Distracted to Death

[XLFD]

Accidents happen, people die.  Yet some accidents do not need to happen, some people do not need to die.  If just one of those involved was paying a little more attention to the serious responsibility of operating a several ton machine hurtling down a street, lives could be spared every day.  Each distracted missile fully capable of snuffing out vulnerable users of the roads on bicycles, motorcycles and afoot.  

Yesterday was a very sad day in Kent County.  An accident where a bike path and a terminating road converge had a truck hitting and killing a 6 year old boy riding his bicycle with his dad.  Such a tragedy just a few days before Fathers Day.  The article below is the original one from FOX 17, I have included a map (from Google, it may not reflect changes made since) showing the path and direction of turning of the truck in red, the path of the bicyclists in yellow.  Utilize the article and the picture to figure out what happened.

CASCADE TOWNSHIP, FOX 17. — A 6-year-old died Thursday after being hit by a pickup truck while riding his bike in Kent County.
It happened around 6:10 p.m. near the intersection of Laraway Lake Drive and Cascade Road.

Authorities said the boy and his father started to cross Laraway Lake Drive when the boy was hit by a truck turning west onto Cascade Road.
Drugs and alcohol aren’t believed to be factors in the crash. The boy was wearing a helmet.
Roads in the immediate area were closed while crews worked to clear the scene.

Six year-olds don't travel too fast on their bicycles, there is a fair amount of visibility going either way up the bicycle paths, the truck is effectively coming to an intersection that has a cut back, so that he will turn at a 120 degree angle  rather than 90.  No problems related to the weather, no sun on the horizon for this driver going south.  There even happens to be a sign just before the bicycle path that says "Stop here for red" and points before the 'crosswalk', to protect the bicycle riders who have pedestrian crossing signals on either side.

If the trucks light was 'red' he should have not been past the 'crosswalk', if it was green and for some reason and the bicyclists were crossing anyway, then he should have had plenty of time to see them while in the process of decelerating to make the sharp turn.  Either way it seems, he wasn't paying enough attention to the roadway. 

And with today's even more heartbreaking news, it seems highly unlikely that the father and son were crossing during a green light.  For Ryan Marsman, the young boy killed, was riding with his father who is a Cascade Township firefighter, and according to deputies they both stopped and proceeded at this road intersection, while the 22 year old Ottawa County driver apparently didn't on his part.  Must have been a difficult scene for the fire-rescue responders to deal with.

Ryan will not only miss Father's Day but his 7th birthday by five days, due to a distracted driving incident that should not have happened.  A GoFundMe account has been set up to help defray the medical and funeral expenses for Ryan, they have already exceeded their goal of $10,000.

[stump]

   Well it's not always in another state or county. Today as i was traveling west on Haight st. coming up to the stop sign on Rath I noticed a car going south on Rath quite fast, I said to myself ,wonder what his problem is  going so fast in a residential area . As I was stopping for the stop sign I notice 3 bicyclist coming east on Haight st. A father in the lead. then a small maybe 6-7 year old and then the mother.  The father glances both ways and continues into the intersection with out stopping for the stop sign. As he is in the intersection he notices he made a big mistake as a pickup truck was coming, He glances back at his family and continues to peddle through. Now the kid is in the trucks path, he never looked either way , just peddled right out there following dad. Mom was about 10 feet behind the kid, the pickup stopped and mom just kept peddling through but she did show a sign of appreciation as she waved to the pickup driver.   So much for bicycle safety. I do know that it wouldn't have been the pickup drivers fault if he would have hit any of the bicyclist. But he would have had to live with it.