driver made a tiny error in judgement and somehow the cyclist is ten feet behind the driver of a truck when the video clearly shows otherwise. As I said elsewhere, you're seeing what you want to see.
Thank God there's video...
By makeshift_vicinity
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 9:40pm
...because if all we had was the good doctor's eyewitness testimony, he might have trouble being believed. I read part of his own letter to the editor of the Somerville Times:
Further down:
Whoops! Could be an error on the paper's part, or just a silly typo, but not the kind of thing you want to have in your published letter describing your side of the story.
Yes, the video doesn't match his prior exaggerated description
By Markk02474
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:25pm
where he claimed the truck ran him down. In the video, we see he was riding down the middle of the lane and the truck brushed his handlebar (sideswiped), destabilizing his bike, not "running him down".
Give it a rest, Mark
By Cantabrigian
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:49pm
The truck driver hit him and fled the scene. "[B]rushed his handlebar," come on man, someone lands in surgery and that's what you've got to say? You'd have some credibility if you gave up on the extremism once in a while.
Sometimes I wonder if you're secretly anti-car and are trying to provoke people over to you side. Blink twice if this is true.
Half of bike accidents are solo falls
By Markk02474
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:15am
It doesn't take much for a cyclist to go down and get hurt. Rock, rut, bump, flat tire, tram rail, brushed handlebar, whatever. The bike fatality in Arlington happened when a cyclist racing around a corner had her pedal hit the curb, launching her into a tree. No motor vehicles were involved as in roughly half of cyclists ending up in hospital emergency rooms (*).
* There has been a recent shift in demographics. Previously, more young people were riding bikes and getting hurt on trails and roads. Now, with the large population bubble of baby boomers getting older, more prone to injury, and more likely to only ride on the street, the number of solo off-road bike crashes has been declining.
Broken Record
By Cantabrigian
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:25am
Mark, none of that is relevant to the conversation we're having. The rest of us are trying to discuss issues that impact our community and you're here just blabbering on off topic. Please, please, just try to stay on topic.
Edit: Plus, you're completely wrong. Making up 'facts' doesn't help your case. 2% of traffic fatalities are bicyclists. Only 16% of serious/fatal accidents are solo.
Apples and oranges
By Markk02474
Sun, 11/01/2015 - 9:38pm
I was citing stats for ER visits and you are quoting some other stats about serious/fatal injuries. ER visits are the only reliable data source because so many solo bike and pedestrian-bike injuries on the street go unreported.
Off your meds again?
By SwirlyGrrl
Sun, 11/01/2015 - 9:46pm
Or just returned from your halloween killing spree in the Bronx and feeling reinvigorated?
Look again
By kisumxes
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:49pm
We see a truck being driven into a bicycle and then leaving the scene.
The doctor was not sideswiped as you're trying the claim; the person driving the truck actively maneuvered said truck into the section of the road occupied by the doctor riding a bicycle. Seeing how the truck came up behind the bicycle it is reasonable to imply the driver knew the bike was there. Therefore the person driving the truck (most likely intentionally) caused a collision and made matters worse by failing to stop.
In less words: a person directed the mass and force of several thousand pounds of metal at another human being and caused serious injuries.
...
By boo_urns
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:54pm
You realize that he doesn't need to come in hot on his 6 to "run him down", right?
And does it matter? (Short and long answers, and everything in between: No.) Even if he thought he cleared the biker to come back cleanly over into the lane, he fled the scene.
Stop making excuses for this guy and for bad driving. You're not doing yourself any favors.
This is why I said "lol" to you being impartial, above. It's quite clear you're going to come out on the side of the driver, no matter what.
One of these days
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 11:03pm
When you mow down a pedestrian or cyclist with your incompetent driving and self-aggrandizingly erroneous opinions about how driving makes you special, we will know that the victim of your flagging abilities, impaired vision, and egregious ignorance will collect everything that you own as compensation.
That's because the internet does not forget. You have just provided that future victim's lawyers with amazing amounts of fodder for your demise in court. Going on the internet and repeatedly spewing ignorant bile that is in direct opposition to the laws of the commonwealth can and will come back to bite you in the arse.
