As an evening driver, although always sober, I almost crawl in our neighborhood because people do not weal light-reflecting clothes. This is a reminder for everyone, please, wear something that would reflect light in the night.
I AM ANGRY. And I accept that some anger may be directed this way for what I - a cyclist for fitness and occasional competition over 4+ decades here and overseas - offer our readership:
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- That NJ County Road was no place to go cycling.
[Please search for some daylight photos on a maps site; check your "robot" pedestrian vantages,
North and South]
- It is straight as a die, passing permitted (broken yellow), unpaved beyond its white sidelines, w/ a NJ county road speed limit of fifty mph. Meaning - pardon me - that in practice a mile-a-minute will be more like it; and when attempting a permissible overtaking will be in excess of that; and
if a multiple overtaking, 70+mph should not surprise many of us;
- Once committed apparently as here, should the overtaker see
on-coming headlights - the closing distance from which cannot be remotely estimated - you are in the proverbial kettle of fish. NB. This obtains with a sober, undistracted operator.
- Reportedly, "Vehicle @ #2",
supra,. swerves in front of you at this critical moment.
[Asides: Could
this vehicle have not seen the two single-file cyclists in time himself? ; any bicycle
red taillights?, or bicycle
reflectors...more likely, but not effective unless this vehicle has his headlights on?
Unlikely we'll ever know from a public record...] Thus, we arrive at an unavertable, precipitous swerve...?
- Triggering a reflexive swerve, in the opposite direction, by the overtaking vehicle,
- and, in a consequential instant: undefinable tragedy.
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This pulls at my heart, sickeningly so, because it shouts,
Wrong Place/Wrong Time.
Horribly and tandemly so: At the fatal scene and most sorrowfully at its periphery of loved ones.
''Judge Michael Silvanio rescheduled the case for Sept. 13, when attorneys will present the judge with additional documentation related to whether Higgins should remain in jail. New Jersey does not use a cash bail system like the system used in Ohio.''
