Category: Biking in Baltimore

The Baltimore Sun picked up on our story (https://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20090820231731405 ) and added some additional information:

"This tanker truck was filled with fuel, making the back very, very heavy," Guglielmi said. "It would have been impossible for him to realize he would have done this."

The spokesman also said Friday that surveillance video capturing the crash shows the cyclist was at fault, but Guglielmi declined to comment further until the report on the accident is complete. Results of the forensic testing should take three to six weeks, he said.

Steven D. Silverman, an attorney representing the Yates family, said they were awaiting public disclosure of the driver and the vehicle. Although the driver may not face criminal charges, he still could be found civilly liable for Yates’ death, the lawyer said.

Based on the video, Silverman said the driver did not signal he was making the right turn and did so when the path was not clear.

"Whether Mr. Yates was in the blind spot is something that needs to be determined," Silverman said. However, "that doesn’t absolve [the driver] of civil liability," he said
Continue reading “Police determine bicyclist at fault in fatal accident”

Please note this response to a BBC members inquiry about the investigation :

I am the commander of the Traffic Section within the Baltimore Police Department. I supervise the Crash Team and therefore the e-mail you authored to Mayor Sheila Dixon was forwarded to me for a response.

I was at the scene of this tragic crash and I know that this incident was investigated thoroughly from the very beginning as a very serious issue, as all fatal crashes are. We have obtained a video of this incident that shows the entire event.

There are only some aspects of this case that are public record. I will tell you that the video clearly shows the cyclist to be at fault. There is no "right to the road" as a cyclist. You have the same rights as a motor vehicle and also the same obligations. The cyclist was not operating within those parameters. The tanker truck that the cyclist struck was a large one. The cyclist struck it in the rear. There is no evidence to support that the driver was ever aware there was an impact. Do not believe what the media reports as entirely true regarding this or any event.

The investigators within the unit are very educated and experienced in all types of crashes and have attended several schools specific to the physics of a pedestrian crash and a cyclist fatal crash. With regard to the question of it being investigated as a hit and run accident, not only was it investigated as such but the truck was located by investigators within a few days of the incident.

Please feel free to contact my office if you have any further questions.

Lt. Leslie Bank
Traffic Commander
Baltimore Police Department

Community Meeting TO DISCUSS THE HARFORD ROAD BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT (BETWEEN NORTH AND CHESTERFIELD AVENUES)

DATE: Wednesday, August 26, 2009
TIME: 6:00 P.M. TO 8:00 P.M.
WHERE: MONTEBELLO ELEMENTARY JUNIOR ACADEMY
(meeting will be held in the cafeteria)
2040 E. 32ND STREET
BALTIMORE, MD 21218
THE BALTIMORE CITY DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE TO DISCUSS

THE PROJECT AND THE FOLLOWING:
* AN OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT
* CONCEPTUAL DESIGNS
* QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND AND VOICE YOUR IDEAS FOR THIS IMPORTANT PROJECT IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

Continue reading “Ghost Bike for John Yates 08/09/09”

This “ghost bike” on a pole at Maryland and Lafayette avenues commemorates John R. Yates, a bicyclist who was killed there last week in a collision with a truck. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / August 9, 2009)

As Baltimore police continued to search Wednesday for the driver of a truck that fatally struck a bicyclist this month at a downtown intersection, an attorney representing the victim’s family said a surveillance video shows that the vehicle “just abruptly took a right without a turn signal,” causing the collision.

About 11:40 a.m. Aug. 4, John R. “Jack” Yates, 67, of Charles Village was riding south on Maryland Avenue when he got tangled in the rear wheels of the truck at West Lafayette Avenue. He died at the scene.

Investigators have not identified the driver of the truck, said Agent Donny Moses, a city police spokesman.

But attorney Steven D. Silverman, who is representing Yates’ family, said the outdoor surveillance video obtained from a nearby business shows that the truck driver had not signaled the right turn onto West Lafayette from Maryland Avenue. The video, however, does not show the license plate or any other identifying marks on the truck. Yates’ family is looking for video from any other sources within a 10-block radius of the accident scene that may contain that information, Silverman said.

Police have said that the driver may not have been aware of the collision. But according to Silverman, two eyewitnesses to the crash described loud noises when both Yates and the bicycle were hit.

“The driver had to have known he had hit somebody, and that’s why he hasn’t come forward,” Silverman said, adding that under state law, drivers must remain at the scene of an accident when someone is injured.

Based on the eyewitness reports and video, Silverman believes the driver of the truck was at fault for failing to signal the turn and for making a turn without determining that the intersection was clear.

“Mr. Yates was traveling on the far right side, going straight,” Silverman said. “…He did not crash into the rear [of the truck]. He was literally taken under the passenger-side rear wheel.”
Continue reading “Truck at fault”

Most of you know that a memorial ghost bike has been placed at the corner of Lafayette and Maryland, dedicated the cyclist who lost his life there earlier this week.

There have been rumors about the City, i.e. transportation, removing the ghost bike. Not True. Our Mayor has said it stays, and Al Foxx, transportation czar, send a post to his staff saying no one is to touch it.

[This is so outrageous!]

Let’s get something straight: travelling our streets by bicycle or motor vehicle is not a right but a privilege, according to the state. We motorists and motorcyclists pay heavily for that privilege in the form of vehicle registrations and required insurance.

Our self-righteous pedallers will argue that they are reducing emissions by having one less car on the street. They neglect that the hundreds of motor vehicles they impede burn far more fuel following them in first or second gear than they would in fourth or fifth gear if the bikes were absent. Let them ride public transportation, which would certainly benefit from more fares.

Bicyclists trumpet their "rights" and "equality" while paying no heed to traffic laws and especially those red lights that must only be for motorists.

It’s true that our roads are not set up for both motor and bicycle traffic. If bicyclists want to travel by their preferred mode, let them be licensed, taxed and insured so the state can provide them with proper lanes and trails that they have paid for, just as we motorists have.

Jack Conahan, Baltimore

Send your comments to talkback@baltimoresun.com.
Continue reading “Cyclists are not equals on the road”

Most of you know about the bicyclist that died this week at the corner of Lafayette and Maryland. A memorial Ghost Bike will be place at that intersection this Sunday, 8/9, a bit after 6:00 PM. For info on the memorial, go to www.ghostbikes.org

All are welcome. The ghost bike is currently at Velocipede… but all involved consider this a gesture from the bicycling community and the larger Baltimore community, not from a single group.

Sun photo by Elizabeth Malby / June 21, 2004
Jack [John] Yates of Charles Village is shown in this 2004 photo taking advantage of a sunny day to cycle in Druid Hill Park.
Continue reading “John Yates biking Druid Hill Park in 2004”