Lamorinda blogger The East Bay Daze reports that the California Highway Patrol is still looking for witnesses to the June 26 traffic accident east of San Ramon that killed a 44-year-old father of two who lived in Walnut Creek and worked as a financial advisor.John Greaves, an avid cyclist and triathlete, was killed while on a training ride that Friday just after 5 p.m. on Camino Tassajara near Dublin. A car driven by a 40-year-old Danville woman struck him from behind and veered out of control, with Greaves trapped beneath the car. The car then struck an oncoming vehicle head-on. Greaves died at the scene.
The driver of the car that killed Greaves, Hong Guo, was treated for injuries and released later that day. To date, according to the East Bay Daze, no citations have been issued. The CHP apparently needs more witnesses to contact them to tell what they saw so that the agency can decide what steps to take next.
Meanwhile, East Bay Bicycle Coalition blogger Robert Raburn blames the horrific collision that killed Greaves to "the lack of traffic improvements by Contra Costa County to accompany sprawling subdivision development." In a June 29 post on the coalition's website, Raburn published this photo to illustrate the kind of terrain Greaves was trying to negotiate. He also wrote:
"Many of us can recall enjoyable rides on Tassajara when it was a rarely-traveled county road. Now it is 'lost bicyclist habitat,' forsaken to a steady stream of cut-through commuter traffic. The safety risk to bicyclists is especially pronounced where the patchwork of shoulder widening, bike lanes, and bike paths end, leaving a shoulderless pinch-point for about half a mile as one enters Contra Costa County.
"The crash site was at the curve immediately north of the county line. While development encroaches from either county, there have been no substantial safety improvements to the narrow rural road at the fatal crash site where it lacks even a paved shoulder.
"The speed limit at this curve is posted at 30 mph and botts dots warn drivers to slow down. Perhaps some do slow, but my own anxiety while riding through this curve on a weekend is that traffic is traveling much faster. I can only imagine the difficulty of negotiating with impatient commuter traffic that John Greaves encountered on Friday afternoon."
4 comments:
I was in the market for a road bike a couple of years ago when that deputy plowed into a group of riders, and dropped all thoughts of buying one because bikes never come out on top in collisions with 4000 pounds of metal. It seems like these bike versus car tragedies are happening more and more frequently and while the biking coalition gentleman is correct that contra costa county roads are growing more and more congested, it seems like way more people are riding road bikes than ever before as well. Take a drive on a weekend morning down Danville Boulevard and you see hordes of riders, sometimes riding two or three abreast and in the driving lanes. I'm not saying that the gentleman who was struck and killed was doing anything wrong by being on a bike, his death was a senseless tragedy and my condolences go out to his wife and children. Hopefully, it will make drivers more aware of bikes on the road and some good will come out of his passing.
There is a strange disconnect between engineers and maintainers of the roads and the general public about their use. I've been riding exclusively for seven years now and the safest thing I've done is to start taking the lane when appropriate. Thinking back to all the close calls I've had with cars, none of them involved the car not seeing me directly in front of them. The vast majority of close calls were drivers trying to squeeze by when I was over to the right. These guys teach a great, free course: bikeleague.org
Can California afford to re-road the state to get bicyclists out of the way of the motoring pubic? Even if we start today, it won't be done in time to help you. Just take the lane. No law requires you to ride in the gutter and it is more dangerous when drivers expect you to stay there.
Most violations of the vehicle code are simple infractions but being aggressive with "4000 pounds of metal" is a real crime.
As a cyclist I can vouch for a certain dare-devil personality that goes along with the sport. I wouldn't call it suicidal, but - thre is a crazy mentality - I mean, can a cyclist really tangle with a car and come out OK? I am going to think twice before going out again - I too am a parent, and a wife, (and I want to live).
As another cyclist, it scares me that these accidents could possibly happen everytime that I go out. I hope they get to find out what really happened in this accident for the family of the victims to find closure.
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