[Updated: 10:56am, 6/30]
The Portland Mercury blog reported an incident this morning that happened yesterday afternoon between a TriMet LIFT bus (the smaller ones used for transporting disabled riders) and a bicyclist near the intersection of NE Multnomah Street and NE Grand Avenue (Google Map of location).
Here’s an excerpt from the account published by the Mercury (it’s from an email sent to them by a friend of the cyclist):
“Drew was hit by the front of the bus as the bus made a left turn right into him. His track, fixed gear bike got lodged under the bus and he was thrown off his bike. The bus driver immediately came out of the bus yelling at Drew accusing him of “coming out of nowhere” and swearing that she had the right of way…
…The police are trying to blame Drew because of having a track bike but the bike locked up because of his intense back-pedaling (braking) and left a ridiculous skid-mark in the street. I believe he is looking into getting a lawyer because of the accusations that he’s at fault and in case Tri-Met tries anything else in the insurance wranglings.”
I contacted TriMet PR person Mary Fetsch and here’s what she said,
“This unfortunate incident occurred yesterday between the cyclist and a LIFT bus (25′ in length). The LIFT operator was cited, so clearly the driver was in the wrong.”
Fetsch says the driver was cited by the Portland Police Bureau for Failure to Obey a Traffic Control Device.
Traffic Division Commander Mark Kruger is aware of the incident and says it has been investigated by Officer Cari Phebus. Kruger says he’ll follow up with me on Monday with details from her report.