July 07, 2003
Open season on cyclists
It’s becoming more and more dangerous to simply bike around the Tampa area lately. Long known as one of the most dangerous places for pedestrians, the Bay Area has been very hard on bicyclists lately too.
Yesterday , a car slammed into 20 cyclists in St. Pete.:
Witnesses said the eastbound Continental veered toward the cyclists, cutting into the group head-on about halfway through their ranks, then dispatching the cyclists like dominoes.
"There's no way he could not have seen us," Ryder said. "He went to pass, he accelerated and he never slowed down."
While cyclists were tumbled and tossed, the car sheared through their bikes, swallowing them underneath and snapping them in pieces.
The driver has not been charged. Last week, in Tampa, a cyclist was killed while standing with his bike on a sidewalk and waiting to cross the street. In both of these cases, an elderly driver was apparently confused. In the Tampa case, charges were eventually filed, but the message being sent out by cops is that hitting cyclists is no big deal. You wont be immediately charged. You will be allowed to keep driving and to keep ingesting the same prescription medications or vodka martinis that led to the crash.
As long as you act a little doddering and can come across as sweet and old, no problem: you will be treated as a hero. After all, you managed to clear out some of those slow and pesky bikes that seem to be everywhere on the road, forcing us to slow our SUVs lest we scratch our paint as we crush the riders underneath. Good job!
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