Tragedy in Kalamazoo

[creadinger]

More like mass murder.

[mstone]

He didn’t mean to do it, so in VA at least, oopsie–just an accident.

[Emm]

This is just awful

I’m from Michigan. I will say I have been really happy to see how biking has become so much more popular there over the last 10 years–every time I go home I see more people on bikes.

The sad part is state and local infrastructure is REALLY not built for it, and the state is really not doing a ton to improve it due to really tight finances and a significantly less bike-friendly culture than we have here. I don’t think there are many bike lanes in the state at all, speed limits are generally really high, and they don’t have much advocacy. Even in bike-friendly places like Ann Arbor you have some really iffy infrastructure, if it exists at all. Because of that there’s been some really tragic cases like this one over the last few years.

[scoot]

Markus Eberhard said he often goes fishing at the location and was walking out of a store when “someone, I don’t know who, told me watch out and I jumped back. The truck went past my foot – almost hit my foot, and I looked, and before I could tell the bikers to move, it was too late. I already heard a bunch of bikes hit his front end.”

This quote makes zero sense, given the published location of the crash. There are no stores or any other businesses within earshot.

[GovernorSilver]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-bicyclists-killed-michigan-charges-20160609-snap-story.html

The 50-year-old driver of a pickup that struck a group of bicyclists, killing five of them, was charged Thursday with five counts of second-degree murder

[creadinger]

@GovernorSilver 141177 wrote:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-bicyclists-killed-michigan-charges-20160609-snap-story.html

The 50-year-old driver of a pickup that struck a group of bicyclists, killing five of them, was charged Thursday with five counts of second-degree murder

I salute the prosecutors in Kalamazoo for having the balls to go for murder charges when locally, drunk drivers in MD were faced with only manslaughter in the deaths of Tom Palermo, John Fauerby and Lynn Rosenbusch. Later, after a Montgomery County police officer is killed by a drunk driver all we get is mandatory use of the interlock thingy.

And Alexandria’s handling of the crash that seriously injured a local cyclist is really disappointing too…

[Steve O]

Not that we know any of these people, but I find reading the names to be helpful in both personalizing and memorializing them.

Killed in the crash were Debra Bradley, 53; Melissa Fevig-Hughes, 42; Fred Nelson, 73; Lorenz Paulik, 74; and Suzanne Sippel, 56.
The injured bicyclists were Paul Gobble, 47; Sheila Jeske, 53; Jennifer Johnson, 40; and Paul Runnels, 65.

[GovernorSilver]

I hope this becomes a national trend – motorists who kill cyclists hit with real murder charges instead of $40 fines or other wrist slaps.

I wonder if the online behavior of this particular murderer influenced the harshness of his sentence:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/bicyclist-killer-was-full-of-rage-online/ar-AAgOuOv?li=BBnb7Kz

“I may look calm, but in my head I’ve punched you in the face 5 times”

Article also gives more background on the victims.

[scoot]

@GovernorSilver 141227 wrote:

I hope this becomes a national trend – motorists who kill cyclists hit with real murder charges instead of $40 fines or other wrist slaps.

While I share your sentiment, I’d be happy with criminally negligent vehicular manslaughter in the general case (along with more appropriate penalties for those convicted).

Murder requires the state to prove the killer acted with malice, so I’m guessing this is an extreme case. After all, it is all too easy to sell the SMIDSY defense in most motorist-cyclist crashes. Perhaps this guy incriminated himself while talking to the police?

[GovernorSilver]

@scoot 141229 wrote:

While I share your sentiment, I’d be happy with criminally negligent vehicular manslaughter in the general case (along with more appropriate penalties for those convicted).

I’d be happy with that too actually.

[creadinger]

So Lance Armstrong went up to do the #finishtheride ride with the local cyclists from Kalamazoo.

http://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/articles/lance-armstrong-why-i-went-to-kalamazoo-to-finish-the-ride-w210178

He gives his perspective of the tragedy, the ride, and what meeting with the injured and the families of the deceased was like. It was really encouraging to see that lots regular Kalamazians came out to support the few hundred riders and police escort as they did the 25 mile loop.

For comparison, I did the ride of silence for John and Lynn and we had a couple hundred riders and a police escort, but no one else in the area seemed to notice or care.

I think it was in the WSJ article where I learned that this guy pled not guilty to all the charges. That infuriates me, but I guess it’s not surprising. If an episcopal bishop can’t own up to her goddamn mistakes then why would some regular schmoe with anger issues?

It’s probably best to ignore that for now and focus on capitalizing on the goodwill and positive interactions that this tragedy has created. The locals really came out to support their cycling neighbors and kind of puts Michigan back on the map as maybe not such a terrible place.

Best of luck to the prosecutors! I hope they fry this POS.

Also, if there ever was a time for it………#crashnotaccident!

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