Bicycle or Pedestrian Accident?

After the Fatal Uber Self Driving Car pedestrian accident, Uber, and the news was telling us that the pedestrian just walked right in front of the car, no warning, and the pedestrian was not in a crosswalk.
The Police in Arizona were examining the car, and no one had seen the onboard video camera yet.
People started, “victim blaming.”
This is what Janette Sadik-Khan said, she is an inspiring ‏author of the book Streetfight and former NYCDOT Commissioner, “The first non-driver death of the autonomous age and police are already blaming the victim. “Crossing outside of the crosswalk” was never a valid excuse for traffic deaths, and it provides no cover for autonomous mobility companies.”

This is an important lesson in why you should always talk to an experienced, proven, personal injury attorney, even if you are blamed in the DMV Accident report by the responding officers. I had two pedestrian cases last year, both pedestrians were struck in a marked crosswalk. Both pedestrians had the walk sign. Both cases had the same responding police officer who, amazingly, blamed the pedestrian in both cases. In one DMV Accident report, the officer even noted that the driver admitted not seeing the pedestrian, her windshield condensation and hadn’t cleared up, it was dark, and she was turning left through the crosswalk, she didn’t even realize she had hit a person! Fortunately for my clients, there were witnesses and I was able to get both of these pedestrians substantial settlements, even though they were actually blamed.

Will news correct story that pedestrian did not just appear?
Or what about the distracted driving of this human backup driver in the cab?
You can clearly see in the before image that the driver IS NOT LOOKING AT THE RODE.

Before this fatal pedestrian accident occurred, we already knew that self driving cars were having trouble with pedestrians and bicyclists, and bike lanes!

Uber admits to self-driving car ‘problem’ in bike lanes as safety concerns mount
Engineers were working to fix programming flaw that could have deadly results for cyclists days after Uber announced it would openly defy California regulators

Uber began piloting its self-driving vehicles in its home town of San Francisco last week, despite state officials’ declaration that the ride-share company needed special permits to test its technology. On day one, numerous autonomous vehicles – which have a driver in the front seat who can take control – were caught running red lights and committing a range of traffic violations.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has released a warning about Uber’s cars based on staff members’ first-hand experiences in the vehicles. When the car was in “self-driving” mode, the coalition’s executive director, who tested the car two days before the launch, observed it twice making an “unsafe right-hook-style turn through a bike lane”.

That means the car crossed the bike path at the last minute in a manner that posed a direct threat to cyclists. The maneuver also appears to violate state law, which mandates that a right-turning car merge into the bike lane before making the turn to avoid a crash with a cyclist who is continuing forward.

Furthermore, AI are not good at identifying cyclists nor pedestrians.

The Cyclist Problem
Self-driving cars aren’t good at detecting cyclists. The latest proposed fix is a cop-out.

Autonomous cars have a potentially fatal flaw: They struggle to detect and react to cyclists on the road. According to a January 2017 report by IEEE Spectrum, bicycles are generally considered “the most difficult detection problem that autonomous vehicle systems face.”

Distracted Driving Big Problem #VisionZero

We’ve known about distracted driving dangers for many years now.  But not much is happening to improve the situation, even cell phone / texting bans for drivers. New cars continue to come to market with technology that caters to drivers talking on the phone, checking Facebook, email, and text messages.

But, this new study out last week has some shocking evidence, that 1 in 4 drivers was on a phone just before crash, study of distracted driving says.

Traffic fatalities have risen by 14 percent over the last two years, and distracted driving is a likely factor along with the improved economy and low gas prices, which have put more cars on the road, according to the National Safety Council, a nonprofit public service group. The nonprofit Governors Highway Safety Association has projected an 11 percent increase in the number of pedestrians killed in 2016 compared with 2015, and also cited smartphone distraction.

Our roads are getting more dangerous for pedestrians, and bicycle riders.

About the time we all first started hearing the term distracted driving, we were enjoying safer streets for bicycle riders and pedestrians. That trend is over and the rising stats are alarming. Some states are increasing fines. Enforcement is still challenging and under enforced either because of challenges, under-staffed. Some bicycle and pedestrian folks think walking and cycling police enforcement is the way to catch distracted drivers.

Watch out for drivers using their phones. We know that distracted driving is a fairly dominant reason people have a crash, but we can’t always get away from them especially when they are all over our roads.

405 Freeway signs honor retired police Chief Mitch Waller, killed 3 years ago by a distracted driver

405 Freeway signs honor retired police Chief Mitch Waller, killed 3 years ago by a distracted driver
LA Times
4/9/16

Riding his bicycle with a partner toward the end of a typical Friday morning 50-miler on Highway 133 toward Laguna Beach, Waller and his friend Kevin Beach were plowed from behind by a wayward Toyota sedan. […] The government statistics show that 10% of all fatal crashes, 18% of injury crashes and 16% of all police-reported motor vehicle crashes in 2013 were attributed to distracted driving.

Bruce Jenner must release cellphone records; driver killed had no license

Bruce Jenner must release cellphone records; driver killed had no license

LA Times
2/9/15

[…] Investigators plan to visit Bruce Jenner on Monday to seek cellphone records in connection with Saturday’s deadly chain-reaction crash on Pacific Coast Highway. […] Paparazzi were following Jenner, but Brooks said it didn’t appear Jenner was trying to outrun them. […]

Van driver hands himself in to police after cyclist attack video goes viral (video)

Van driver hands himself in to police after cyclist attack video goes viral (video)

Cycling Weekly UK
January 16, 2015

[…] The rider shouted at the van driver to get off his mobile phone and was then knocked off his bike as the van drove closer to the kerb. The driver then exited the vehicle and a scuffle broke out, resulting in the cyclist being punched to the ground. […]