Jesus. I have to stop reading the Ethernets. A possibly hammered bimbo who pleaded guilty in 2007 to driving while impaired is in the Tulsa lockup after croaking two cyclists and injuring a third with her SUV, according to the Tulsa World:
After striking the bicyclists, the SUV swerved off the roadway and into a ditch, knocking over a stop sign before eventually coming back onto the highway, (Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Brian) Warren said. A passing motorist managed to get the woman to stop, but she tried to drive away again and was stopped a second time by another driver, he said.
Look at the size of that shoulder these folks were cycling on — we have roads smaller than that here in Bibleburg, f’chrissakes. You couldn’t be any safer riding a stationary trainer in your living room. Or so you might think. Clearly, you’d be wrong as long as scumbags like Tausha Borland enjoy happy hour behind the wheel.
Happily, in this instance she has been charged with more than littering: Borland faces two complaints of first-degree manslaughter, good for four years to life in the graybar hotel.
Mad Blog Media 
Jeezuz that’s horrible! What about that sheriff’s deputy gal in Iowa that nearly got croaked about a week ago riding to work at 5 in the morning with spotlights on front & rear? The guy in the pickup said he didn’t see her.
The Wisconsin guvernator signed a dooring bill here yesterday. The last straw was a lady cyclist was doored last year in Madison, cracked ribs, concussion, facial injuries requiring plastic surgery, and they gave her a ticket for failing to give the parked car 3 feet clearance. Never mind that there was a Mack truck on her left.
I really am becoming convinced that we need to take the law into our own hands to keep these people off the roads. This shit keeps happening and we keep seeing the revolving door on these drivers. Fine. Put this bimbo in jail for 10 to 20 years, but that doesn’t bring two lives back. She should not have been driving to begin with.
Its a Mad Max world out there. See Patrick’s last post, too. 53,000 repeat DWIs on Colorado’s roads. I’m we are in competition with that number down here in the Land of Intoxication.
Finally, while the posters in that Tulsa newspaper harped on DWI, we don’t know (yet) if she was drunk. We do know she was incompetent or not paying attention. Doesn’t matter what the excuse was, two riders are dead.
After all these stories I’m thinking there is a need for the death penalty
I get a kick out of some of the comments posted on the Tulsa papers website, like this one:
“Manatwork, Tulsa (6/10/2009 8:04:56 AM)
This accident is a real tragedy and I am very sorry to hear about this but apart from the probability that alcohol may have been a causal factor in this crash, one thing stands out in my mind.
Although the traffic laws permit bicycles to operate on public roadways, autos and bikes on public roads are a sorry mix and most of our roadways are not wide or smooth enough to accommodate cyclists.
Drivers can be arrogant and aggressive, but cyclists often ride arrogantly and aggressively as well, as if to say to motorists
that they are going to exercise their “rights” on the road, regardless of the amount or the speed of existing traffic. It is not at all uncommon for them to ride two or three abreast on busy inner city streets, acting without regard for any of the traffic around them.
Although Tulsa may be considered a bike friendly community, I expect that it’s because of all of the local newly built bike trails and not because our collective motoring public has a great deal of respect for cyclists.
Personally, I think that cyclists who ride on busy streets expose their lives to danger each time they set out in small groups.”
A shitface drunk in an SUV runs over 3 cyclists, who were well over on the shoulder by the look of the photo, and somehow it’s the cyclists fault? And Tulsa is supposed to be bike friendly? Maybe an IQ test should be mandatory before getting a drivers licence. I’m sure this idiot would be walking (or maybe even pedalling?).
probablem is, we treat driving like it’s some great American right. so once you start in the car, folks just don’t see the connection between their ignorant behavior and a crime.
insurance out to be insurance and not pre-paid repair service. give everyone a $10K deductible and see how they drive.
you hit someone, you not only pay their bills but work their job until they’re back on their feet. mandatory hospital visits, feeding them that gawd-awful green jello until they’re better.
we’ve been calling DWI / DUIs “crimes” for too many years, but it doesn’t sink in until someone goes too far. and unfortunately, you can’t legislature stupidity, maturity, or responsibility.
geebus … i type like i’m posting under the influence!
