July 10, 20131 Comment on Man arrested in Seth Vidal hit & run
An update on the sad news of Seth Vidal’s passing at the hands of a hit and run driver.
27 year old Maceo Christopher Kemp Jr turned himself in. Durham police charged Kemp with felony hit-and-run and driving without a license.
More –>
* Durham Herald-Sun: Driver arrested in cyclist hit-and-run.
* WRAL.com: Man charged in Durham hit-and-run that killed bicyclist.
July 9, 20138 Comments on Seth Vidal killed by hit & run driver
Seth Vidal, a well known open source software contributor, was cycling near his home in Durham, NC last night when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. The 36 year old software developer was pronounced dead after he was taken to Duke hospital.
Witnesses describe a late 90s or early 2000s dark colored sedan that slowed then swerved before hitting Vidal on Hillendale Road near I-85. Police are asking the public for help in identifying the suspect.
Vidal was a emeritus board member of the Fedora Project and an employee at Red Hat, Inc. where he developed the Yellowdog Updater Modified (yum), a command-line tool to manage software packages for Linux distributions.
Although Vidal is known around the world for his contributions to open source software, local friends describe him as a valuable and giving member of the local cycling community who worked to improve cycling and walking conditions in his area.
Elsewhere:
Russ Roca and Laura Crawford met with Vidal when they traveled through Durham. Vidal describes the local cycling in this video.
Photo taken from Seth Vidal’s Twitter profile.
June 18, 20137 Comments on Another cyclist killed in San Jose
A hit and run driver killed a cyclist Monday afternoon on the Taylor Street overpass over Highway 87. This is the third cyclist fatality in the Bay Area’s largest city in a week.
I’ll promote a comment left earlier this morning by San Jose resident Mark Saurwald. Saurwald has previously brought up the lack of east-west bike connectivity to city and county transportation planners.
This highlights the lack of East-West bike routes in San Jose from the area north of downtown (from SJSU to the Airport) to Santa Clara. The only options are Hedding which has a narrow bridge overpass over the Caltrain tracks, or Taylor where the bike lanes that exist on either side of highway 87 disappear to accommodate crossing traffic from all directions getting on/off highway 87. The cyclist was taking one of the only roads available to cross 87/Caltrain tracks, which has terrible bike accommodation, but is the best available.
Update: the cyclist was identified as Glenn Arnold Earnest, age 55. The ghost bike installed in his memory was removed in August.
March 22, 20134 Comments on Redwood City police: 14 year old cyclist at fault in fatal right hook
January 25, 20131 Comment on Cyclist killed in Fremont
David Martinez “collided with a car” (says the Fremont Patch in a lovely exception to the usual passive voice in crash journalism, along with the usual victim blaming in the reader comments) early Monday morning on Paseo Padre Parkway in Fremont, CA. According to news reports, Martinez was pronounced at the scene after rescuers failed to revive him. My condolences to those close to Martinez.
Apparently nobody besides the driver witnessed this crash since the police are asking for information regarding it. No doubt another SWSS.
I saw mention of this on Twitter shortly after it happened then forgot to post about it later.
H/T to Kristen. I biked up Niles Canyon Road from Fremont this morning. There seem to be many motorists there who equate “share the road” with “buzz by within inches of that cyclist.” I had to be a lot more assertive in my lane positioning than usual.
November 27, 20128 Comments on Redwood City fatal bike collision site of traffic calming proposal
March 22 2013 Update: Redwood City Police determine driver not at fault in this fatal right hook.
The scope of the Farm Hill Boulevard traffic calming proposal in Redwood City, California just happens to include the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Alameda De Las Pulgas, where the driver of a pickup truck apparently made a right turn and steered his death machine into a 14 year girl on Monday morning. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.