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Channing Avenue in Palo Alto was closed for several hours Saturday morning when a 10-year-old girl reportedly swerved out of a bike lane and collided with a passing minivan.
Palo Alto police Agent Dan Ryan said the girl suffered facial injuries and is expected to recover fully. She was wearing a bicycle helmet, Ryan said.
Ryan said the street was closed because the accident initially appeared to be more serious than it turned out to be.
The girl was riding with her father and a sibling when the collision occurred about 9:20 a.m.
Ryan said the incident is under investigation by the department’s accident-reconstruction team.
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
— Palo Alto Weekly staff
Bravo on the helmet! Feel better kid.
Does “collided with a passing minivan” mean that the girl ran into the minivan? Or was the girl hit by the minivan?
My condolences to the victim, and anyone involved in a crash, it is a charged experience that is very upsetting for anyone.
I live in the area near Channing, and in the area bounded by Channing and University all the way down to the freeway people seem to regularly avoid coming to a complete stop at lights or stop signs. I don’t know so much about other areas, but I imagine it is the same, but this is getting to be chronic. Maybe they feel there is no traffic or no police – maybe we need more patrols here. Not to harass people or give out as many tickets as possible but to remind people that they need to be thoughtful and deliberate when they are driving here because lots of people are biking, especially kids.
Greg, read the FIRST paragraph. …”veered out into”. And let’s not start condemning the driver. Read the first paragraph and let it be.
Kate, read the FIRST paragraph. It says “reportedly swerved”. Who reported it? Drivers will almost always claim that, especially when they are trying to pass to closely. Many states have a law requiring drivers to leave at least 3 feet of clearance when passing a bicyclist which leaves margin for bicyclists to dodge debris, road defects, etc. without a collision. California’s section 21750 says that drivers “shall pass to the left at a safe distance without interfering with the safe operation of the overtaken vehicle or bicycle”. How far from the bicyclist was the car as it approached? That is the key question.
Bru,
Hope your admonition about running stop signs also applies to bicyclists. Please clarify.
Kate and Donald,
As the article says, “the incident is under investigation by the department’s accident-reconstruction team.” Lets hope that investigation is completed quickly and it’s findings published.
I came close to hitting a child on a bike yesterday. I was driving on a street with a bike lane and the child was biking behind her mother, both traveling the wrong direction, when the child abruptly swerved out of her lane and into my path just as I was passing. Fortunately there were no other cars and I was able to drive on the wrong side of the street to avoid hitting her, but it was scary for me and my son (about the same age as this girl).
This is not the first time I’ve observed this; a lot of young children don’t seem to understand how they are supposed to bike. And I don’t understand why parents don’t ride behind their kids — how else can they see if the kids are doing anything dangerous?
The girl rode into the side of the auto. She is expected to fully recover.
I agree with “not always the cars fault” in that parents should ride behind their children so they can observe their riding ability so they can assist them in practicing safe bicycle riding, and in a worst case scenario ride interference or warn traffic approaching from behind, if they see their child begin to veer into the traffic lane.
All parents should pay special attention to the fact that this child was WEARING a bike helmet, which I’m sure after the collision is examined ultimately saved her life!
Quite often I see kids riding w/out helmets or with their helmets hanging from their handlebars. It’s up to us parents to emphasize the importance of wearing a helmet. Not only is it required by law for juveniles but it’s our job to protect our children.
Remember, it doesn’t matter who was at fault in a motor vehicle vs. bicyclist collision; the bicyclist will always lose……
BTW, I want to clarify that I am in no way criticizing the parents or anybody else involved in this tragedy and am praying for a speedy recovery of the child!!
I echo the comment about parents riding behind the kids on bikes rather than in front. However, I too have seen many kids riding in and out of bike lanes without paying any attention to other vehicles on the road. They are very unpredictable and really do not know how vulnerable they are.
I am so glad that this child is doing OK.
