Citation issued to driver who backed into bicycle rider on North Tillamook
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor) on July 16th, 2019 at 2:30 pm
On Monday evening a bicycle rider sustained injuries in a collision with a driver on Northeast Tillamook Street. According to photos sent to us by a reader who saw the aftermath, the collision happened at the northeast corner of Tillamook where it intersects with North Williams Avenue.
The photos show a bicycle lodged completely under a Jeep.
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We’ve confirmed the collision with the Portland Police Bureau. They say the victim was transported to the hospital with “non life-threatening injuries” (a term that can mean anything from scrapes and bruises to broken bones and/or more serious complications). The driver of the jeep was given a field sobriety test but was not found to have been under the influence. The driver was issued a citation for Careless Driving and was released from the scene.
According to the PPB, investigators believe the driver was backing into a parking spot prior to hitting the bicycle rider.
This is a very high-volume intersection for bicycle users. Tillamook is a popular neighborhood greenway and Williams is the busiest corridor for cycling traffic in Portland.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Something is not quite right about this backing in to a parking space story. The photo shows the jeep with the bike wedged underneath right in front of the stop sign. The entire side of the street is clear of cars except for the cop car. If the driver wanted to park there they could have just pulled over in to a spot while moving forward. To back up to this spot they would have had to been in the middle of Williams when they decided to reverse. It makes more sense that they were trying some kind of three point u-turn. Either way, I would be in favor of crushing the jeep as punishment, future generations will thank us.
Recommended***COMMENT DELETED BY MODERATOR***
RecommendedI motion to have this comment stricken from the record.
RecommendedWhy? it’s no more absurd than what bikeninja said.
RecommendedI am not sure these two are remotely equivalent. If a child beats and injures his friend with a stick it would be entirely reasonable to take away the stick and perhaps burn it in the fireplace. But no civilized person would recommend burning down the child’s home or hanging them. This person nearly killed a cyclist through some sort of dangerous and careless act and did it in a vehicle that was outfitted with no regard for pedestrian safety ( high bumpers etc.) . A civilized society would see this person with the same degree of maturity and thoughtlessness as the child with the stick has no business with such a dangerous toy, and most likely civilization would be better off with out it so recycling in to something useful like a bike frame would certainly be viewed as a wise punishment by an objective third party that has not been drenched in the twisted logic of happy motoring.
RecommendedI hope you didn’t take MOTRG’s statement at face value. If you did, you missed the whole point.
RecommendedNo civilized person equates the value of a stick with the value of an automobile.
RecommendedAs one also would not equate the damage caused by a stick with the damage caused by an automobile.
RecommendedSays the guy who equates bicycles with garbage trucks.
RecommendedIf you can’t see the difference, I suggest you educate yourself.
Recommended>>> it’s no more absurd than what bikeninja said <<<
And was clearly meant as parody.
RecommendedMaybe it’s a poor choice to joke about lynching a non-white person?
RecommendedI don’t think MOTRG was trying to be funny — he was commenting on bikeninja’s serious-sounding proposal to confiscate and destroy vehicles of drivers who cause a crash by parodying it.
Which, despite your faux outrage, I’m sure you understood.
RecommendedWhy are you assuming the man in the picture was the driver? Could have been a witness. In fact, that was my assumption.
I did make a racial stereotype – in my 35 years of driving, 5 of which were as a Jeep owner, I’ve never seen a black man driving a Wrangler.
RecommendedWay to jump to conclusions while exposing your racism.
RecommendedAll three of you are completely full of it. You know exactly what you did.
RecommendedI so love it when someone with an obvious bias tells me what I am thinking.
RecommendedYes, but seriously!
Recommended*Trolling attempt so noted* Thanks!
RecommendedI’m thinking that “sign” on the construction fence likely says “No parking”, so it does make some kind of sense that they may have been backing up. But it does look like they are pretty far forward in the street, I’ll give you that.
