Before anyone starts screaming that a bicyclist caused an accident at Merchant and Richards today, let me set the recored straight:

 

I was the cyclist involved, in case you didnt know yet.

 

While doing my rounds for Crosstown Couriers, I rode down Merchant Street in order to get to the Richards Street intersection so I could turn down Richards to get to a client's office to make a pick-up.

 

I passed by a gold SUV, on its righthand side and made my turn. I was riding in the parking lane on the far right side. The portion of this lane outside the golf shop is a No Parking zone, though you will often see vehicles parked there for assorted reasons. People going to the golf shop, the Post Office, etc. Basically, people park there, do a quick errand and then leave. After the No Parking zone, there is on-street parking available.

 

After making the turn, I saw the SUV in my peripheral vision and glanced over my left shoulder to see it coming right at me. My thought was "The driver wants to park in front of the golf shop." So, I kept moving, though a little faster, so the SUV could park and not hit me. I manuevered to get to the left side of a parked car, so I could pass it and keep going.

 

Remember: I am still riding in the parking lane, not in the open road.

 

I could feel the heat from the SUV on my back - a combination of the sun reflecting off the car and the heat of its engine - so I knew the car was very close to me, perhaps 6 inches to a foot off my back tire.

 

As I was about to pass the parked car, I heard a loud crash behind me. The SUV had jumped the curb, knocked-down a bike rack and several newspaper stands, slammed into the brick wall of the golf shop and come to a halt. The driver's door was jammed shut, since the SUV had come to a halt right next to a street sign.

 

The SUV was at a right angle to the golf shops Richards Street wall. Inside the golf shop, three racks filled with golf clubs came flying, luckily no one inside the shop was injured by these projectiles. The brick wall was cracked, however.

 

For the SUV to have come to a rest at such an angle would have required the vehicle to have turned 180 degrees, now facing the opposite direction from which it exited Merchant Street.

 

Until the driver turned toward me, I was never in the SUV's path. She did not have to turn to avoid me, as I was never in front of her.

 

What I think happened was: the woman exited Merchant and hit the gas. She pulled the steering wheel too far to the right and sent the SUV in a 180 degree turn and into the wall. Going too fast, she could not stop in time to prevent the accident and there were no skid marks in the path of her vehicle. The golf shop owner is certain, due to the angle that she hit his wall, that the driver had, instead, exited the parking lot fronting the Post Office, made the illegal turn and lost control of her SUV, perhaps accidentally hitting the gas instead of the brake. Despite me telling him that she had made the legal turn from Merchant, he seemed unconvinced. The owner of the golf shop is not mad at me or holding me responsible for the accident in any way.

 

The driver told HPD that she had swerved to avoid me, but that is impossible. I had passed her on the right and was riding in the parking lane and was approaching a parked car from behind. For her to require swerving to avoid me, I would have to have crossed her path from the left and she would have been on my righthand side. But, she never was. From the turn, until I saw her coming toward over my left shoulder, she was always always on my left.

 

That is what happened from where I saw it.

 

DUANE