Take the Lane - Camp Pendelton Analysis

[Jeff Gross]

NCCC ride leaders no longer have shadows, because they dropped them repeatedly, until their shadows gave up, claiming stomach ailments.


If James Hutchings was a planet, he would be the World of Hurt.

Jeff Gross and Serge Issakov Analyze Camp Pendelton Fatality.





Jeff Gross, Aug 14:

Richard Duquette is the attorney representing the cyclists in this case. He has posted the pretrial disclosure for the case at  http://www.911law.com/documents/Pretrial-disclosure-disclaimer_Redacted.pdf

The three photos included above taken by the bus' camera, show the cyclists riding single file along the edge of the road immediately prior to impact. They were struck by the front bumper of the bus.

I have been approached by 5 friends who related incidents with NCTD buses either moving into them or hitting them. I have had bus driver road rage encounters myself. Have you?

This road rage toward vulnerable users by NCTD drivers seems to be common, and is ignored and tolerated by the NCTD, possibly under pressure from the drivers' union.
My understanding is that the only form of complaint that is recorded by NCTD is a written complaint, identifying the bus, route, location, time and date, sent by certified mail, requesting that it be placed in the driver's personal file, where it will be kept for 3 months. NCTD is evading facing this problem of driver road rage. I am so upset I have to stop writing or I may say something I will regret.

Serge Issakov, Aug 15:

I can't believe he knowingly and intentionally ran into then.  But gross negligence seems obvious here. 

The newspapers were wrong about the crash. The bus driver did not even begin to move over to pass the cyclists. He just ran them over.

This pretrial material includes stills from the bus cam showing the bus driver simply drove right into them. Pics start on p 10.

Unbelievable. This is why I ride with a mirror. You can't do anything in the last second, but 5-10 seconds prior to impact is a different story.

With a guard rail like that bailing is not an option, but seeing a bus coming without slowing or moving over to pass is when you start looking back and zigging and zagging to snap the driver out of his trance.

And being in a conspicuous attention-grabbing lane control position, rather than far right, makes a huge difference which can only be fully appreciated with a mirror in which you can observe the enormous impact lateral position has on overtaking motorist behavior.

Jeff Gross, Aug 15:

I have calmed a bit, or at least my hands have stopped shaking. Serge, I disagree with you. I believe it was a case of bus driver bullying. I am not saying he intentionally hit the cyclists, but I believe he intentionally crowded them.

Bullying of cyclists by NCTD drivers is so frequent, and bus drivers have enough experience to judge how wide their vehicle is, that my first assumption when a cyclist is hit is that it is a typical recurrence of bullying.

I have had 3 instances of buses entering the bike lane where I was riding on Coast Highway. Two of these I originally attributed to inattention and poor judgment, as everyone seems to be doing with the current Camp Pendelton incident. The third was Northbound on Coast Highway about half a mile South of downtown Encinitas. The bus pulled over into half the bike lane. I caught up to the bus in Encinitas and yelled at the driver “What the Hell was that? Were you trying to hit me?” He replied by giving me the finger and saying “F*** You.” My comment was admittedly provoking, but his reply together with the fact that there was no reason for his maneuver, convinced me that he did it out of road rage.

In the past week, 10 cyclists have sought me out (as a ride leader) to relate their own instances of bus bullying. I am blown away by how common it is. Some were actual hits, some were reported to NCTD, most involved similar verbal interactions.

Cyclists often have to play leap frog with buses. It is unavoidable and is irritating to both cyclist and bus driver. That is where their road rage comes from.

The suggestion has been made that when you are bullied by a bus, if you cannot document it, then go back and take that same bus. Record the bus number, license, route, etc. Use your phone to photograph the whole bus, and the front or rear license and id. Then video any passing of cyclists. If an instance of bullying occurs, you can turn them in.

