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Bicyclist taken out by driver making a U turn in Brookline

Tinea reports the bicyclist seemed OK as she got in an ambulance after the collision not long after 1:30 a.m. at Harvard and Verndale streets.

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85 comments, about 5 each from Swirly and Markk!

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SwirlyGrrl is currently traipsing through Berlin, Prague, Munich and Zurich, teaching the elder offspring to drink beer and wine and watching 20% of the population get out on two wheeled vehicles. She is not available for comment.

IMAGE(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ1BbPt1rQb3bAW9XA0g_I9d9MeVP0LSbenVJ0logQDSxhYzAZNsw)
Ein! Zwei! G'suffa!

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I remember fondly a time when I was wobbly on 2 wheels with a belly full of Schnitzel, Spaetzel, Bier, and Radler. Didn't help my singing, without the words, either.

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Just to clarify (I wrote the tweet):

The biker didn't get into the ambulance on her own will; she was loaded on a stretcher and there was a pool of blood on the ground. Her friend who had been biking with her said the person hit will be ok, and though there was a lot of blood it was mostly from getting cut by glass (also a ton of glass on the ground). Obviously I can't verify this. Her bike was wrapped in bright x-mas lights! Totally visible. The driver claimed she was about to make an ilegal u-turn. I heard the injured girl's name, but because she will reportedly be ok, I'll leave it out so she can tell her own story.

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Are you sure about this? Was it actually illegal?

Are you also sure the biker didn't rearend the vehicle?

Are you sure who was drinking or not?

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I didn't watch the collision, I just reported what the driver told the police as I stood there to take a picture of the bike and make sure it wasn't any of my friends or housemates who come home that way. The driver was 4 feet from me and told a police officer, "I was about to make a U-Turn" and then her passenger interupted to say, "I told her not to do it!"

Friday night at 1am in Allston y'all as the colleges are coming in, most folks in packed cars at that time are there for the dancing & bars, and they are driving around lost, looking for non-permit parking (which ends right around the crash site), and often drunk. Allston's a shitshow on Fridays-- if the driver admitted to making a U-turn in the middle of Harvard Ave, and her friend tried to stop her from admitting it, and there's a biker on a well-lit bike now on a stretcher amidst a pool of blood and glass, I am inclined to believe the driver's story.

(OP)

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Are always illegal when they cross the path of another vehicle and cause an accident. Nice try though.

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Using Christmas lights prior to Thanksgiving? Using non-Earth friendly incandescent, glass bulbs instead of LEDs with royalties to BU? The U-turning driver was merely one possible agent of Karma. Glad to hear that the cyclist will be OK and cycling deaths are lower so far this year.

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Ignoring your attitude for the moment... why do you think they were incandescent lights? A great deal of Christmas tree lights are now LED, and that's especially important for low power capacity applications such as bicycle lighting. In fact, I suspect they weren't even Christmas tree lights, but instead a similar-looking light designed explicitly for bikes. (Common enough.)

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Incandescent, florescent, and halogen lights typically use glass and the report indicated broken glass at the scene.

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Here's wishing her a speedy recovery.

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A couple of days ago I was clipped by a black Audi in Chinatown. I had stopped in the right lane behind other cars waiting for the light to change. I was on the left side (my mistake - just because I had a legal right to be in the lane doesn't mean it's safe). A driver in the left lane drove next to and beyond me clipping my pedal and foot. If I had a bikebag on that side of my bike he would have pushed me forward - from a standing position. What that would have led to is guess work.

Once traffic started moving slowly I road up to him to, in quaint Boston fashion, telling him he clipped me. His mealymouthed response was that he didn't see me.

Looking at him I could see why he didn't see me. He was focused on the dashboard monitor (which appeared to show a map) and on his cell phone which was in his hand.

He wasn't paying attention. No matter how safe bicyclists are every driver who is focused on a monitor on his dash, on his cell phone, or (of guys) jerking off while driving - they are dangerous to bicyclists.

Maybe there need to be more cycle tracks all over the city creating barriers between bicyclists and drivers. Perhaps parks need to be more open to bicyclists. And perhaps there needs to be more enforcement of traffic laws across the board. Perhaps every organization that is forced to pay details to cops could continue to pay the detail but at least put the cops in positions where they are more than, to quote another writer, glorified hall monitors.

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The technology which allows smart phones to pause video when eye contact is lost needs to be used in cars to apply the brakes or give a not easily ignored audible warning after a few seconds.

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...was the second you should have said "Pull over and give me your contact info or I will call 9-1-1 and report you for hit and run."

Follow through if necessary. And yes, you absolutely have the right to take the lane, and it almoat always *is* safer.

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You guys have a lot more patience than I do. I get clipped, or someone almost takes me out with a u-turn, it usually turns into me breaking one of their side mirrors.

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Taking out one of their side mirrors? It's natural to be really pissed off at a bad driver, but, in the future, don't let him/her force you into making that kind of lousy mistake or you could end up with far more than you originally bargained for, if one gets the drift. You just might want to cool it a little bit, because there's no telling what that nasty automobile driver will do in retaliation for your having taken out one of his side mirrors!

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