crash Friday morning

[Gerry L]

As I was ending the Friday ride early, a parked car along Dallas Rd (sea-wall side) backed out across the center line- did a U- turn and made a hard right-hand turn heading west. I suspected she was not watching and was able to brake/ swerve to avoid a collision but she hit the following cyclist when she cut him off turning to the right down a side street. There was serious damage to the rider's hand and bike and a dent to the car's fender.

The driver said she did not see us coming due to the glare of the sun but I have the feeing she didn't even look.

This is apparently a common type of accident. Likely the larger groups we ride in are more visible but I have heard of another similar crash in the last year in the same area.

Would a daytime front light help? There appears to be little research on the matter. I found this article:
"Safety effects of permanent running lights for bicycles: A controlled experiment." that showed a 19% decreased risk of personal injury in the group who were using lights. This study involved 3845 cyclists in Denmark. But- 19% of a small number may be a very small number.

Something to consider...

Here is a link to the article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22884376


Gerry L.

[John D]

Hi Gerry...

I didn't catch the name of the rider who went down - do you know who it was? Also, any word on how he's doing?

As for the question of daytime lights (at least in this case) a driver who claimed that the she didn't see you guys because the sun was in her eyes would seem unlikely to have seen a bike light either. That darn sun packs a lot of lumens!

J.

[Greg F]

David Morrell (sp?). He texted me that he had a dislocated finger, no broken bones. Whew!