UPDATE: Several people in the comments below have shared that they feel this photo and my call for captions were inappropriate. I was very surprised at this reaction and had no intentions at all of making light of this crash. I appreciate the feedback and will take even more care with these decisions in the future. Thank you. — Jonathan Maus
Larger version below
(Photo © J. Maus)
(Photo © J. Maus)
Here’s something you don’t see everyday — a truck that managed to drive off a road above Forest Park and came to rest right near a popular trail.
This photo was taken in June 2007 during a group ride in Forest Park. You can view a larger version below or see it on Flickr.
I’d love to read some clever captions… feel free to share yours in the comments.
Just when you thought it was safe to ride in Forest Park!
Thanks for reading.
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Let’s take this baby out for a spin…
Bicycle trips up, vehicles plummet.
Cyclist group looks to overturn motor vehicle decisions.
It’s raining cats and cars.
Bonus points if you know where the old Lincoln Continental rests.
okay, one more then I’m done 🙂 … 4 wheel advocates flip over forest park access restrictions.
Hopefully everyone was ok.
Ha! I crack myself up!
I really meant to say something like:
Good. One less SUV on the road -or-
Serves them right for driving a gas guzzler.
Jonathan- I really doubt you would put a picture of a bike accident up on your site and ask for funny captions.
Or would you?
anonymous,
obviously I mean no disrespect for the person driving the truck. I do remember hearing that no one was hurt in the crash. But your point is well taken… perhaps my request for a “funny” caption is insensitive. I’ll erase that word. Thanks for pointing this out.
Any idea what sort of car that is?
It looks like a sedan to me, and gives me bad flashbacks of taking my 85 Volvo camping.
Here’s my shot:
Forest Park: because sometimes dumping stolen cars in Brightwood is just too far to drive!
Jonathan-
Nevermind. The point is clearly lost. I think you’d feel different if your wife and kids had been in that truck; injured or not.
Aaron-
It is an early 90’s 4runner. You can tell by the wheels.
I’m with anonymous; this seems off-tone for BP.
“Off tone?” For all we know the car could have forgotten to set its emergency brake.
Oh wow.
It flattened out some for sure.
That would be waaay terrifying.
People are always on my butt when I drive Germantown, but I’m not about to drive off the road by going faster than I am comfortable… so they can slow down for awhile.
“Off tone?” It’s a car for god’s sake. Lighten up and enjoy a little gallows humor and quit trying to control everything.
For all we know someone was in the truck and had the most terrifying experience of their life.
Let’s mock it!
Perhaps they are a follower of BP, let’s help them relive it!
Poor taste. Plain and simple. Any other blog, maybe, but if you are championing the cyclist way of life and as high visiblity as BP, you need to have higher standards.
I’m sure the Oregonian will like this.
Anonymous,
This post isn’t about “mocking” what happened to the person in that vehicle. After you pointed it out, I acknowledged that my initial request to leave “funny” captions could be taken in the wrong way… so I changed it immediately.
I shared this photo because I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition and thought it might spur some equally interesting captions.
Just to clarify… I have never said this site is about “championing the cyclist way of life.” I’m not even really sure what that means. Also, you — like many others — assume that somehow I never drive and therefore have no regard for the feelings of someone who might have crashed a car. That’s not true at all. FWIW, my family and I often drive to Forest Park to enjoy a hike…. it just never occurred to me that someone would be offended by this photo and/or my framing of this post.
“Lighten up and enjoy a little gallows humor and quit trying to control everything.”
This is what I thought when Maus tried to get Facebook take down the “Cyclists need to get out of my way!” page.
I’m sure there are a bunch of reasons why that’s completely different though. 🙂
As a rule, I’m really impressed and grateful for the coverage on this site but I disapprove of this one. It looks to me like someone may have died in this crash. Shouldn’t we send our best wishes to the family?
Must be a slow news day, but hey, any chance you get to rip on an SUV must be taken advantage of right? Wait, what about all those SUV driving cyclists (like myself)? Now I’m conflicted.
The bicyclist-haters cannot win at any of the substantive arguments, so they feign outrage over stuff like this to distract from their ignorance.
This is more offensive than that car ride at Disneyland at least…
I think what happens is that people get used to that standard, and then when you have the nerve to kid about a car accident people go all “reverse discrimination” on you. I hope that makes sense…
It doesn’t bother me, but when I saw this I expected some complaints.
