Officer responding to call clips cyclist
PORTLAND, Ore. - A Portland police cruiser collided with a bicyclist early Friday morning.
The crash happened at Northeast 33rd and Killingsworth.
Police say an officer was on the way to a burglary call and clipped the bicyclist with a side mirror.
The cyclist was taken to a hospital but was not seriously hurt.
Ban side mirrors! (No one uses them anyway...they're too busy using their phones.)
I almost got pegged by a Hillsboro cop as I was just casually riding through the neighborhood the other day. Guy came within a foot of me. And for no reason. He was a good three feet left of the lane line. And he wasn't on the way to any crime.
So will the police officer be cited for violation of the law?
http://www.stc-law.com/SafePassing.html
Had the officer followed the law this never would have happened. The officer should have been cited at the scene and drug tested just as any other driver.
@Icarus What's the speed limit? This does not apply if the limit is 35 or above
@Roy Johnson Name a residential street in Portland that has a speed limit in excess of 35 MPH. Broadway in N.E. is a 35 MPH roadway.Â
@Roy Johnson Â
FYI - That portion of NE Killingsworth is posted at 30 MPH.
(According to Google Maps)
@Icarus @Roy JohnsonÂ
I looked on Google maps and it looked industrial to me, I'm not familiar with that intersection. The law you posted states it is not a requirement in a 35 or higher speed zone in the second paragraph, item B. The law you posted is not applicable in this case if the bike is on Broadway then.
@Icarus Oh Please!
@Pvpbw
I know...right? I mean cops never get tickets for anything ...ever....because they're above the law and what cop would ever give his fraternal brother in the Police Union a ticket. It's simply against the cop code.Â
I find it funny that everyone is trying to assign fault. It doesnât matter. The bicyclist will still get a payday out of this. He could have been drunk, ridding the wrong way, written a note that he wanted to ride into a police car, while the police car could have been stopped with lights, and sirens, and had 30 SWAT members sitting on the hood yet the bicyclist will still get a payout from the City of Portland.
@JTesla  Â
As it should be because, as we were taught by His Sammyness, bicyclists are "special".
It also looks like some minor right front end damage to the police car near the headlight area.
@Bdou I don't see it, but the mirror looks floppy
@Pvpbw @Bdou  Â
I wonder how wide the bike rider was? If it was a really large, wide person, couldn't they get a ticket for not riding single file? :-P
@Mikey @Pvpbw @Bdou Or maybe for a wide load with no flagger
"The cyclist was taken to a hospital but was not seriously hurt."
So I'm thinking that pepper spray or a good tasing would have been appropriate to make it worth the ER visit. Just saying.
@Mr. Carbon Footprint Â
Oh, absolutely! It's OBVIOUS the bike rider ATTACKED the police car!!  ;-)
Again I will say "There is no such thing as an accident". Just ask any insurance agent.
@Bdou I had a teacher in high school that said the definition of an accident is something that couldn't have been avoided. Hmmmm.........
@scoreboard @Bdou
".... something that couldn't have been avoided."
For example?
@di_da_is_alpha   A bee stings you in the eye while your driving and you can't control the vehicle. You have a heart attack while driving. The wheel comes off unexpectedly. These events are very rare but traffic collisions are very common because drivers are rarely held accountable.
@di_da_is_alpha @scoreboard @Bdou No clue....just something my teacher said although I joke around and say I was an accident. LOL!
Proof that everybody hates bikes.
This comment has been deleted
@Dr. Rawdog And what....did the seat start irritating your vagina? Â
@Dr. Rawdog Nice!
Nice.
The article simply has too little information to assign fault. I hope the cyclist recovers quickly.
@DeaconBugg Â
Yes, the cop over took the cyclist and hit the cyclist. The whole statement that the cop clipped the cyclist is unambiguous.Â
By the picture it looks like the bicycle was in the road and had no rear tail light. The article gives diddly squat for information, so we don't know if the cyclist was in dark clothing, if the light bar on car on, or what. Could the bike have come around the corner of a side street without stopping like many do?
@Roy Johnson Common sense requires a tail light on a bike. The law, inexplicably, does not.
@Roy Johnson  There is currently no legal requirement for bicycles to be equipped with a rear tail light. Oregon state law requires a front headlight visible to 500 feet and a red rear reflector. As a cyclist, I would absolutely be in favor of a change in the law to require both a front headlight and a rear taillight, with the same visibility standards for both.
