Edhat StaffBy edhat staff
A bicyclist sustained major injuries following a vehicle collision on Highway 154 Saturday evening.
At 7:40 p.m., Santa Barbara County firefighters responded to the scene two miles east of Lake Cachuma.
A female bicyclist with critical injuries was taken by a ground ambulance to the Lake entrance where a Calstar helicopter then transported her to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
The cause of the collision is under investigation.
This is a developing story.
No cyclist who is serious about safety rides the 154, 101, and most all of the 192. Some of the younger inexperienced riders insist on riding their bikes on these highways, but certainly learn their lesson(s) quickly, and realize it simply isn’t worth it to expect drivers to be looking after your safety. When I was a teen, I had no problem at all riding on these highways. Back then, drivers (for the most part) were simply driving….not texting, not watching movies, not gabbing away on the phone, or otherwise distracted nine ways from Sam. My advice to cyclists is to watch out for yourself and simply follow the basic rules of the road. I had to pull over for a moment at the base of Ortega Hill for a few minutes about a month ago and saw no less than a dozen or so cyclists blow through the Stop, and another group that decided not to take the path to Summerland and ride two/three wide up the hill. Drivers are going to continue to get worse and worse, so ride at your own risk, but for goodness sakes, follow the rules correctly or suffer the consequences (sadly, I don’t think some of you will follow my advice….”You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it obey the simple rules of the road”).
You’re right, …there should be equally severe penalties for entitled bicyclists that ride 3 and 4 wide side-by-side, run stop signs and traffic signals, and hold up traffic unjustifiably! There is a reason cliches are cliches. Bicyclists acting like jerks is a cliche! Bicyclists in general treat drivers with disdain and disrespect. I’m not saying that anyone deserves to get mowed down by a car, but bicyclists need to take responsibility for the havoc they create. The responsible majority need to reel in the behavior of the few bad actors. Police your own.
It says “share” the road!, …not “surrender” it.
And no, I’m not anti-bicyclist, …I raced bicycles for years until an accident put an end to it!
You missed the point of the comment you’re replying to and went off a tangent about your silly generalized opinion about bicyclists.
Cyclists ride side by side to hold more space in the road to increase visibility. While it is annoying to drivers, it is much safer to ride this way and prevents accidents like this from happening. Since bikes are technically a vehicle it is also completely within their right to do so. It is also now legal for bikes to roll stop signs when safe. Stop lights still need to be respected, so I get your frustration there.
Bikes don’t create this havoc you speak of. It’s drivers like yourself who have a bias toward all bikers that create a dangerous sense of entitlement on the road. I’m not saying bikers don’t act like jerks sometimes, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Stuff like this happens way to often and will continue to happen if drivers can’t slow down for 10 seconds to be safe.
I rode a Vespa for over a decade, and the best advice I ever got about intersections was: “Eye contact means nothing. They are not thinking about you, they may not see you. Look at the wheels. If they are still turning, they are still coming to kill you.”
Sad whenever someone is hurt in an accident.
As for bicyclists sharing the road. They also need to share the cost. Start taxing bicycles since they have been given more and more of traditional vehicle lanes.