<
Details are sketchy, but early Sunday morning eleven cyclists were struck from behind by a taxi cab in Miami, FL. As reported by the Miami Herald, “After the accident, two bicycles were still attached to the cab, one crushed underneath it, the other by its front passenger door. The cab’s windshield was shattered.” One cyclist was left in critical condition; luckily all eleven survived this horrific accident. Our thoughts go out to all involved.
The comments in reply to the article are killing me.
“These bicyclists need to get off the road and on the sidewalk where they belong. The cannot keep up with traffic. They are a nuisance. I always spit at them and honk my horn at them when I get a chance.”
Comforting.
the scariest part is that the above-quoted comment isn’t out of the ordinary. we were named one of the bicycle-unfriendliest cities in america for a reason, you know.
on one hand, we should try to educate our fellow miameros about bicyclists’ rights.
on the other hand, this incident might be the beginning of a u-lock-justice trend among miami bicyclists. I’m looking forward to this friday’s critical mass ride.
My first thought was “WTF! When is this going to end!”
But then I realized, if we had news coverage like this for every car-car incident (I hesitate to use ‘accident’) that happened it would likely become clear that car-bike incidents are the exception. A very visible exception to us, but still probably the small minority of car-initiated incidents.
Think for a moment how many drivers are killed, every day (heck, every HOUR!) in the U.S., to me that puts a positive thought out there that we’re not doing so bad as cyclists.
All that said, I’m still pissed off and frightened at the same time.
I don’t understand how charges are not filed yet.
That “bikesbelongonthesidewalk” guy is a complete effing idiot, I can’t even stand to read that rest of the comments.
@ zyzzyx:
it’s completely different.
car-car accidents usually don’t result in motorists piping up in support of going around hitting cars.
car-bicycle incidents – I hesistate to call them accidents – bring out the vitriol you see from the poster on the miami herald website.
in any event, here’s an update: http://spokesnfolks.blogspot.com/2008/08/road-design-contributed-to-causeway.html
Nice job I hope they imprison the driver for attemted murder. (or deport him to his 3rd world country)
….and Mike brings it down to their level and assumes the cabby is an immigrant and brings up deportation…..
well it seems like it would be hard to miss seeing 11 people on bikes and hit them from behind. crazy stuff. i guess it just goes to show that even when you’re in a group you’re not so safe. i hope they all make a full recovery and get compensated by the driver who was obviously not paying attention or was trying to kill 11 people at once…
I can’t believe there are arrogant drivers in this world who thinks they own the road and cyclists don’t have rights to use them. I just wonder how these drivers will feel if this happens to their loved ones.
We just trying to make a living better than others driving a cab, either way they both, cyclists and the cab wasn’t paying attention, I do not understang why the people hate cab drivers, that accident could happened to any person who weren’t driving a cab, maybe to your father or your mother or maybe your girlfriend who being drinking the whole night and decided to not take a cab… Think about it and don’t be an ignorant!!!!