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                                Bike Accident
	

On 5/17/2007 (notice it was  Bike To Work Day 2007 ),  while  coming  back  from
work, I was hit by a car entering a driveway, while I was  riding  in  the  bike
lane on Wolfe Rd (Northbound).


                                   Statement

I was going EB on  Old  San  Francisco  Rd,  the  car  was  going  WB.   At  the
intersection, the car made a right, I made a left. After that we were both going
NB on Wolfe Rd. The car was going very slowly, I was going full speed. The car
was a bit ahead of me, but I was going faster (around 25 MPH). I was in the bike
lane, the car was in the right lane.  When I reached its right front wheel,  the
car suddenly made a right turn to go in a driveway.  The car had no flasher  on,
and cut right through the bike lane.  The right front wheel of  the  car  rolled
over my front wheel, stopping my bike right in its track, and I went  flying  on
the sidewalk. My bike went under the car but was stuck under the front wheel so
it was dragged on the pavement a bit before the car came to a complete stop. My
bike left a lot of aluminum on the road...  The front wheel was  badly  damaged,
but also the fork and the handlebar, plus all the damages I cannot see.

So basically, the driver of the car  turned  without  checking  around,  without
putting her flashers.  She cut right through the bike lane  instead  of  merging
into it before making its turn. 

Besides, she was wearing a  huge  black visor  on her  face  so  I  am  sure  she
couldn't have seen me coming anyway.


                                    The Law
      
So, what does the law say about bike lanes ? Well, it depends on the county you
live in. For Santa Clara county, the rule is pretty clear:

   |  Sec. B5-6.5. Vehicle on bicycle lane.
   |  
   |  No person shall drive a vehicle upon or across a bicycle  lane  except  to
   |  enter a driveway and except to park such vehicle or leave a parking space.
   |  No person shall drive upon or across a bicycle lane as permitted  by  this
   |  section except after giving the right-of-way to all  bicycles  within  the
   |  lane.
   |  
   |  (Ord. No. NS-1004.106, § 1, 2-1-72)

Full link to the  law .

                                   Pictures

The two pictures below are screenshots from  Google  Earth .   The  first  image
shows Wolfe and Old San Francisco. The small line is a mark to identify the bike
lane where I was riding when the car hit me, trying to get into the driveway  at
the end of the line.

The second image is a zoom of the corner of Wolfe and Old  San  Francisco,  with
the same line as above, and its  approximate  length  shown.   The  driveway  is
27m after the corner.

Below are "ground" pictures of the corner, and the driveway  where  I  was  hit.
View from the corner of the street, you can clearly see the "Bike Lane":

View from the driveway:

Use the links below to navigate and find out the various damage I report:

 Bike/Bike_Accident       Bike/Front_Wheel       Bike/Fork       Bike/Handlebar 
 Bike/Rear_Derailleur     Bike/Right_Shifter     Bike/Helmet     Bike/Misc 

All the pictures are available in full resolution, in a zip file,  here .

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2007/10/12                                      Debian / W3C / vim / PHP powered