Posted on 04/28/2012 2:17:55 PM PDT by Huntress
(CBS News) BERKELEY, Calif. - Police have arrested an Oakland man who allegedly hit two bicyclists with his car and then fled - an incident caught on video by one of the cyclist's bike-mounted camera.
The hit-and-run occurred around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday on Tunnel Road in Berkeley, where the bicyclists were traveling east and were struck by a car traveling in the same direction, according to police.
One of the cyclists had a camera mounted on his handlebars. The video, posted on YouTube by brunogfmtube, shows a black car veer into both bicyclists at about the 2:40 mark.
The video had more than 100,000 views on YouTube as of Saturday morning.
According to CBS Station KPIX, Police Capt. Andrew Greenwood said the driver of the black vehicle did not stop afterward, as is required by law, so police treated it as a hit-and-run.
The riders, both of whom were wearing helmets, had abrasions from hitting the road but did not require hospitalization, according to Greenwood.
After the incident Wednesday, the suspect, Michael Medaglia, reported to the Oakland Police Department that his car had been stolen. A police alert was placed on the car.
KPIX reports that Oakland police found the vehicle Friday morning and alerted the Berkeley Police Department. After an examination of the vehicle, Berkeley police were led to Jack London Inn in Oakland, where officers contacted Medaglia late Friday afternoon.
He was arrested on suspicion of possession of heroin, felon in possession of ammunition, violation of probation and felony hit-and-run.
I never knew that a stop sign really means yield. Good to know.
I hop you try it. You might be able to convince a cop you were only simultaneously riding two bicycles.
I have learned to ride as if drivers cannot see me. As Andy Grove once said, only the paranoid survive.
Now that I’ve watched the video, it does look like the cyclists did nothing to incite the accident. They were in their bike lane and struck from behind but it does bring up a lot of the problems I have with bike lanes.
1) Many streets have been retrofitted with bike lanes so that four lane streets are now two lane streets. This adds unnecessary congestion which I believe is intentional by the socialists who want us all out of our cars and using blight rail.
2) Cars park on the side of the road - in the bike lanes. This is not illegal - yet. But just wait until the socialists win their demands at City Hall which they are quite good at. When cyclists have to negotiate around cars, they inevitably have to squeeze in among passing vehicles.
3) Bike lanes disappear and reappear, particularly around intersections and where streets narrow, adding confusion as to where all vehicles should be and creating confusion where everyone feels they have a right to that piece of the road. I don’t know how you get around this but, trust me, the socialists who show up at City Hall will demand special rights for the cyclists, not the motorists.
My main problem is the “healthier than thou” superiorist attitudes of many cyclists who then take that attitude and become willing traffic hazards which amazes me that they are so stupid. My sister lives in the Colorado mountains with many windy roads with blind turns and every weekend these roadkill wannabes show up and clog up everything with their selfish desire to use the road for something other than what it was designed for. It was designed to get cars up and down the mountain, not for yahoos to joyride around blind curves at breakneck speed. Makes my blood boil.
I’ve always assumed that drivers cannot or will not see me and I rode accordingly. If a car was ahead of me, for example, I always assumed that it would make a next right, so I wouldn’t be caught off guard when it actually made that right hand turn.
Our local postal carrier almost got me that way a few weeks ago. He came from behind me and I thought he was going to pass me on the left. He did, but then he cut me off by turning right directly in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, avoided the collision, and, um, politely informed him that I thought he should improve his driving.
There were no other vehicles on the road, just my bike and his car. It was broad daylight. He simply did not see me. Drivers get into this car/no car mindset. Cars exist, bikes don't.
Hey...let me know when one of your children is broadsided after running a stop sign. Afterall, they learned that from Dad (or Mom) when Dad (or Mom) run stop signs (because it's not a reasonable law).
Maybe i should teach to also take up an entire lane, if they have to obey the traffic laws to the same extent as cars, then?
After all, I do pay taxes for the full use of the road, whether I drive or bike.
Several other vehicles to pass them without incident after the last intersection and traffic signs, so it is not a case of they entered his path without giving him the chance to stop. The car that hit them weaved into their lane and sideswiped them. No defending the driver for this. He was at fault for hitting them and criminally at fault for not stopping.
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