One of those 53,000 repeat DWI offenders lives next door to us. One night a couple of years ago at around midnight-thirty he was seen by my wife backing his Mercedes Benz into our Subaru. This guy was an experienced drunk to be sure: he had the presence of mind to jump out of his car (still running, lights still on) and run into his apartment. We called the cops, and come to find out that he had four previous DWI convictions and was driving on suspended license. Even though he was obviously drunk when the cops talked to him, the cops couldn’t bust him for driving drunk this time since he had gone into his house,(after all, he could have been sober when he hit our car, then started downing shooters the minute he walked into his house…not likely, but enough to get him off). They did get him for driving on a suspended license. He paid his fine, no jail time, and was driving his Benz around town the very next day.
I still seeing him driving pretty frequently. I tried calling the cops once or twice to let them know this guy was out there driving around, but they didn’t care.
He’ll kill somebody some day, and everybody will act all shocked. But they, meaning the Grand Junction PD and the courts, has had more than a few chances to put this guy away. Maybe it’s jail overcrowding or a perception that driving on a suspended license (or even another DWI) isn’t that big of a deal, but nothing gets done.
Meanwhile, if you’re in Grand Junction watch out for a silver Mercedes Benz with a slimy and possibly drunk guy behind the wheel.
Start a stopwatch next time. It takes time to become drunk as the booze has to pass into the bloodstream. The cops were just lazy, John. Its that simple.
Like I said, its a Mad Max world. And we know what Max did…if society becomes too dysfunctional, then individuals will start acting. I hate to see that but wonder how much patience we need to have before government acts on our behalf. We have been too busy being lied to and bamboozled into worrying about Osama bin Laden, when what we really need to be worrying about is Joe Politician bin Lyin’.
John and Khal,
As long as the driver (drunk or otherwise) is on his property, and not a known danger to himself or anyone around, the police will not do anything. Simple American law. You really gotta phuk up to have the cops arrest you on your own property. I’m no lawyer, but about four episodes of “Cops” should drive that point home real clear.
Honestly, if you see some moron break the law, make a citizen’s arrest. You should have that right. Now whether or not you get sued for it is another matter altogether. But hey, give it a try. The worst thing that could happen to you: maybe a shot or two, a little blood and a huge civil court case. But hey, give it a try why don’t you?
As for cyclists “right” to the road; I agree that we have that “right” but along with that right comes the responsibility of acting like civil members of society. Here in Cali we had/have this ‘wonderful’ thing called Critial Mess, um, I mean ‘Mass,’ where a few cyclists get out and ride around like idiots one day a month. For those of us who ride quite frequently on the road, this is sometimes seen as a bad thing. Why? Because the usual mouth breathing idiot behind the wheel doesn’t see a cyclist behaving within the confines of society’s rules (i.e. traffic laws), they see “damn bikers!” And sadly (being mouth breathers), they extrapolate one cyclist with ALL cyclists. Sad but true.
As a famous poet once said: “You’re either part of the solution, or part of the problem.”
The irony is that the two cyclists reduced to road kill were legally riding on the shoulder, not doing anything stupid or arrogant. So all this talk about critical mass or arrogant cyclists or rights and responsibilities we always hear about at times like this is beyond irrelevant. In this particular case such talk goes to tainting the victims as somehow deserving their fate.
In this case it was the motorist misbehaving. Talk about arrogance. It is arrogant to behave as though the lives of fellow citizens are of no value. Trouble is, so many motorists misbehave that we take it for granted. We had to put in traffic calming in downtown Los Alamos because speeding and failure to yield to pedestrians crossing the street was endemic. This morning I drove in to work as I am car pooling people home, and some arrogant asshole in a big Beemer convertible was flagrantly tailgating me into town. Fortunately I never had to unexpectedly hit the brakes and see him impale his fancy wheels on my 17 year old Ford Exploder.
Why should cyclists have to walk on water when so many motorists can’t even swim?
Yeah, Critical Mass has far outlived its usefulness. So, apparently, have social graces amongst the users of our roadways.