Those who have never experienced NCTD bus bullying I assume have the luxury not to be biking on the same roads as the bus routes. Most people seem willing to give the bus driver the benefit of the doubt. My experience is more prejudiced â€" if a bus accident looks and feels like bullying, I presume it is bullying.

I understand there is a memorial service planned for Udo this evening, Thur 8/15, at 5PM at the Del Mar Powerhouse.

Serge Issakov, Aug 15:

I can conceive of only two reasonable explanations for how this happened:

1) The driver noticed the cyclists and decided to intentionally hit them.  Later he claimed he moved over to pass them but moved back into the lane too early to cover up the murder.
2) The driver was inattentive.  Due to the inattention, the driver did not notice the cyclists sufficiently early (left frame) until it was too late (right frame), and hit them unintentionally.  Later he could not accept that he was that inattentive, and/or tried to cover up his unprofessional inattentiveness, and so said that he moved over to pass them but then moved back into the lane too early (which was then conveyed to reporters through a base spokesman). 

Maybe I'm not cynical enough, but I find explanation #1 to be highly unlikely.  Even if this driver is a sociopath, which he must be to do this intentionally, he must know that there is video on board that will impeach his cover-up story.  And even sociopaths don't want to deal with the consequences of killing someone (police trouble, court, risking your job). 

So, absent evidence of some kind of serious psychological issues with this bus driver, I find #2 to be the much more likely explanation. 

An empty straight road is where drivers are likely to allow their minds to drift.  Cyclists at the edge of the road are normally inconsequential, irrelevant, and, therefore, relatively easy to ignore and overlook.  Look at that left frame again.  How hard would it be for an inattentive driver (not you or any other avid cyclist!) to overlook those cyclists?

I first realized this about 10 years ago when there was a spate of cyclists hit on rural roads in Sonoma County under similar circumstances: empty straight road, good light and visibility, cyclists riding at the edge or in a shoulder or bike lane, and motorist drifts right into them.   I had learned from books and classes about likely crash types and how to avoid them, but this kind of situation was really not covered - largely dismissed as too unlikely to worry about.

It's important that this particular case be pursued to the full legal extent possible, but doing so doesn't address the underlying problem: even well-meaning drivers are human and capable of being inattentive and overlooking, and hitting, bicyclists.

So, after learning about how to avoid the most common types of bike-car crashes (at intersections), I thought about what, if anything, could be done to improve my chances with respect to these rural/straight from-behind crashes in which motorists drift into, or just hit, unnoticed cyclists at the road edge.   I head learned about using the center of the lane as my "default riding position" from reading John Franklin's book, Cyclecraft.  That's when I started experimenting with lane position and using a mirror to see how it affected the behavior of overtaking motorists - the results were remarkable. 

It became quite obvious that when I rode at the road edge to many motorists I wasn't even there.  While many motorists obviously did notice me and either slowed down or moved left to increase passing clearance (or both), a good percentage would pass me with the absolute minimum clearance without changing their line of travel at all, especially whenever the adjacent lane was occupied.  It's like you're not even there. 

On the other hand, by moving well out into the traffic lane (my "default riding position", during gaps), the vast, vast majority of motorists approaching from behind would react (by slowing or changing their line) long before they reached me.   Look at the left frame again.  Now imagine if the cyclists were in the center of the lane.  Much harder to overlook and ignore.  Practically impossible.

Still, once in a while (a few per year) a motorist will not react in a typical timely fashion to me even when I'm using the full lane in my default riding position.  This is easily seen in my mirror since I'm accustomed to early reactions - a motorist continuing at speed towards me without adjusting his or her line sticks out like a sore thumb.  In these very rare situations a simple shoulder-check look back is all it takes to get an instantaneous reaction (slowing down or moving left) out of the motorist. I'm certain they're in an "auto-pilot" frame of mind and trying to interact with them snaps them out of their trances.  In 10 years of riding this way, only once did I also have to zig-zag for a second to "wake" them up.
 
