Wow, be careful out there fellow cyclists–it sounds like we have another maniac on the loose. Our pal Shelley and her friend were just menaced by a crazy driver who appears to have it out for people riding bicycles:
It was a black Chevy Impala with tinted windows. Rammed us from behind heading northbound on Shotwell btw 17th and 18th (right in front of the ODC building), and then executed a 3 point turn to escape. It was crazy, he came at us honking, and then shouted “I warned you!” as he drove off. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I’m just grateful the only serious damage was to Erik’s bicycle (The bike ended up under the dude’s front bumper.. totally snapped the back rim in two, crushed the right side toe clip, headset is fucked, etc.)
Luckily, they got the license plate and filed a police report, so be on the lookout for a Black Chevy Impala with license # 6PWS040.
It was almost one year ago exactly that some creep in an SUV went on a rampage and targeted 4 different cycles before eventually being caught by police, and even less than that since Yannick Linke was killed at Turk and Masonic by an allegedly drunk driver who then tried to flee the scene, so it’s clear that there’s definitely still some tension between automobiles and bicycles, even in one of the most cycle-friendly cities in the country. Be careful out there everyone!
[Photo by Troy Holden]
If you’ve got the license plate, hopefully this will be a slamdunk. I would think that the police would take this seriously; purposefully trying to run people down is generally considered a faux pas.
We should get 1000 cyclists on the steps of City Hall and demand that they look up the house where this car is registered and send a cruser over to take care of this shit before he kills someone.
does anyone know what ever became of the dude who was mowing down cyclists in the SUV? or Joshua Calder, the drunk driver who got charged with the murder of 22-year-old Yannick?
The SUV mower-downer is David Mark Clark. Last I heard, he was pleading not guilty. But that was ~1 year ago, dunno what happened since.
Apparently lawyers for Calder have been able to get multiple (4 or more) continuances for his trial.
The strategy seems to be to put enough time between the incident and his trial so that it will slip from the public consciousness.
Meanwhile he is free on bail AND driving again. Not only that but his girlfriend who aided in covering up the murder, was not even charged.
WILL THERE EVER BE JUSTICE FOR NILS LINKE.
Damn, really? Is everyone okay? I’m always on Shotwell. Up and down it, all day, everyday. Sometimes I’m a jerk and I blow the stop signs. I’m on the karma payment plan–hope that doesn’t add on to my debt.
Everyone is okay, thankfully! Just some scuffs and scrapes, jittery nerves, and one destroyed bicycle. We actually live on Shotwell, two blocks from where we were attacked, so it has made me pretty edgy. Just to clarify, this wasn’t at a stop sign either.. it was mid-block with the car bearing down on us for absolutely no reason. I am super glad there were a lot of witnesses milling around outside of the ODC dance commons.
Holy crap! I’m glad you’re all right!
Ride safe out there, everybody. Wear a helmet.
They’ve got the lic# but can’t ID or find the guy? Could they put some of the parking ticket writers on the job? Those fuckers home in on me like goddamn patriot missiles.
One would think that giving the license plate number to the police would be a “slam dunk,” but think again. This is the San Francisco Police Department we’re talking about, whose laziness and incompetence and just plain not-giving-a-damn has become legendary. Remember the murdered guy who was in a van parked in front of his house a couple of years ago? The police were interviewing his tenants who were the perps because of a missing persons report from his daughter, and a coroner’s dog was going crazy around the van. They let the perps go, towed the van and didn’t even bother looking inside for weeks until the corpse was finally found. And then they threw up their hands, saying the perps had escaped to Baja California and it was impossible to find them. Somebody in San Diego heard the story on NPR and decided to put up his own flyers in Ensenada and he found them in two weeks.
The moral of this tale being, please help get this nut off the street, but you’re going to have to go to some extraordinary lengths to get the police department to do a damned thing, license plate or not. You might want to try the California Highway Patrol.
DOOD ! BATMAN’S ON IT ! NA NA NA NA NA NANA ANNANANAN ! BATMAN !
They won’t do shit:
http://www.jwz.org/blog/2009/12/sfpd-hates-bicyclists/
U lock through the drivers side window otta do the trick next time.
A u lock is usually enough, but more than one crazed serial vehicular homicide maniac calls for a .45
Obama derangement syndrome?
there are so many cases like this where someone breaks the law and nearly kills a cyclist and the police never do anything and everyone eventually loses interest and forgets . . . instead of critical mass, cyclists should storm city hall every week until these safety issues are addressed.
I would strongly recommend the victims to get lots of lawyers, and sue this scumbag. The cops can ignore you all they want, but you can take this to civil court. You have the plate and witnesses, this needs to be pursued. Don’t let it slide, act now.
I’m glad you weren’t hurt.
I agree. The only ones who can pursue this particular case are those who were attacked. PLEASE take this dirtbag to court, let there be justice, and show everyone else out there we don’t take these things lightly. And do NOT count on SF police. My friend was hit and run by a cab, and the cops did NOTHING but waste my friend’s time. Glad you guys are OK.
WEAR HELMETS !!!
unrelated : why is this page all about “bro” ?
What model year? Description of driver? Anything else about the car? Shiny and nice or beat up and junky?
Unfortunately the reality is there are awful CRAZY people out there who get angered and want to run people down.
What we can all do as cyclists is to ride more responsibly. They must share the roads with us, so we must share the roads with them.
Signal your intentions to turn. Stop at stop signs if there are cars. Make eye contact, Use body language- give them the nod if they’ve got the go ahead or a quick wave or smile of thanks if they give you the go ahead.
Be aware!
We’ve got to look out for each other too! If you see an accident happen, stop to give assistance to your fellow cyclist and a report to police.
Cars aren’t going to disappear and neither are we, so lets try our best to create a peaceful road sharing community so asshole drivers like the one in the Chevy Impala don’t bottle up rage that they explode on the next innocent victims riding peacefully down Shotwell St or any other street!
all of that being said, I am so thankful to hear no one was hurt and I do hope the individuals seek justice on the amount of rage that was targeted upon them.
All of these things, while they may be true, have nothing to do with this case. Even if the bike-riders had been riding down the middle of the street, blowing threw stop signs and flipping off everyone they saw… None of that could ever justify running them down.
And bringing it up in the middle of a discussion of them being maliciously run down smacks of blaming-the-victim. Whether or not that is your intention, that is how it comes across.
yea this world is messed up watch your back and pray to god that it ill be good in the end,check out the depavers in arcata ca
I am so happy that the cyclist is OK. I don’t condone this behavior by any means. However, I do know that there is some valid tension between the automobiles and cyclists.
I haven’t lived here long, but I do know that although SF drivers tend to be in an odd mixture of a hurry whilst daydreaming, this isn’t the most automobile friendly town. Although the streets aren’t as whacky as say, Boston, it does become hard to distract yourself from the immediate urban flux of 4 million + peeps floating through the veins/arteries of the city.
I have respect for cyclists in this city, I tried and I prefer public transit. I may even sell my bike soon, sadly.
However, i have also noticed the fair share of bike-riding jackasses whom equally do not abide by rules and make the ebb and flow of traffic a lot worse than need be. You get no sympathy because you have a lighter ecological footprint, yet terrorize the streets with an attitude (AND WITHOUT A HELMET – COOL KID – yes…I know helmets don’t always save lives and sometimes make thing possibly worse, but come on…)
Both sides need to chill and come to an understanding.
Someone should organize a summit, as cheesy as it sounds.
Best of love and well wishes on both sides. Although, in this case, I hope the cyclist is well on all fronts and is able to enjoy the streets again with a new bike.