By Patrick May
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And each little scar on the mountain bike’s tortured frame is a clue for the bike detective trying to solve this mystery: How exactly did the guy riding this thing through a San Francisco intersection come to die?
"This bike is a little snapshot of time," says LaRiviere, 52, a self-taught, self-described "bike nut" who has built a national reputation reconstructing bicycle accidents in legal cases. Through a prism of scrapes, nicks and tire bruises, he sees this particular tragedy on instant replay: "The cyclist saw the semi-truck turning in front of him. He had three-quarters of a second to turn the bike to the right. The truck driver didn’t see him."
The witness who said the bike ran into the truck was wrong, says LaRiviere, taking another midafternoon sip of his Coors Light. Evidence at the scene and damage to the bike contradict that. As the trucker cut him off, the cyclist "was pedaling for his life."
Turning battered aluminum and shredded rubber into plot points in forensic dramas, LaRiviere has worked on more than 700 cases in the past 28 years, testifying before juries, fact-finding his way through product-liability claims, and helping his clients piece together that split-second chain of events leading to a bicycle-involved injury or death.
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https://www.bicyclelaw.com/news/n.cfm//turning-battered-bikes-into-forensic-dramasoldId.20100510075548281
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