Another prevalent action by youth is to casually bike from the right hand side of the road (correct) over to the left side…in the middle of the street! Seemingly a minor move to them, but NOT to the cars driving down the street! I have had to jam on my brakes. This is not a high speed area, it is not like how cars drive down Channing (despite the speed bumps). Over the years I have noticed this in Community Center neighborhood. The streets are not speedy but are neighborhood-like so perhaps the youth cyclists don’t think to look back and see if cars are following them before attempting a sudden maneuver…
I bought new bicycles for my daughters last weekend, and we rode down Channing as a family to Elenor Park. I was distressed to hear later about this accident.
When I was a kid doing long bike rides with friends, we figured out that the smartest thing to do was to put the slowest bikes in the front of the group to keep the group together. This tended to put the older and abler riders to the rear where they could keep an eye on the others. I still use this tactic today with my kids.
Somehow, I survived my childhood of riding my bicycle in traffic and learning by experimentation. I was lucky. I am certainly not going to trust luck to keep my children from harm, I am there with them, watching, guarding, instructing, teaching. It’s called “parenting”.
If your child is a little too erratic to safely navigate Channing with the bike lanes and lots of cars, remember that there are other, less traveled back-streets that may be better for practicing. Channing is a little busy for smaller kids. There are other, less direct ways to get there that are safer.
I’d have to say whatever can of worms it opens, that driving in a residential area it is a car’s fault. Of course there are situations where any driver could not predict a problem, but at least personally when I see a bicylcist, children, pedestrian or anything else that could conceivably be a problem, I slow down and make sure that whatever possible could happen I could react to in time.
I suppose that would include the bicycle rider’s and stopping at stop signs, but on the other side, when I am a bike rider, I make eye contact with the driver and usually get an acknowledgement if I am going to go through a stop a sign. If I am not certain the driver sees me and is going to stop, I stop and until I am. I am sure this is not the law, and I or many bike riders could get tickets for riding like this, but consider that a bike is not a deadly weapon like a car and regaining momentum on a bike is more difficult than accelerating in a car. We should do whatever we can to make our neighborhoods friendly and safe for pedestrians, bicyclists and children even at the expense of some driver irritation. Just my opinion.
Anybody who lives in this particular area already knows that the Channing bike lane is narrow and that between the cars on the street, the parked cars, the church, the new speed bumps, the Lincoln/Channing/Melville intersection, the Crescent/Channing intersection, the morning Shuttle, etc. — there is a heighten risk of something bad to happen.
We can’t prevent or predict errant bikes into traffic, but we can drive slower when there’s a lot going on in that 3-4 block stretch of Channing. So you’re trip/drive takes 30-seconds longer…no big deal, right?
If I’m riding my bike to downtown, I always choose cruising through the Comm. Center neighborhood as opposed to taking Channing (the more direct route). It may take a few minutes longer, but the ride is safer and (frankly) much more enjoyable (nice gardens to see, etc.).
to bru: “We should do whatever we can to make our neighborhoods friendly and safe for pedestrians, bicyclists and children even at the expense of some driver irritation.”
The best thing we can do is to train children AND parents on traffic safety knowledge, and basics of how to ride a bike. I constantly see children and adults ride unsafely, and on the wrong side of the road. We help nobody by turning a blind eye to, or evening encouraging, such behavior.
I have lived on the corner of Lincoln and Channing for over 10 years. I was not home when this incident occured on last Saturday, and I echo the sentiments of others that it is a relief that the girl is going to be OK.
Here is behanvior I observe on a regular basis about drivers: despite the speed bumps and median strips that were introduced about 5 or 6 years ago, along with electronic speed limit signs that tell people when they are exceeding the 25MPH speed limit, there still are a great many people who go much faster on Channing. I do think there is an improvement compared to how it was before the traffic calming devices were put into place, but the problem they were intended to solve still exists.
Here is behavior I observe about bicyclists: there are several things that go on daily which are unsafe. The first is riding bikes on the sidewalks. As one who walks his dog along Channing daily, there have been many times when a bike rider on the sidewalk puts him/herself, me and my dog in danger of a collision. People riding bikes should not be on the sidewalks.
The second is that many bike riders are going in the bike lane opposite traffic instead of with it, which is the safest and indicated approach.