Maybe the policeman was distracted by information coming over his radio and in-car computer and drifted into the man riding his bike. Many drivers fail to maintain a lane of travel, drifting into the bike lane or shoulder frequently.Â
@havenkt @Roy Johnson Good post.
@havenkt @Roy JohnsonÂ
There may not be a law requiring a rear light, but I have seen some that continuously blink and some that are on solid. Make it easier to see you on a bike, biting the pavement is painful in the least. The article doesn't give any information and all finger pointing is just speculation. I see many bikes turn a corner from a side street without stopping for a stop sign. When it's dark everyone needs to be more aware of their surroundings. We can't point blame yet, just the rear light might have changed the outcome.
@havenkt @Roy Johnson I know there's no law but one would think common sense would prevail and the biker would have a light. However......
@havenkt @Roy Johnson Shouldn't the bicyclist pulled over to the side of the road to yield to the police officer responding to a call?
Who knows if he was running lights, sirens, or both.
Nowhere in the short 4 sentences does it say the officer had his lights & siren on. This could very well be the officers fault.
@axpman If the officer were anywhere near the burglary call's location he better have NOT had his lights and siren on.  If he did, he's a horrible cop.
A hot burglary means you're trying to surprise the suspect. Â Going in with lights and siren just gives the burglar warning so he can hightail away and you can't catch him.
@axpman Article says the cop was on his way to a burglary call.  It'd be interesting to see the police logs and find out if there was actually a burglary call at the same time the bicyclist was hit.  Wanna bet some money?  I'm easy, I'd settle for a Coke (in a can, ice cold).  I'm putting my bet on there being no burglary call.
@Sundowner In many of the burglary calls I've seen they like to roll in quietly, ie. no lights, no siren.Â
@axpman @scoreboard Absolutely.  But in NE where all the major streets (33rd and Killingsworth both, in this case) are 2-lane.......yeah, I'm still wondering if there was actually a burglary call or not.  We'll never know, I'm sure.
@Sundowner @axpman Hmmm.........it's possible but do you think the cop that writes up the report will be honest? Hard to say.....
@Icarus @Sundowner Krispy Kreme, burglary call.......ehh....what's the difference?
@Sundowner  Yes, the police code for "burglary" is the same as the code for "hot and fresh doughnuts" at Krispy Kreeme. You really need to know the address of the call to investigate properly.Â
@Sundowner @scoreboard True but I'm sure if there was negligence involved on the cop's part, they'd find a way to cover it up.
@scoreboard But aren't there logs of every call?  Not talking about the actual police report.
@axpman Exactly, nor does it say where the bicyclist was riding the bike, whether it be on the side of the road or in the middle of the lane.
@scoreboard @axpman A cyclist is allowed to ride in the middle of the lane if there is no proper bike lane or shoulder available. It shouldn't matter where he was riding.
I do agree that this article contains extremely scanty information.
@havenkt @scoreboard @axpman I understand that. However, cyclists also have a responsibility to obey the rules of the road just like motorists and many of them fail to do so, regardless of where they are riding and this, one would think, would include pulling over if lights and/or sirens were going. Â
However, since it said the biker was clipped, I'd be willing to bet the biker was on the side near the curb when it happened. We may never know......
I was being facetious with my earlier comment, but I'm fairly familiar with that area. Â PPB constantly turn on their overhead lights, do a quick blast with their sirens to clear the intersections to get through -- then you see them parked a block ahead, side by side with another police cruiser. Â They just don't like to wait for the signals. Â That's likely not the case here....I'm sure the bicyclist was at fault *wink*.
Cyclists should be riding toward on comming traffic, (on the other side of the road) So they can see what is comming at them. This way there would be no more Cyclists getting hit by cars making Right Turns.
@Doug Stupid, stupid comment. Riding on the other side of the road is not only illegal, it multiplies the force of impact if a collision does happen. It also makes bicycles almost impossible to see. And "on commining?" You think the rider was having an orgasm?
@Mechanic @Doug Cyclists wear helmets and headphones. So they need to see what is comming at them. I would rather see a cyclist or on the other side of the cross walk then trying to turn my head 180 degrees too the right to see if somebody is there. If This cyclist could have seen the cop they would have at least had a chance to get out of the way. But name calling? Spelling?