Bad idea: Suggest that drivers who kill cyclists will not be charged as long as they stop to report the incident.

From The Oklahoman, today’s winner of cycling-insensitive prose.

The day after Spencer’s [hit-and-run] death, [another] bicyclist Clyde Riggs was struck and killed by a car while riding in the 5100 block of E Britton Road. That motorist stopped, and no charges were filed.

Entire story here.

So when she took a tumble and fractured her hip at N. 85th and Greenwood three days ago, her first thought was: I won’t be able to ride my bike for awhile!

Before the accident: Shannon with her newly powdercoated Marinoni

She blames the accident on “doing something stupid,” but it was the kind of thing any seasoned cyclist can relate to. The Greenwood crossroads is one of the busiest in the city, with little bike clearance from traffic. (Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, a Greenwood resident, can vouch for this.) Although it’s always tricky to reconstruct an accident second-hand, it appears Shannon was going to continue riding in the street but found herself squeezed by cars, to the point where she decided to bail on the sidewalk. She thought she could just ride up the wheelchair-access curb ramp, but instead missed it and hit the curbside square on. The impact threw her from the bike and she hit on her side “really hard.”

“It could have been a lot worse,” Shannon recounted from her hospital bed. If a car had come along, or she’d landed on her head, “I’d be in a lot worse shape.” That’s typical Shannon, making the best of a bad situation and looking at the glass half full.

She’s already started physical therapy and plans an aggressive recovery but does not yet know when she’ll be back on her trusty teal (Bianchi green) Marinoni.

“You know,” she said, “This will be the longest I’ve been off my bike in what, 52 years!”

Get well soon, Shannon — and back to your Samaritan ways.

Or you can Google it.

We wonder if the adjective “apparently” might be judiciously added here.

The truth is that, without eyewitness accounts, it’s impossible to say so glibly and quickly what might have happened here. Mechanical problems (bike frame failure, flat tire, equipment lockup)? Swerving to avoid an errant motorist? Pavement issues (pothole, oil)?

Why bother to ask? Because the victim was an experienced cyclist described as a “brilliant” and inventive high-energy physicist. At the time of his death, Lipson was chairman and chief technical officer of C8 MediSensors in San Jose (which a Google search reveals to be something of a mystery itself).

Normally in a transportation fatality, a situation like this would be ripe for forensics investigation. Since it’s a lone cyclist, however, we wonder if there will be any investigation at all.

UPDATE: “As of Monday, authorities did not know what caused Lipson to lose control of his road bicycle. Lipson was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, according to CHP Officer Brandie Dressel.”

But that’s what happened, and a husband and father is dead.

Dave Blumenthal

In the meantime, our thoughts are with Blumenthal’s family. More from the Tour of the Great Divide Web site, and a moving account of Dave’s final days on his own blog.

Model similar to suspect pickup.

All of this is by way of saying, we’re living in a new era. And now when you have a maniac in a pickup, there are ways to follow up. Case in point is this thread on the Road Bike Review forum, where a bad actor in a white pickup may finally get his due.

It’s turning out to be a hard year for the Tour Divide race.

More on-street bike racks, my favorite kind, are on the way for Seattle.

Wheelsmith founder and Wheel Fanatyk blogger Ric Hjertberg eulogizes his friend Phil Role.

Vancouver debuts a two-way bike lane.

The worst JRA … ever!

Can Issaquah become a mini-Whistler?

Police chief recovers stolen bike in record time. Are we surprised?

When it comes to riding a mountain bike in Forest Park, Portlanders can’t get no satisfaction.

Have a great week!

Officer Donald Hassiak

If you mow down a bicycle cop, you’re in big trouble, buddy.

Aftermath of Toronto cycling fatality last September — Toronto Star/Pawel Dwulit

Our point, of course, was to show the subtle and ingrained bias against cyclists in our society. Say that driver had killed a pedestrian in the crosswalk in front of his Saab, and it later turned out the walker had been drinking. Obviously the driver would have to be exonerated, and the pedestrian got what he deserved.

The Montreal case’s tortured reasoning was still resonating when we ran across the following headline: “Man riding mountain bike hits car.” It turns out that a cyclist riding along a sidewalk apparently went to cross the street without realizing that a car was turning into the exact place he was riding. This is what is normally called a collision. If two cars hit each other in an intersection, it’s assumed that till things get sorted out, the fault has yet to be determined. We cannot recall seeing a headline stating, “Man driving car hits van,” because such headline would imply that the car driver was at fault.

But it gets worse. The cyclist “hit the passenger-side front end of the car, breaking the windshield with his arm.” Compounding his assault on the car’s front end, then, the cyclist also had the temerity to karate chop the windshield.

To extend its bias to its logical conclusion, the headline should have read: “Man riding mountain bike hits car, uses arm to break windshield, and has poor taste to bleed all over everything.”

Unfortunately, the cyclist did not die on the spot, causing the driver what will undoubtedly be the huge inconvenience of a lot of paperwork. Meanwhile, drivers everywhere feel less safe around cyclists, cowering in fear that a bike will come out of nowhere to attack their cars.

Before the inbox starts choking, the issue here is not whether the cyclist was at fault in the incidents. We do not condone drinking and riding, and although biking on sidewalks is usually legal, it can be unwise.

The issue here is the characterization of the accidents to lead the reader to believe that the cyclist was automatically at fault. Especially when 38 million American drivers lack the knowledge to pass a written driving test.

In our experience, if there is the slightest suspicion that the cyclist caused the accident, police and media have no qualms about making the call almost immediately. It’s only when the driver is clearly, beyond reasonable doubt, at fault, that “the case remains under investigation.” An investigation that typically lasts months and is all but forgotten by the time it is closed. (There are exceptions — to the “forgotten” part at least.)

If you doubt this principle, consider what happened in Ionia, Michigan, where an 8-year-old girl “died Tuesday after she rode her bicycle into an intersection and was struck by a car, police said.”

To their credit, the police stopped short of saying she “struck the car.” Still, the wording suggests that if only the girl had not chosen to ride into an intersection, all would be well. Her fatal decision was to ride a bicycle where a car also happened to be.

Undoubtedly in the four hours or so between the accident and the news report, the police wrapped up their investigation in record time. Girl on bike. Driver in car. Must’ve been the girl’s fault. Mark it an 8, Dude.

Not all hope is lost, however. In Illinois a judge handed out a 9-year sentence to a driver who killed a 65-year-old cyclist. And a Santa Clara (CA) County district attorney won a vehicular manslaughter case against a driver who had killed a cyclist, then tried to alter the evidence to cover up culpability.

Moreover, from across the pond comes a report, “Aspiring model hurled into barbed wire fence after car runs her bicycle off the road.”

Now there’s a headline for you. And the photos ain’t pretty either.

At least we now know what it takes to get a fair shake in a bike accident: 1. Be an aspiring model (or actress, or newscaster or whatever. Just look good, OK?). 2. Get sliced to ribbons. Makes for wonderful photo ops. 3. Most of all, don’t die.

Because if you do, there will be only one version of what happened. And it won’t be yours.

You lose one.