Lastly, families riding bikes together, especially those with younger children who have not yet mastered the skill of safe bike riding, commonly ride parallel to each other, not one behind the other. This “doubling up” is very difficult to do on the Channing bikes lanes, and is made worse by virtue of the fact that when cars are parked along the curb, a bike rider invariably will drift into the main section of the street.
All of the behaviors I observe should be changed, it would make Channing a safer street for all who use it, but it will never be the safest street on which to ride a bike, since it is a “corridor” of sorts between downtown and Highway 101.
I agree that many of the “bike lanes” in Palo Alto are very poorly designed. Some are very narrow. Others are adjacent to parallel parked cars where an opening car door will knock a passing bicyclist off their bike (and no one ever looks before opening their door). Many bike lanes are on roads that are frequented by speeding cars or cars that don’t stop at stop signs. The worst bike routes pass by freeway on-ramps and off-ramps where merging car drivers almost never yield to bicyclists going straight. Unfortunately, many parts of Palo Alto are not accessible without using these routes.
Can’t we all just get along? Sorry, couldn’t resist the old reference.
I saw where Channing was closed off on Saturday, but did not get close enough to get more details on the accident. What is amazing to me is how many people have so much to say with so little actual information. Did the car or bike run a stop sign? Was the car speeding? Was the car too close to the bike lane? Was the girl riding next to someone rather than in front or behind? All the comments so far have speculated without any facts.
Glad the girl is all right, glad she was wearing a helmet, let’s leave it now until / unless someone has something real details?
I’m still worked up about an incident this morning. I was driving on Louis btw. Oregon and Embarcadero, headed toward Embarcadero. There was a large group of students biking the same direction as I was driving, so of course I’m paying attention and keeping a safe speed/distance.
All of a sudden, without looking, signaling, or slowing at all, one of the kids (either later elementary or early middle schooler) starts to turn left from the bike lane. I slammed and swerved, he swerved back and kept biking, then as I slowly passed, he DID THE EXACT SAME THING, cutting right in front of the car behind me, the driver of which slammed the brakes as this kid completed his seemingly random, unsignaled, unsafe left turn from the bike lane.
He never looked, so it wasn’t a jerky, bravado move by a risk-taking (jerky) kid. This kid had no clue. Had someone been driving towards us in the opposite direction, it would have been disastrous.
PLEASE, parents, revisit safety with your kids. If you have a kid who was biking this morning to summer school on Louis between Oregon and Emb., please check in with them.
Lots of good points here on both sides. The problem is that while driving however mad you get as a bicyclist, bikers do stupid things, on purpose, or by accident. The only sure way to maintain safety is to always drive, no matter what, like there is a hidden kid behind every car, and every bicyclist is going to do the most stupid dangerous thing they can. If that mindset is followed there would be no problem.
Then, secondarily is minimizing that reality by education, ticketing, warning and incenting using authority, force or your horn or voice. Remember, or rather I always try to remember that a friendly suggestion in a calm or humorous tone is going to be accepted quicker than a scowling curse at someone who behaves erratically.
You simple cannot put the onus on the entity that can be hurt or killed. We recently had someone jump out in front of a train, how would you feel if you hit someone who deliberately jumped out in front of you, even if you were following all the rules. As Paul above implied people have avoided regimentation on both sides of this equation, the biking and driving side … we have to err on the side of the bicylist in order to maximize safety. I wonder why that isn’t that obvious?
Hi All,
this may well not apply to the details of this particular incident, but just want to make sure people know about a great resource for all parents of biking kids. Richard Swent is a certified bike instructor living here in Palo Alto. He was a recent recipient of an award by the Palo Alto PTA Council for his years of good service to our community. Through the local PTAs, Mr. Swent offers free classes for parents, with great, potentially life-saving tips for the safest ways to teach kids to ride in an urban environment. Through the Palo Alto Rec Dept. (Enjoy catalog), he also offers classes for older kids, to make sure they are safer for independent riding. I’ve taken one of his free PTA classes, and learned a lot. I think I”m a safer, more aware driver now… as well as a safer bike rider, and I know I’ve been clearer with my kids about the rules of the road–all thanks to Richard’s expertise… and thanks to Palo Alto PTA traffic safety VP Penny Ellson, who sets up the PTA classes at many of our local schools. You can find out more about Richard Swent’s free and low-cost classes at http://www.bikeclass.swent.net and this fall, check http://www.info.paloaltopta.org for the schedule of bike safety classes at a school near you. It’s worth it. Thank you Richard and Penny!
