BikePortland.org reports that Lt. Mark Kruger has been transferred and promoted. Lt. Kruger will soon be the captain in charge of the Drug and Vice division, a position for which he is probably better suited. I had previously voiced my disapproval of Kruger’s capacity to enforce bike lane laws here, here, here and here.
Right Hook Again?!?!?
Unbelievably, it happened at the same intersection where Brett Jarolimek was killed two weeks ago. It hasn’t even been a month since Tracey Sparling was killed by the right hook. No action has been taken to hold any of these motorists accountable for their illegal actions. There’s no excuse for this. How many people must be killed and injured before Mark Kruger starts enforcing the law? What ever happened to “protect and serve”? Does it not apply to cyclists?
Update: The Oregonian has the story on their blog. Here’s the money quote (with my emphasis):
“Doyle was taken to an area hospital but she was not seriously hurt. Police do not routinely investigate accidents in which no one was seriously injured. No citations have been issued.“
Lt. Mark Kruger doesn’t like cyclists
As I mentioned earlier (here and here), I’m not sure that Lt. Mark Kruger is the right person to be in charge of the Portland Police Departments Traffic Division. After reading this article from BikePortland.org, I’m further convinced that the Mayor should get someone else for the job.
After BikePortland initially reported on Bob Verrinder’s collision with a car on Marine Drive a few weeks ago, I thought Verrinder had probably made an error in judgement. Now we find out that Verrinder was crossing Marine Drive when a pedestrian was in the crosswalk and the yellow crossing light was blinking. Prior to this report, the media reported only that Verrinder had crossed Marine Drive without stopping. The Portland Police Department withheld these recently uncovered facts from earlier reports to the media. Why? It is increasingly obvious to me that Lt. Mark Kruger, who heads the Traffic Division, has a serious anti-cycling bias and seeks to exonerate any drivers who collide with bicyclists. It’s no wonder that motorists believe that cyclists are at fault when, in fact, cyclists have the right of way – Kruger’s statements and manipulation of the media reinforce all of their misconceptions.
More Kruger detractors
It seems I’m not the only one whose ire is up because of Lt. Mark Kruger. Jonathan Maus over at BikePortland.org has a terrific article today about the situation including an opinion with popular Portland “bike lawyer” Mark Ginsberg.
The Oregonian also reported today that the driver has 25 speeding convictions and has even lost his license once before. Lt. Kruger maintains that this has no bearing whatsoever on the current case. Oh, and the driver wasn’t available for comment because he was preparing for another long shift. Yes, he will be on the road again soon!
In the meantime, Portland City Commisioner Sam Adams has called an emergency meeting to discuss the matter with relevant parties including representatives from the trucking community, bike community, law enforcement and transportation agencies. I hope he has the ear of the mayor and someone realizes that Lt. Kruger is unable to perform his duties with respect to cyclists.
Deadly right hook again
It happened again. Another truck driver turned right at an intersection and killed a bicyclist in the bike lane. Once again, Portland Police Lt. Mark Kruger is making excuses for drivers and blaming victims. The Oregonian reports Kruger said “that solving the problem requires more than just faulting drivers.” How about we start with faulting drivers who have broken the law and killed someone due to their negligence?
Here’s what Kruger said to The Oregonian after Tracey Sparling was killed by the right hook:
“Bicyclists expect and are trained by activists groups that when you’ve got the bike lane, you can do what you want to do,” he said. “We have a lot of these collisions that don’t end in fatalities, but they are stubborn to the point that they won’t give up ground for the sake of safety.”
Does this sound like a man who is enforcing the law that protects cyclists? He is not and he wants to further erode cyclists’ rights by passing a law giving motor vehicles the right to drive in the bike lane prior to making a right turn. If passed cyclists would not only have to deal with the right hook from stopped traffic, cyclists would also have to deal with a moving right hook.
I see bike lane violations nearly every single day that I ride my bike. I would be extremely interested to see statistics on the number of citations the Portland Police Department has issued because I suspect that it is extremely low. Timothy S. Wiles, the driver in the Tracey Sparling case, has yet to be charged or even cited the $242 fine for failing to yield to a cyclist. According to all reports this is because Sparling was in the Wiles’ “blind spot.”
A couple of years ago we took some out-of-town friends to Hooters. We ordered the world famous hot wings. When they arrived we were shocked to find that they had what looked like many small hairs sticking out of them. When we told the waitress, she got the manager who told us, “Oh, don’t worry. Those are just feathers.” As if hairs were bad but feathers were good. I suppose some people would accept such an excuse but we haven’t been back to Hooters since.
Kruger sounds like that Hooters manager here: “Yes, an innocent biker was killed as the result of a truck driver not obeying the law, but it’s not what you think. It wasn’t the driver’s fault because he couldn’t see Sparling.” Well, Lt. Kruger, if that’s the case then the driver should be cited for negligence for driving a vehicle which impairs his ability to obey the law. The burden is not on the cyclist here – the law makes that completely clear. The burden is on the driver. If he fails to meet that burden, for whatever reason, he is in violation of the law and should be prosecuted. Find the best trucking company in Kansas City, you will be satisfied with the service. If you are looking for quality towing services check out Jim’s Bensalem Towing, this is a great company if you need towing in Bensalem.
As long as Lt. Kruger doesn’t see this as a crime, truck drivers will continue to run cyclists over with no fear of punishment. No awareness campaign can be mounted for truck drivers and no remedies can be put in place with respect to poorly equipped trucks.