Rick C Johnson

Bob opens this weeks column with this:

> Dear Readers;
>
> It's been a beautiful autumn here lately; blue skies, sunny days, the
> leaves turning beautiful hues of yellow, orange, and red before falling.
>
> The leaves haven't been alone in falling this autumn. In the past few
> weeks, we've lost too many cyclists to collisions with motorists. For
> example, there was *Linda Cleapor
> *,
> who collided with the rear of a truck on September 12 while on her
> morning commute. No charges were filed. A week later, *Lloyd Clarke
> *,
> was out for a ride on September 20 in Incline Village, Nevada, when a
> truck coming from the opposite direction turned left across his right
> of way and killed him. No charges were filed. October proved even more
> deadly for cyclists. On October 11, 19 year old cyclist and art
> student *Tracey Sparling
> *,
> was in the bike lane in Portland, Oregon, waiting for the light to
> change. When the light changed, the cement truck to her left turned
> across her right of way, killing her before she had even started under
> way. No charges were filed. A few days later, on October 16, cyclist
> *Jose Barranco
> *
> was killed in Dana Point, California, when a drunk driver lost control
> of her vehicle and hit him on the sidewalk, where he was riding home
> from work. Three days later, on October 19, cyclist *Sarah Howard
> * was in the bike
> lane in Meridian, Idaho, waiting for the light to change, when a
> driver lost control of her vehicle and careened into Sarah, killing
> her. On October 21, cyclists *Lee Anne Barry
> * and Tom Hoskins were
> hit by an SUV in Lancaster County, South Carolina, while riding to
> raise awareness of brain injuries. Tom survived, Lee Anne did not. On
> October 22, a mere eleven days after Tracey Sparling's death,
> Portland, Oregon was again stunned when cyclist *Brett Jarolimek
> *
> was killed by a garbage truck that turned right, across his right of
> way. Again, no charges were filed.
>
> I will be offering my thoughts on these incidents in a later column. I
> will also be discussing the two recent Portland fatalities in a guest
> column for Portland cyclist and web journalist Jonathan Maus' site *
> Bike Portland *; that column should be
> published at the same time this column is published. For now, I would
> like to offer my condolences to the friends and families of these
> fallen cyclists, taken from us unjustly, and too soon. And for all of
> my readers, I would urge you to be particularly careful to observe
> both the law and safe cycling practices when you ride, first and
> foremost to prevent becoming another sobering reminder yourself, and
> to safeguard your rights if luck is not on your side.
>

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