Information Please: The Dangers of Keeping Details from the Public in Accident Scenes

[XLFD]

I might not be as objective as I normally am on this story, because a person I know fairly well just got killed earlier this afternoon as the bicyclist in a car-bike accident and that information is artificially being kept from me and the rest of the public. 

Worse, family members expecting that it was him couldn't get any information cleanly from the investigating agency, the Mason County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) or central dispatch.  Instead, despite the local highway being totally closed down between Brye and Decker Roads (causing an incredible logjam of vehicles using detours), they needed to travel to the scene, which is exactly what I had to do once I received a frantic phone call from his out-of-town daughter expecting the worst and wanting answers to find out whether it was him or not.

After I got the call, I checked to see whether any of the local news sources had anything about it on-line, this was at approximately 1:30 PM, about 45 minutes after the emergency units responded.  The Mason County Press had the basics, a crash occurred, one of the units was on a bicycle.  Nothing specific.  The Ludington Daily News had this to report:

 

The man that died would have been carrying his wallet with him, so identifying him was likely not a problem.  The gender would be fairly obvious, the age and address would have been on several forms of ID.  Sheriff Cole would tell us he died instantly but couldn't give out anything at all on the decedent's characteristics so that many families and visitors around the area had to worry about whether it might have been their brother riding to his work, their daughter going to Meijer's, their friend who might cross the highway at that location, etc.   

This would lead, and did lead, to all kinds of people travelling to the accident scene area, making things worse for all, and trying to get the info the sheriff was intentionally holding close to their chest even though they knew it.

Not releasing the name is fine until they notify the immediate family, but it creates a lot of needless anxiety and tension in friends and families of bicyclists who may be concerned because they knew their girlfriend rode her bike to and from working at Applebees.  Hearing "An 81-year-old Scottville man died..." alleviates that worry almost across the board and makes a lot less information-gathering traffic and frantic phone calls to 911.  

At around 2:00 PM the family finally was able to verify the bad news, and seriously, once one part of this specific family has news like this, the whole family knows of it within ten minutes.  At 3:00 PM, the MCP finally revealsthat it was an 81 year old man explaining:

"the man was riding his adult tricycle westbound on the curb of the highway when apparently the bike left the curb. He was then struck by the tire of a westbound semi-truck, owned by Vesco Oil Corp. of Grand Rapids."

This was further explained in the Ludington Daily News article put out just after 3 PM, which still leaves off any information on the bicyclist, it has made me incredibly upset in describing what killed my friend:  

"We had an individual on a pedal bicycle, and when he came off the paved shoulder of the road (U.S. 10) he hit the curbing, and it pitched him up and into the side of the truck,” Cole said. “He was killed instantly.”

Cole said the truck was not speeding, and that it was actually slowing down at the time of the crash to make the turn, into the auto center.  “The truck driver is compliant and has been cooperative with everything so far, but as of right now speed or alcohol are not believed to be a factor.”

I will presume the semi did not actually turn in front of my friend and cause the accident (as shown above), for the most dangerous drivers are those who pass bicyclists just to make a right turn in front of them.  In my many years of hardcore bicycling, that happened at least a couple of times a year. a couple of times they almost immediately stopped to look at their curbside mailbox and got an earful from me after I wore down my brake pads.  At this scene, it looked as if the semi had not turned into Urka's yet, it was at the side of the highway still.

Instead I will presume what everybody should already know, that the curbs, lack of curb cuts and uneven ground along that highway are a hazard that seems to have caused this accident.  I invite every member of MDOT and the road commission to try and ride a bike, let alone an adult tricycle along these shoulders to find out what you should already know: it's beyond dangerous.  The semi had pulled up and because of the incongruent configuration you see above, my friend had to be worried that it might pull in front of him, and fell over into the side of the truck.  

You know, had I been the truck driver ready to make that turn and seeing a bicyclist in front of me, I would have allowed him the space he needed up until he got past the driveway.  I would have similarly noticed I could not give him at least 3 feet clearance up to that point, it's the law for passing bicycles in Michigan, and I would have kept behind him for that reason too.  If he does fall over, or needs to go temporarily on the road because of the poorly planned infrastructure, he has those options.

At 4:40 PM the sheriff's office gave the COLDNews an update with a corrected age of 51, but they were right the first time.   What a couple of clown outfits, that in three hours after the family has been informed, the rest of the public knows nothing of who actually died and has been given conflicting ages with a 30 year difference courtesy of the local news and law enforcement.

The bicyclist was Richard Swiger, 81, pictured at the front of this article, a local for most all of his life, who made a career working on the car ferry and other sea-faring vessels, a person I considered a second father who could spin yarns and who loved westerns.  This last winter, we sat through a few marathons of Have Gun Will Travel.  His dream was to get an adult tricycle because he wasn't able to drive anymore.  He got a fancy blue and white one this spring.  It was still in ridable shape this afternoon.  He, sadly, was not. 

If we are to 'fix the roads' let's at least work on creating better facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians along state highways.

[XLFD]

There's a big difference between a powered tricycle and one that is human powered and going 5-8 mph.  Tricycles are used by older adults due to their built in stability over that of the bicycle so that they don't tip over, but I will cede that having one wheel in front and two in the rear decreases lateral stability when cornering while braking.  And that's where I'm having a problem with physics.  There was no reason for him to be turning north sharply, no real reason for him to be braking strongly, but even if he did both while originally traveling west, his fall 'vector' should not be toward the highway but obliquely and favoring towards the shoulder.  

It's gruesome speculation that I don't like considering absent all the facts, which is hard to determine when the story keeps changing and new problems come up for those changes.