Cyclist Dies, Investigation Stalls
This past Friday, a cyclist was riding on Santa Anita Avenue in El Monte, only to die under the wheels of a Foothill Transit Bus.
The incident received a small amount of coverage in the LA Times and the San Gabriel ValleyTribune, just enough bad coverage to cause a few members of the cycling community to give a collective WTF?
The LA Times quoted El Monte Police Lt. States as saying "He (the cyclist) was not in the crosswalk and was pronounced dead at the scene."
This quote sent up the first red flag. Why would a cyclist be in the crosswalk? Are cyclists simply rolling pedestrians in the mind of this Police Lt.? In addition, there was no crosswalk at the scene of the incident. In fact there was no intersection.
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune quoted El Monte Police Lt. Fatner as saying "It looks like the guy just wasn't paying attention."
A cyclist stands on the median strip of a wide street, pauses for traffic and somehow makes it to the #3 lane before finding himself under a bus and the Police determine that the cyclist wasn't paying attention. What was the bus operator thinking about? Did anyone think to ask if the bus operator was paying attention?
According to both Lt. States and Lt. Fatner, a review of the video from the onboard bus camera indicates that the cyclist was in the median strip of Santa Anita Avenue, that he paused as a car passed and that he then began riding, either attempting to cross Santa Anita or riding NE on Santa Anita, when he was hit by the bus as it traveled N in the #3 lane.
Hmmm! This sounds like a bus overtaking a cyclist as the cyclist rode NE bound, merging across 3 lanes of a wide street. If not, how does a cyclist ride directly into the side of a bus as it passes and then get under it?
Lt. States, who didn't witness the incident and indicated that the video did not have any footage of the actual collision, somehow concluded that "the biker was at fault." She went further to explain that the man on the bike was not a "real cyclist" as evidenced by his lack of appropriate "cycling gear."
Attempts today to clarify with the officers in charge of the investigation raised the biggest question of the day; Who's got the video?
More than four days after the cyclist's death, Officer Metoyer of the El Monte Police acknowledges that he still hasn't seen the video, after all, it is not in the possession of the Police Department and it will not be in the possession of the Police Department until it is released by Foothill Transit which will apparently take a court order.
All of which begs the question, does one have to be a "real" cyclist in order to get a "real" police investigation?!