Tag: carnage

I haven’t talked about carnage in a while

After a posting to Nextdoor from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) announcing a community workshop for the county bike plan update, a couple of people left typical hater comments in response.

Nextdoor comments about VTA bike plan meeting

I know this isn’t exactly news, but it’s nice to see these two comments received a total of 20 “Thanks” (and from the same 10 people, no less), compared to 64 “Thanks” on the positive comment. On Nextdoor, these are the equivalent of Likes, Faves, or Pluses on other social media platforms.

Not mentioned in the hater comments are the usual bugaboo of scofflaw cyclists, but I’ve seen these following other recent stories involving bicycles. I haven’t mentioned the carnage caused by cars in a long time, but people tend to forget so it’s time for a revisit.


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Midweek carnage

This morning, we receive news from Palo Alto, CA of a mother who was seriously injured after she was hit by a juvenile driving a car in a residential neighborhood.

Elsewhere today: Sedan into the back of a big rig on I-5 near Orland, CA results in driver fatality.

Tuesday:

  • Very confusing set of dispatches of a crash on Highway 1 near the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA is coded as a fatality, but I can’t find a news report of this one. If you’d like to try to decode the dispatches, the chronology is bottom to top and begins “XRAY IS CLIMBING OO VEH” which is cop slang for “women is climbing out of vehicle.” From there, we have reports of tow trucks and fire engines stuck in traffic and, eventually, a request for evidence tow.
  • Rollover crash in Half Moon Bay claims a life. This is the third automobile fatality on Highway 1 between Half Moon Bay and Devil’s Slide in two weeks.

Sunday: Oakland man fatally struck in Gilroy, CA.

Saturday: Car vs tree on San Tomas Expressway near Moorpark in San Jose, CA last Saturday results in driver fatality.

Friday:

ETC:

  • Monterey County attorney seeks witnesses in their investigation of a man who ran over and killed two women on foot on East Laurel Drive last November. This was a hit and run with suspected DUI.
  • Can you obey traffic laws better than a fifth grader? Tell me if this makes any sense. The city of Berkeley plans to reduce speed limits around school zones to improve safety. Berkeley police say this won’t work because adult drivers are an unruly, unmanageable lot who don’t obey speed limits. They claim instead that children should learn how to behave better around cars.
  • We have these “Drive like your kids live here” signs in Santa Cruz, too. Watch this outstanding report from walnut Creek by Stanley Roberts:



  • Nobody seems to know about this so I’ll repeat it: Santa Cruz DA investigating the Highway 1 fatality of cyclist Joshua Alper. “High priority case,” says county attorney Bob Lee.
  • Let’s wrap things up with this unbelievable story of a teen who killed four pedestrians and was let go because of “affluenza.”

    Sixteen-year-old Ethan Couch admitted to four counts of manslaughter after he and seven other boys stole alcohol from Walmart, piled into his car and struck and killed four pedestrians while going 70 miles per hour in a 40 zone. One of his passengers remains in the hospital with severe brain damage, and nine other bystanders were also injured.

    Couch’s defense was that he was a victim of his parents’ wealth and privilege; in that he never had to face consequences.

    The judge — with no apparent irony — agreed with the boy’s defense.

Teen fatality last night marks 40th traffic death for San Jose

A 17 year old boy was killed last night while crossing a large intersection in south San Jose with his bicycle. The driver of the silver Toyota RAV-4 stayed on the scene, according to media reports.


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Thanksgiving weekend massacre

This is not a song about Alice’s Restaurant. Among the two dozen or so traffic fatalities reported during this past Thanksgiving holiday weekend: “Fast and Furious” star Paul Walker, who was a passenger in a Porsche Carrera GT. Roger Rodas was driving an estimated 70 to 90 MPH through a curve signed for 15 MPH at a Santa Clarita industrial park when he lost control and wrapped the car around a tree. Investigators speculate speed may have been a factor in the fatality, which killed both the driver and passenger.

More carnage below the photo of the remains of Rodas’s Porsche.

Paul Walker Porsche Carrerra GT

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Midweek carnage

As I type this, CHP have closed both lanes of northbound Highway 17 in Santa Cruz County, California. Somebody drove his vehicle off of the side of the highway and down the side of the mountain. Two women were ejected from the vehicle, and the car landed on top of one of the ejected passengers. Responding CHP requested a tow vehicle with 200 feet of cable to recover the vehicle.

In other news…

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All Saints Carnage

Why do people drive? It’s so dangerous!

Two major accidents on California State Route 17 last night

Early this morning, a Calstar helicopter landed on a closed Highway 17 near my home in Santa Cruz County to transport the seriously injured victim of a hit and run collision.

Calstar

Calstar helicopter during the day. Calstar is the private, non-profit air ambulance service used to transport accident victims. We have no trauma centers in Santa Cruz County, so those with serious injuries are transported either to the Level 1 trauma center at the Santa Clara Valley Regional Medical Center, or the Level 2 facility available at the Regional Medical Center of San Jose. Both are about 30 miles away from the city of Santa Cruz.

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