The truth is in a town where there are lots of cars, lots of kids, and lots of bikes, accidents will sometimes happen, but I think bike safety classes for parents are an important way to help minimize the dangers and risks.
Why are so many adult moms and dads riding without helmets? I saw a woman with her three kids on Parkinson Street all with helmets except for mom. She’s not the only mom I’ve seen sans helmet.I see men without helmets all the time too. Even Stanford students wear helmets. Second peeve: why do Palo Altans insist on parking their large cars and Prius’s on the street, while their driveways are empty? We could all bike more safely if you’d park your damn cars where they belong.
On a related note, there is a police sign telling motorists their speeds blocking the northbound bike lane on Middlefield between Charleston and Loma Verde (can’t remember exactly where). This sign is causing bikes to veer into the traffic lanes and when I passed today it was slowing traffic much more than 25 due to bikes. This may be a good idea to give motorists a warning about their speed, but it is also a traffic hazard.
One of my neighbors parked in an area where she knew her kids were sure to bike past, just so she could see first hand their behavior. Though spying feels very uncomfortable, she quickly learned that her kids rode no safer than some of the examples stated here.
We need to teach our kids and impress upon them the importance of riding defensively. I have had teens ride directly in front of me, with no helmets, including crossing the street on their bike in the middle of the block without looking. If I didn’t anticipate such behavior, I am sure there would have been a very serious accident.
Too many parents share the “won’t happen to me” attitude, including all those that ride without helmets and teach their kids that bikes should always have the right of way and only cars are at fault.
The girl would never swerve out in to the traffic lane. I know her.
Palo Altans have their heads buried in the sand about bicycling in this town. It takes a lot of street smarts. Many children ride unsafely but their parents are in a fantasy world about how wonderful it is that the kid is bicycling. I drive very gingerly and I bicycle very carefully. This is not as bike friendly a place as everyone would have you believe.
Many children here grow up with the idea that when they are on their bikes traffic will always give way to them. The concept is introduced by parents who put them into busy traffic situations without practicing safe bicycling habits, eg stopping at stop signs, not using hand signals and giving way to pedestrians in crosswalks, etc. These bad practices are often reinstated by school crossing guards who treat them like pedestrians who let them ride past their stop signs and treat them like pedestrians. How can a child learn that they should act responsibly on a bike when they see all the bad behavior ignored by those who should be teaching them on a daily basis? It is good to give them bicycling lessons at school for a week here and there through their elementary and middle school years, but they are not made to practice the rules so they don’t bother.
I would like to see the police who are occasionally stationed outside the schools to actually stop kids who are riding badly and give them a written warning of what they are doing wrong with perhaps a follow up letter being sent home to the parents.
Most of the kids know the rules, but don’t bother to use them because they are so used to getting away with bad road skills. It is not helping them to protect them as much as we do by saying that we should as drivers should always give way to them. Instead we should be teaching them that the safe way to ride is the correct way and that riding defensively is best. After all, we have no way of knowing if that car coming up on their tail is in fact an inexperienced 15 year old driving for the first time on his permit.
And ps, get kids to wear sensible shoes while riding bikes. Flipflops are unsafe on bikes for many reasons.
A bike is a deadly weapon for pedestrians. At the schools closing time I am actually afraid of walking in Midtown, because of kids riding carelessly and recklessly on the sidewalks and running red lights and pedestrian cross lights. Many posters assume that all that drive in a Palo Alto area live there and know exactly what the pitfalls are (narrow bike lanes, dangerous corners) and the local habit (only local I know of no other place where it’s a habit) of letting young children ride bikes unattended. It’s a miracle of skill and drivers’s care that more accidents don’t happen.
I wish all parents would remind their children of the dangers of going the wrong way in a bike lane. Several years ago a girl died on Channing (at DeSoto Dr. I think) doing that.