Listen to yourself
By Roman
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 11:44pm
Driving doesn't make anyone special. Driving is what people do in order to get to work and live their lives without sweating or freezing for every mile traveled. Driving also makes people more dangerous because they've got two tons of metal and Sir Isaac Newton preventing it from stopping or turning on a dime, which is why we have streets for cars, sidewalks for people, and licensing procedures and hands-on tests before we let anyone operate motor vehicles.
Cyclists on this forum do tend to think they're special and deserving of deference from everyone else. They tend to hide behind the laws they've lobbied for without responding to the challenge of why those laws are good, they have a bad happing of playing the victim even when they aren't (not this case) and looking down their nose at anyone who doesn't live within biking distance of work.
I can take your post and use it to chew out anyone I like without changing too many words. That means it's not a sound argument for your position, it's loud angry emotion. And I like to think we live in a place where we think with our heads, not with our hearts.
People who dislike bikes on roads tend to....
By Daan
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 12:38pm
paint with broad brushes trying to imply that all cyclists consider themselves special and deserving of deference? Using one's head shows that broad brush claims about cyclists and anti-cyclists are generalizations and contribute only strife and animosity to a conversation.
A false broad brush stroke against one set of people, which defies logic and fact, couched in a pretense of logic and fact, not only empties the statement of possibly validity but implies a purposefull attempt to bend facts and truth to a predetermined conclusion.
As an aside that is modern Republican rhetoric at its best.
Listen to YOURself.
By Sally
Sun, 11/01/2015 - 6:33am
The cyclist isn't acting as if he's "special" or breaking any laws. This is not a 21-year-old bike messenger screaming through a red light or scofflaw daredevil on a fixie or any of the favorite scapegoats of the bike haters. This is a doctor riding to work on his bike, legally, on the right, at what looks like a reasonable rate of speed, being plowed into by a driver who is so impatient to get where he's going that he's swerving all over the road. Who's the one who thinks he's "special?"
If "deference" means "not running into me", like acknowledging that I exist in a physical place which you cannot simultaneously occupy, then yes, I want some damn deference. Is that really so crazy?
Corrections?
By Cantabrigian
Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:55pm
Hey Adam,
Two points:
There's a Webster Ave in Cambridge, but no Webster Street.
[s]You dated the incident September 29. Did this happen Thursday or a month ago?[/s]
The news story says Sept. 29
By Sally
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 7:43am
And in the footage, the guy's injuries and scarring look mostly healed.
Should have gotten a better doctor
By Markk02474
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:25pm
Unless he wanted a huge, ugly scar to show off, especially for the cred he would get with the 3rd world and low income community work he does. Fancy plastic surgery level stitches would take away conversation fodder at fundraiser cocktail parties and with patients.
Ugly scar is a public health service, telling people that bicycling is dangerous.
Grow up
By SwirlyGrrl
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:39pm
Go away. Take a flying leap at a rolling rubber donut. Look in the mirror and die of fright. Or maybe fuck off and die already.
And stay off the roads tonight - people will be DARING to be out WALKING with CHILDREN and IN YOUR WAY.
You got it backwards, bro
By Rose
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 1:59pm
Riding bicycles is very safe, while it is frequently demonstrated that driving heavy machinery in dense urban areas is incredibly dangerous (well, cars are incredibly dangerous everywhere, ask that guy who was ejected onto the highway sign in CA yesterday, but we're talking about Cambridge), and gets worse when idiots do it carelessly, acting like they own the place. It's not bicycles that kill 33,000 people a year in this country and injure millions more.
Indeed , is this the Webster
By kvn
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 10:46am
Indeed , is this the Webster ave that goes from Union square Somerville , + / - , to Cambridge street Cambridge, + / _ ?
Somerville'ish
By Cantabrigian
Sat, 10/31/2015 - 7:25pm
Based on the video, it's gotta be the Webster Ave from Union Square. I didn't realize that the northern arm spends a few hundred feet Cambridge.
Mark Krackpot
By jeoffrey
Mon, 11/02/2015 - 8:13pm
Complains constantly about cyclists breaking the law. Sees video of a driver breaking several laws against a law-abiding cyclist … invents a new "laws" that the cyclist didn't follow. The only good cyclist in his book is one who gets off the street and bows down low whenever a lordly driver approaches.
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