RecommendedI just rode by this location and the entire fenced lot along both Tillamook and Williams is marked with no parking signs, so he would have to have been backing up for an entire block before he would have come to a legal parking space.
RecommendedI was nearly left-hooked on Williams last night at Stanton. Let’s just say the road is not a relaxing place to ride.
Very sorry to hear about the crash- Hope everyone is ok
RecommendedI’ve chosen to ride on Rodney instead.
RecommendedDitto.
RecommendedCitation for careless driving and released. Case closed.
RecommendedThis directly connects to the article by Shill about the legal system subsidizing driving cars. Careless driving should come with a much higher sentence because it can seriously hurt or even kill people.
RecommendedA few things:
The man driving the Jeep didn’t just back into the woman, he backed over her. She was under his Jeep with her bicycle before EMS came. She was positioned in the middle of her lane and not in a “parking space.”
It is surprising that he passed a field sobriety test and it would be interesting to know if a breath test was administered. If you look at the photo, you may notice a bottle of wine or beer in a paper bag that happened to show up under his car before the police came. It was actually standing up under the Jeep before this picture was taken.
The woman’s injuries were very painful. Maybe not “life threatening,” but potentially will require a long time to recover. They could have been much worse.
I imagine this was very traumatic both physically and psychologically, and I hope that the woman is doing well, now.
The driver was clearly negligent and I don’t trust him to drive safely. If we could collectively grasp the harm caused by careless drivers, we would have laws that would stop this man from driving again and encourage other drivers to be responsible.
RecommendedIf the jeep pilot was not drunk from alcohol, he was most likely smashed from THC. He was not driving with a right mind.
RecommendedOh, there’s enough unqualified or dangerous drivers on the road that would make me say it’s just as likely that he wasn’t impaired by drugs.
RecommendedOr meds. But I’ve seen too many drivers (and not so few cyclists and pedestrians too) who are so focused on moving by whatever mode they are using that they are seemingly oblivious to everything else, even people, things, and animals outside of their comfort zone. Cars more or less parked in the middle of intersections, the driver staring at their phone (directions?, a text?, a cute kitten video?), other drivers playing Pokemon (pointing their phones in odd directions while driving), and other equally odd behavior. So I’d say it’s possible that the Jeep driver might not have been intoxicated but simply oblivious. And clearly should not have been behind their driving wheel.
RecommendedSo a careless driving citation was issued, AND a VRU was injured to the point of being transported to the hospital… so it would be interesting to find out how many hours of community service will be prescribed by the judge when this case comes to court…
RecommendedI’m going to guess that since the VRU only had “non-life threatening injuries” the VRU enhancement wasn’t issued. Will likely be a Careless, B violation ($270) vs. Careless w/accident, A violation ($445).
RecommendedIt used to be, if someone was transported to the hospital, the injuries were serious. But then there also seemed to be an attitude of “no harm, no foul” unless a victim was taken to the hospital, which was rumored to result in a few requests to be taken to the hospital partly to make sure an incident was taken seriously. So what is the definition of “serious physical injury”? Who knows? In my estimation, getting pulled completely under a vehicle and being taken to the hospital would qualify, but most agents of our legal system probably drive more than they ride.
RecommendedNow, EMS, at least in Bend, tries to take just about everyone to the hospital. It is called ‘maximizing revenue’. I ran into the side of a car ‘right-hooking’ me. I was going about 25 mph, he was going about 20. Luckily, the full force of the impact was taken by my handlebars, which knocked me to the pavement. Since it was mid-Winter in Bend (i.e. cold), I had on three layers and I had minor road rash on my hip and elbow. Three cops and two EMS vehicles showed up, and they almost demanded that I get into the ambulance for a ride to the hospital. I know when I am injured, so I demurred. Straightened my handlebars and rode home. They were pissed at me, because I’m guess the City would have collected a minimu of $500 for the ride. Services like these are funded based on number of calls, hence sending five responders to a minor wreck.
RecommendedI hate Jeep’s. You know, the driver would be going to the pokey if he wasn’t driving. Just saying …
Recommended