Lots of drunks run over and kill cyclists, and most of the time they get off with an apology and/or a figurative legal slap on the wrist.
This one killed a friend who was also a cyclist, and decided to dispense his own brand of justice.
By Paul Andrews, BI editor on September 14, 2010
Lots of drunks run over and kill cyclists, and most of the time they get off with an apology and/or a figurative legal slap on the wrist.
This one killed a friend who was also a cyclist, and decided to dispense his own brand of justice.
Posted in Rider Down | Tagged cycling deaths, cycling justice, three feet please, vulnerable user legistlation
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A career newspaper journalist and author, Paul Andrews has ridden and written about bikes most of his life. Co-author with Stephen Manes of GATES, the biography of Bill Gates, Paul wrote a weekly column on personal technology starting in 1989 and covered Microsoft for more than a decade for The Seattle Times. He began blogging about bikes in 2000.
Jonathan Bostwick is a versatile Seattle-based Web designer and project leader currently at Microsoft. His design draws from the HybridNews template and color scheme from his own Giant mountain bike. Header credit goes to Jungim Jang, a gifted graphic artist who does images for Microsoft's MSN sites.
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This is just sad all the way around. Drinking and driving and dying.
I agree, this is a very sad story. I cannot imagine the levels of sorrow for those who survive these two young men.
Paul, while I agree that there is a true need for justice in the streets, I find the tone of this post and its headline before the jump disturbing and heartless. I respectfully suggest that you consider the impact of this blog’s voice and the value of compassion and empathy for the real people who’s lives have really been upended by these tragic deaths.
I am greatly disappointed that you covered this story with such an angle. The person guilty of hitting the cyclist certainly did not “dispense his own kind of justice”. He was mortified at what he had done and could not live with the grief/guilt. While I do not encourage suicide or driving while drunk or hitting cyclists, and certainly do not think that the large majority of drivers who hit cyclists get the punishment that they deserve, I think that it is irresponsible to paint the story in such a way.