I think a whole bunch of you need to take a chill pill and cut the editor some slack. I mean seriously, it’s sunny outside. What the heck are you doing on a computer unless you’re *looking* to cause trouble…
I weep when I drive past junk yards.
Here ya go:
http://bikeportland.org/closecall/view_reports.php?
Fair and balanced.
anon:
“For all we know someone was in the truck and had the most terrifying experience of their life.
Let’s mock it!
Perhaps they are a follower of BP, let’s help them relive it!
Poor taste. Plain and simple. Any other blog, maybe, but if you are championing the cyclist way of life and as high visiblity as BP, you need to have higher standards.
I’m sure the Oregonian will like this.”
Oh goodness, get the smelling salts! Listen, I come hear because Jonathan is a consumate professional and he does this very well. If you can do it better, why not try? As for this specific post, Jonathan owned up to it so why don’t you quit rending your garments?
FYI, circa 1980, there were about 15 stolen and abandoned cars near the top of FL3, just north and downhill from the Hotel California house.
As a 4 wheeler who has rolled(with a roll cage, mind you), low speed rollovers aren’t nearly as dangerous as high speed rollovers that occur at highway speeds. Those fatalities are usually a result of being ejected or having the roof crushed down from the immense energy dissipated during a high speed rollover. Even without a rollcage, a slow rollover such is likely from the photo, is unlikely to have caused the roof to collapse. A, B, and C pillars(the side sections of a car holding up the roof) are incredibly thick and designed to hold a vehicle’s overturned weight.
People laugh at bicycle crash videos on youtube. So what. Some people cry and some people laugh when they get hurt.
The picture is about an SUV(a hulking mass of gas guzzling metal) smack dab in the middle of Forest Park. Ever run across a Boeing 727 in the middle of a forest? I have.
I have a good caption…This web site is really beginning to suck!!!
Report the news…Don’t make the news.
Jonathan-
I did not imply, nor have I ever, that you do not own or drive a car. I know you do on both accounts.
Like I said, nevermind, the point was lost. I just look forward to the day when you post a bike that was destroyed in an accident and ask for “interesting” captions.
a.O. – Being disappointed at an attempt to make light of a car accident in no way distracts anyone from my ignorance. I am ignorant of many things, which is why I am still in school and plan to attend forever. I truly appreciate your opinion on many of the topics discussed on this sight; I feel you and I see eye to eye on many things (even though you have labeled me an ignorant bicyclist hater). However, if joking about a rollover makes one more worldly or knowledgeable, then I hope I never reach your level.
No, don’t worry, that one can’t run you over.
or
Aww, the SUV is trying to be cute and get its belly scratched.
Sight = site; just another example of my ignorance, or fast typing and lack of proofreading. You decide.
I’ll play:
“Who let Toonces drive home!!???”
kgb: if the Continental is white, it is downhill from Leif around the 6 mile mark, am I right? At the time, I was astounded but since then I learned that cars were allowed on Leif up until a few years ago.
JM-
By off-tone, I mean this is usually a pretty positive source for news, entertainment, and information related to bicycles. To open up a snapshot of what was likely someone’s worst day in a long time to a caption contest is insensitive, and does not help or inform the cycling community. Reverse the situation (bunch of drivers standing around looking at a mashed bike) and you’d be outraged. I’m not some kind of anti-bike nut, I don’t own or often use cars, but I think this sort of article is needlessly inflammatory. By all means, ignore me.
How did this guy get where this picture was taken? It looks like one of the fireroads that should be blocked off.
Perhaps the driver was so pickled as to not feel any pain when the vehicle rolled.
Regardless, any vehicle left like this id likely leaking any number of fluids and needs to be dealt with by the proper authorities. Would that be DEQ?
Caption: Abandoned Suburban Apocalypse Theme-park display piece circa 2150.
Jonathan,
This post is pretty damn inappropriate. It reminds me of the photo of the guy who hit a whole bunch of folks with his car wiith the “funny” caption that you’ll see on fark every once a while. A request for captions is basically a call for humorous posts, your removal of the word funny doesn’t really change the post’s intent.
Your site’s tagline is “to inform and inspire,” do you think this post measures up? This is old news, so there’s no journalistic value.