Once they do react to my presence (typically on their own accord but once in a while when a coax from me is required) I do typically move over some to the right to facilitate passing as a gesture of good will (only when it's safe to pass, i.e., the adjacent lane is unoccupied and we're not on a blind curve).  Friendly nods, smiles and waves are exchanged much, much more often than honks,  middle fingers or other expressions of rage.  Motorists seem to appreciate being alerted early to my presence so they have the time and space to deal with passing me without panicking.

Anyway, that's my experience, for what it's worth.

Jeff Gross, Aug 16:

Thanks for the email. As I cool down, I think you are right.

"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, but don't rule out malice." - Einstein

I am going to talk about this at my NCCC bike club pre-ride safety talk, and your comments will help.

When you open a can of whoop-ass, Karl Rudnick jumps out and attacks.

Here are my edited versions of the photos, with the bicyclists moved to the center of the lane. The cyclists pop into the driver’s field of vision, and are not trivialized by the brain as irrelevant.





There are two downsides of taking the lane. First, the driver may not be merely zoned out, but completely distracted by a text message or attending to something in the vehicle, and the cyclists will be hit square on. Second, the common perception is that the cyclists have no right to take the lane, and will be ticketed by police, harassed by Marine MPs, and jury awards will be decimated.

If Peg Demery was a country, her principle exports would be Pain, Suffering, and Agony.

Things a seller should never talk about with a buyer, regardless of how innocent the topic might seem:

The present sales price.
The length of time the home has been for sale.
Why the seller has decided to sell.
The comparable sales prices of other homes.
Any price reduction considerations.
Things that might be wrong with the home
How many offers the seller has received.
How quickly the seller would like to close.

Jeff Gross was a math prodigy in elementary school, putting “Attack!” in every blank space on all his tests. It would be the wrong answer for everybody else, but Jeff is able to solve any problem by attacking.

Bike lots,
Jeff Gross
jeff@fullcommitment.com

[karlos]

I would like to add Pete Penseyres' comments after reading the "conversation" between Serge and Jeff above:

"I am convinced through my own experiences, that the only way this crash could have been avoided is if the cyclists had "taken" that narrow lane as shown in the photo series below and then been moving from side to side to provide more attention grabbing movement for what I agree was likely a driver in a half asleep trance.  It's hard to believe he did it on purpose, but if so, then the investigation should have identified that and it will come out during the criminal trial. 

I agree with Jeff that it is almost impossible to convince even experienced riders that it is safer to ride in the middle or even a few feet to the left of the edge of a narrow lane.

We observed that during our walking tour of Coast Highway in Solana Beach last week.  Not one of the dozen or so cyclists I observed were far enough left to even touch the right edge of the giant green painted areas with the sharrows on them.  That included the left most rider of 2 side by side cyclists and also a rider who was narrowly missed by an NTCD bus that made no attempt whatsoever to cross into the empty #1 lane when he passed.

I am thinking about a proper response by the Navy and/or NTCD for a "Stand Down" that would take all Camp Pendleton buses off the road until the drivers attend an all day refresher course on the CVC sections that relate to cyclists and how to pass them safely along with a complete review of the video from the bus that starts while he was passing other cyclists before he ran these riders down.

What else can we do to make sure something like this NEVER happens again?

Pete"

[karlos]

And here is Jim Baross' (San Diego County Bicycle Coalition) response to Pete's observations. [I, too, worry that a bad reaction by Camp Pendleton would be to shut it down to cyclists]:

"I expect that the NCTD is going to be very careful about how it responds since they should be very concerned about facing potentially significant liability costs. Actions that could be seen to admit that their driver training and/or oversight might not be in their interest right now... but I'm no expert.

As to a "stand-down", I'd worry that some might recommend that bicycling be prohibited rather than buses?

Would this incident/tragedy be a convincing case to the local LEOs/Sheriff that their knee-jerk responses discouraging bicyclists from using appropriate lane positioning on roads with narrow lanes should be radically changed?

Jim"