I grew up in Tulsa and often pop in for a race when I’m in town visiting family. I’d raced against Matt several times, but didn’t really know him, and I didn’t know the woman. When a friend sent me the link I had assumed that this happened on “old old” 51, which is a scarier road with no shoulder. Drunks are certainly not a good thing, but let’s not forget that this same thing could have been some dipshit text messaging or yacking on the cell phone at 65mph. It doesn’t take much drift at that speed to woopsy into a couple of bikes–even when they have a full bike lane. Tulsa’s becoming a huge bike town, and the Tulsa Police Dept has a whole crew of bike cops who are regulars are group rides and even starting to race. I think she’s in trouble….
We are putting in six foot bike lanes on our main N-S arterial, Diamond Drive. But I remind cyclists (so many of whom are naive about safety) that bike lanes don’t make you safe–safe vehicle operators (yourself included) make you safe. As Darren says, and I completely concur, an inattentive or sloppy motorist is as dangerous as a drunken one. That’s one reason I don’t wholeheartedly support single-issue safety advocates such as MAAD (or some cycling orgs) if they ignore the big picture.
Closest call I had in the last year was some ancient driver who drifted into the bike lane as I was riding home from town and nearly took the hair off my left arm. Least he could have done was shave my leg instead so I could look like a real, if fat, bike racer.
Hey Khal,
“The cops were just lazy, John. Its that simple.” is RIGHT on the money! There’s a bit more to the story: the cop who showed up the night our Subaru was hit did his paperwork on my kitchen table, with his calender out in front of him the whole time. I know this because I was interested in the guy’s court date and because he actually left his calender behind when he departed (I had to deliver it to the police station the next day). Even so, the officer “accidentally” assigned this driver a Saturday court date. Neither the city nor the county hold court on Saturday. Call me paranoid, but I can only assume that the cop assigned a Saturday court date to get out of having to show up in court at all. Fortunately, my wife caught the “mistake” and had it corrected.
And this is par for the course around here. My number one problem with Grand Junction cops is that they just simply aren’t interested in doing their job. I’ve had a couple of other similar experiences to this one and I’ve heard the same from lots of other people. What good is passing more laws if the cops don’t feel like enforcing the ones we got?
My other problem with the local cops is that they seem to really hate minorities and liberals, but that’s another story.
Lord hide my pistol…………………
Okay maybe I missed something in physics class but isn’t a car much greater in mass, velocity and destructive force than a person (or persons) on a bicycle?
So, if you chowder heads, want to argue THAT point go right ahead. But there is a HUGE difference between your RIGHT to the road, and your right to the road.
Now as a cyclist and a driver, if some pencil necked geek who has a serious gun-fetish starts popping off at me while I am driving, I will run them over. And I do believe that if I aim correctly, I won’t be hurting too much. Especially if they are on a little ol’ bicycle. Or am I wrong??
Maybe you guys need to lighten up a bit. It is a bitch out there and if you aren’t careful, you might end up as worm food. You might not like the fact that people are not held accountable for their stupid decisions, but I would be more than willing to bet your life that you are one of the first to complain when you don’t get it your way. Yuppy scum.
That, my compadres, is this thing called life. It ain’t fair but if you learn from your past you might not make a stupid decision a second time.
Of course since there are a load of stupid ‘repeat offenders’ out there, you will have company…because you (or me) are not perfect. Get over yourselves!! If you don’t like the law, then change it. Or you could start making citizen arrests of all the people breaking the law…..starting with yourselves!
James, maybe you did miss something. An eighteen wheeler is bigger than a car. If might makes right, then go hide. Or, go….oh, forget it.
Khal, maybe you missed something….a cyclist will ALWAYS lose when dealing with a larger object. Yes, sometimes we are lucky, but usually that might (or mass) is dependent on a few things….those being velocity, angle of attack, and ability to avoid a collision. The rules of the sea state that the larger vessel has the right of way. Maybe we should observe that on the roads. No?
Otherwise if we all behave like we are entitled to the road, the smaller vessel will face the wrath of the larger vessel….and hence cyclists come out on teh short end of the stick.
Learn to share the road…and you may find that those larger cars and trucks will share with you. As for your time being up….well that all depends on your karma now doesn’t it??