5 dead after truck runs into group of bicyclists near Las Vegas

msn ^ | 12/10/2020 | David K. Li and Josh Cradduck

[Blue Jays]

"...evidence in defense of the truck driver..."

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As motorists we all have a responsibility to maintain control of our vehicles around other road users.
It is a wide-open desert, during daylight hours, good road surface, and what appears to be clear visibility.
If unsure of what he was approaching the safe bet is to put on four-way flashers and slow down until he could discern what is in the roadway.

[Don W]

WTF is the “Trace”?
To me that is something to do with art supplies and “onion skin” thin paper.

[skr]

Same here.

[bigbob]

Have to agree, I don’t ride on the road much anymore for just that reason. With older guys at least there is some caution but young guys just want to drop the hammer and “share the road” means they do what they want. Ironic to hear bitching about drivers while rolling thru stop signs, etc. I decided I didn’t have anything to prove and stick to bike trails and backroads nowadays.

[Zhang Fei]

[A coworker’s dear daughter was hit and killed when her car broke down on side of the road a couple months ago.]

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Sorry to hear that. Was she in or out of her car at the time the tragic collision occurred? I have heard that it is usually safer to stay in the car.

[metmom]

That was my thought as well.

[Blue Jays]

"...people being in the traffic lanes..."

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So what if they were. Drivers have a responsibility to maintain control their vehicles. What if a car had a mechanical breakdown in same spot?
Uncertain as to why you are incredulous that debris would be scattered far and wide when humans are struck at 75 mph by a box truck.

[dragnet2]

LOL...Get real. Have you ever driven on a wide open desert highway? Some of the truckers are moving along at 80 and 90 ++mph out there. Of course if people are out there in traffic lanes riding around on their bicycles, they’re going to get busted up and killed. Trust me here.

[Don W]

I gave up in riding public roads when I got blindsided by a “Karen” on a short hill that had signs “Cyclists TAKE the lane”. Yup, even the I want your manager”? WTF!

Wanna buy a Sweet mid weight road bike?

[ETL]

The driver was probably driving for a long time on that stretch at probably 70 mph or so

So what. Wouldn't you slow down if you came upon a bunch of people on bicycles on a highway? I agree that it was dumb of them, and of the driver of the vehicle that should have been *trailing* them with emergency lights on.

[dragnet2]

So what if they were riding bicycles on a desert highway where people routinely drive at 90+ mph?

Really? Be truthful here, do you really think that’s a safe and sane thing to do on a bicycle?

[Blue Jays]

"...Trust me here..."

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You do realize the truck driver slammed into the rear of a CAR in this highway collision, too, don't you? Why didn't he avoid the slow-moving car?

[dragnet2]

Things happen real fast on highways like this. People are used to driving 2 and 3 hours at high speed...No stops, no nothing...Then suddenly you get some suicidal people who thought riding their bicycles out there 20mph was a good idea?

Trust me here. Some of the collisions going to and from Vegas area look like aircraft crashes. Not a place to be bicycling.

[dragnet2]

You do realize the truck driver slammed into the rear of a CAR in this highway collision, too, don't you?

Wrong. They only slammed into the rear of the idiot who was out on a desert highway driving at about 20mph, after first mowing down the bicyclist who were traveling BEHIND their so called safety vehicle.

[Blue Jays]

"...safe and sane..."

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Riding a bicycle there certainly would not be my cup of tea. We absolutely agree on that component.
I also believe driving should be more "involved" and not doing talk-to-text, "liking" social media posts, or many other things folks do behind the wheel.

The truck driver did ultimately smash into a car and five cyclists from behind.
It was not pouring rain on a dark stormy night. He needed to slow down when he saw unknown obstacles ahead.

[dragnet2]

Since there was physical evidence all over the place, why do you think didn’t the cops cite, arrest, and or charge the driver of the truck?

[ETL]

If it was a long straight stretch that’s even less of an excuse for the driver not, or barely, slowing down. He would obviously have been able to see them well in advance. Coming around a turn, that’s a whole different situation.

[fireman15]

So according to you they were all out of traffic lanes, free and clear of traffic, yet their is bicycle debris and what appears to be a covered up body, all over the traffic lanes?

We responded to a bicyclist who was hit by a truck while he was riding several feet out of the traffic lane on the right shoulder. His body ended up in the ditch on the left shoulder, but his shoes and bicycle ended up on the other side of chain link fence on the right side of the road.

The trucker was fooling with his phone and drove onto the shoulder. There were a bunch of witnesses and they all stood around while the unconscious cyclist drowned in 6 inches of water in the ditch.

But since you are so knowledgeable of what can be sold in court... explain the physics of how that happened.

[Sir_Ed]

Here in Oregon we have windy, narrow mountain roads with no shoulder, and jackass bicyclists who ride at 20 mph in the middle of the road, where cars and trucks are doing 55 mph, it’s complete lunacy!

I don’t know if that’s what happened here, but we need to start closing roads down to cyclists if there’s so little margin of error.

[oldenuff35]

“There is no bike lane out there but there are bicycle debris all over the traffic lanes.”

Do you actually think that the bike riders equipment, gear and pieces of the bike, are going to stay in one place when hit by a truck doing 70MPH.

Have you every heard of physics or even played a game of pool?