There’s a sign on this trail below Germantown Road that reads “Caution: falling debris overhead”…who would have expected a Toyota 4runner. Oh wait, Toyotas have sticky throttles.
without pointing fingers can i say some folks just need to get over themselves… i have.
finding humor where least expected is’t always a bad thing. i have no idea if someone was in the vehicle but i certainly can’t see and evidence of anyone, rescue personel, jaws of life use, etc.. absolutely nothing like a pic of a car mowing down cyclists.
if you can’t laugh at yourself it’ll be even rougher when folks laugh at you. suck it up cheery-o’s
I’m with cyclist #36. I immediately thought of that awful picture of a group of cyclist being hit.
I follow this site with a passion along with out of state friends and family. I tell people about this site, non-cyclists included and I hope this “news?” isn’t their first experience with bikeportland. This is the single greatest local cycling site around and although I can certainly appreciate the humor in this photo, I don’t think it belongs here.
I know this isn’t a news site, but it seems like it aspires to be one.
@ #5 KGB,
Bonus points if you know where the old Lincoln Continental rests.
It rests at the bottom of the gully at the intersection of FL5 and Leif.
I was riding FL5 the day this Toyota was flipped. It was kind of creepy especially since I was by myself.
If I remember correctly, the truck was stolen, flipped then abandoned on the trail. It serves the person right if they got banged up.
I think the phono and challenge is amusing, Jonathan, don’t listen to the nay sayers.
Caption:
I never needed a tow truck to flip my bike back up after a roll over.
Jimmy @ 40:
FL 5? Was the Toyota on Saltzman and then flipped down onto FL 5?
What, I gotta come in here and defend BikePortland.org? Really? I have this trouble on ‘other’ local news sites all the time. When is it appropriate to take the ‘kid-gloves’ off after a community tragedy? We’re not at the wake, we’re not in some ones’ home, is this really an issue of social-responsibility? I don’t think so.
This is an issue as new as the net itself, and thus-far, I observe that society is basically just applying the same Judao-Christian inspired reverence for the dead and injured that it always has. But should it? It is such a stretch to state that certain comments at certain times represent a direct, intentional, threat to civility; and are insensitive.
For instance, I don’t know these folks, they don’t know me. I’m not happy for their demise, nor am I saddened by it. It really doesn’t have anything to do with me, why then do I owe some allegiance to the Church? Now, keep in mind I JUST got slaughtered in comments about M. Vilhauer’s accident for essentially the same lack of civility. So who am I to be offering input, right?
That’s an extraordinary picture. It documents an extraordinary event. It’s germane that it’s a 1989-1994 Toyota 4-Runner as that is an SUV model. It’s germane that it’s lying upside-down in a park near-and-dear to the two-wheel set. It’s germane because there’s man’s fantastic invention, topic of how many debates here, lying upside-down in the weeds.
I support Jonathan’s choosing to satire this situation. If there were folks injured in this accident, how could they not be, I’d be the first one with my hand up to help. Conversely, you’ll notice I’m also at the front of the line to laugh my a** off, ’cause that’s just a funny thing to see. So then, turns out I can care about these people’s demise, and poke fun at them too. Huh.
Correct and correct. The outrage being expressed here is outrageously hilarious.
This truck is down a firelane. This isn’t an ACCIDENT it’s called a joyride and it is a criminal act. Oh boo hoo somebody stole a car turned down Saltzman road drove around the gate did a ton of damage to the park and then rolled over trying to turn around in a some crazy bender. That is who and what your defending.
And you compare this to a picture showing a drunk driver plowing through a peloton, people flying in the air. I’m sorry but that is what I find offensive here.
That is just ridiculous.
Some of these commenters need a hobby.
I found humor in the advertisement that displays just below the photo on this page. It rotates so here is a screenshot what I am seeing:
http://www.quixotecycles.com/bikeportland/toyota_5th_generation.jpg
Some of these commentors need to turn down their self-righteousness down a notch.
Thanks for sharing J.R.
That is way funny. 🙂
Well, since no one else is going to…
“hold my beer and watch this”
Why do car owners and the larger public believe that cyclists are a self-righteous group of douchebags that hate any form of transportation other than their beloved bikes?
Let’s collectively grow up! We are at a critical juncture in the acceptance of bicycles as transportation. Let’s rise above being snarky children for our own self amusement.
Anonymous #45 – Some of us do. Commenting at BikePortland.org.
“I don’t know these folks, they don’t know me. I’m not happy for their demise, nor am I saddened by it. It really doesn’t have anything to do with me” … so he can joke about it.
Amazing statement. The defenders of the jokers are as immature and self-centered as the jokers themselves.
good one vance!