Johnny Gaudreau, brother Matthew dead

There's an educational aspect of this. The cyclists you see going against traffic or on the sidewalk are probably on pawn shop bikes (or if you live in a big city, messengers). The roadies in lycra - like these brothers - aren't doing that sort of thing. As for blowing through stop signs, the Idaho stop is the most effective way for cyclists to stay out of drivers' way at intersections. It allows them to treat stop signs as yield signs (and red lights as stop signs), but ONLY if there is no traffic.

I put about 2,000 miles per year on my bike - most of that in town. I put way more than that on my Jeep. I can assure you, the number of drivers at fault and not following traffic laws dwarfs the number of cyclists (myself included) doing so.

 

There's a difference between blowing through stop signs and treating them as yield signs -- the Idaho Stop as Inky noted. I ride a lot in the city and there are a ton of four-way stops. I always slow when approaching but rarely fully stop, unless I can see a car pulling up to stop on a cross street. Red lights are a full stop and scan, and if you can safely cross, do so.

Also, if you're road biking, you should actually ride toward the middle of the lane, rather than the shoulder, because it helps with visibility and forces a car to swing well around you. If you hug the shoulder, the car might just try to squeeze by, and that's when you can get clipped. In Virginia, a new law was enacted that says drivers must move fully into the other lane to pass a cyclist. Not everyone does it, but if you force the car to give you a wider berth, it's a positive.

That wouldn't have helped the Gaudreaus, unfortunately, since it was a drunk asshole making a dumb ass maneuver.

 

Watching Johnny Gaudreau at BC was about as much fun as you could have watching hockey

 

The alleged drunk driver who fatally plowed into NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his younger brother as they were biking in southern New Jersey Thursday night appeared to sigh with exasperation when he learned he would be held in jail through next week.

Sean Higgins, 43 — who is charged in the deaths of Gaudreau, 31, and his younger brother Matthew, 29 — made his first appearance Friday afternoon in Salem County Court, where he was ordered to be heid behind bars until his next detention hearing on Sept. 5.

“So…I’m here until Thursday?” Higgins asked Judge Michael J. Silvanio at one point during the proceedings.

When the judge explained that the usual 72-hour holding period was extended due to the holiday weekend, Higgins sat back in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.

https://nypost.com/2024/08/30/sport...as-hes-ordered-held-another-week-behind-bars/

 

Deep sympathy to the family. The more you read, it is heartbreaking.
Aaron Portzline had some interviews today and did well, but one can tell he's hurting too.
As far as the Blue Jackets franchise, if it didn't have bad luck it wouldn't have any.

 

Unimaginably awful and senseless. In this age, it's so easy to avoid drunk driving. Yet this happens, and happens every day everywhere.

What was the last time anything like this happened, with an active athlete dying in his prime? First one that comes to mind for me is Jose Fernandez.

 

First… horrible tragedy. RIP

The rights of bike riders on public roads is one of the top social media lightening rods.

I understand that all roads should be shared, but where I live, you would be crazy to bike ride on certain roads that many riders ride.

It would be nice if paved bike loops were created in all state parks that all cars were banned on these loops.

I just don’t see an end to this while we still have humans operating vehicles. Maybe driverless vehicles prevents this?

 

The safety on our roads is truly an epidemic. As many people are injured or killed in crashes involving motor vehicles as guns. It's due to a combination of factors, drunk driving, canabis legalization, big electric screens in the middle of the dashboard, phones, the list goes on. It's a sad day all around, but unfortunately, it happens every day. I'll leave this chart here, comparing the safety of American roads to roads in Russia.

 

Dude fuck that guy. Two are dead because you did something so fucking idiotic. Sit in jail and rot.

 

So say we all.

 

A co-worker of mine was supposed to go to the wedding. There are no words for this. I am familiar with that stretch of road and Salem county is probably the most rural county in the state. Many people treat these back roads like the Autobahn.