Is it really better to ride on the right? I don’t get this.
Isn’t is safer to go the “wrong way” on a bicycle, so you can see what’s coming at you rather than trust drivers to be alert, careful, sober, not on the phone, not looking at navigation systems, not dealing with quarreling kids, not eating, not dealing with glare?
Many drivers here have neither licenses nor insurance, do you trust your life to them?
In fact, it is the law to ride on the right (with traffic) – not optional.
There are lots of problems with riding on the wrong side
1) Unexpected by drivers, who expect bikes to be on the correct side and are driving with that expectation..which leads to
2) Horrible or near-horrible accidents. Case-in-point: I was coming to a T-stop, ie the street I was on deadended into another street like a T. There was a hedge on “my” side of the street I was T-ing into. I stopped, then started to take a right turn. Thankfully I had stopped, because just as I started to take my right, a bicyclist came out from behind the hedge on the wrong side of his road, right in front of me, and darn near collided with me.
He ended up fine, swerving to avoid me while I slammed on my brakes..but he “pounded” the hood of my car as if I were in the wrong, and I jumped out of the car and almost wrung his neck for being so stupid and arrogant as to think that somehow his riding on the wrong side of that street had nothing to do with that near miss! I think he will think twice before being that foolish again.
I also reported the hedge to the city..needed to be cut down!
Michele, I am aghast with your advice. Check CALIFORNIA LAW (go to the dmv site please) Clearly you are wrong and advocating the dangerous practice of biking against traffic. It is so very dangerous because:
cars turning right or left do not expect riders in the opposite direction and turn legally looking for traffic coming from the same direction as they should.
and
the biker against traffic is not seen when a car is parallel to the bike. The other drivers do not know that there is a biker there and the biker cannot see cars turning . Consequently, a hidden bike can hit the car or be it without being aware the other is there.
(DMV )
Law says:
”
Bicyclists:
must ride in the same direction as other traffic, not against it.
must ride in a straight line as near to the right curb or edge of the roadway as practical—not on the sidewalk.
must ride single file on a busy or narrow street.
must make left and right turns in the same way that drivers do, using the same turn lanes.
must signal all their intentions to motorists and cyclists near them.
….”
And here is the link:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/hdbk/shr_slow_veh.htm#bike
This was a very unfortunate accident. Having been there, but not having witnessed the moment of the accident, but rather everything that happened within seconds afterward, I can say with confidence that the child did not intentionally swerve into traffic.
The driver of the minivan appears to have stayed square in her lane even though she would have seen the 2 young girls bicycling in the narrow bike lane to her right. Had she given the girls room, especially since there was no oncoming traffic at the time, the child would have simply fallen to the ground without colliding with the car. That would most likely have resulted in a wrist sprain/fracture or an injury of like amplitude as she would have had the instinct to break her fall.
However, because the driver did not proactively give her a good amount of room (and I do not know the speed at which the driver was traveling), the car appears to have hit the child as she was falling to the side.
Drivers need to know that regardless of the rules or lines on the road, children on bikes deserve our extra caution. They can lose their balance at any time and fall into traffic. Please slow down when children are biking alongside the road and do not expect that they will observe the rules of the road as an adult with a driver’s license is expected to do. If there is no oncoming traffic on a 25-mile-hour road, please SLOW DOWN and give the children LOTS OF ROOM as you pass them. If there is oncoming traffic, slow WAY down and either pass very slowly or wait for oncoming traffic to pass by so that you may then give LOTS of room to the children.
In this case, though the police report will have the final word, it did not appear that the driver gave much, if any, room to the children. It was a horrible scene to witness, and I do not wish that on anyone. Please, everyone, bikers and drivers, be careful and cautious when sharing the road. This charming and innocent 10-year-old child was not at fault and has suffered greatly. Please keep her in your hearts.
Palo Alto does a preety good job of identifying safe cross town bike routes like Bryant, the problem is that bikers do not take heed.
I have seen bikes on Alma, which is crazy.
Biking on Middlefield in Mid Town is also very dangerous, there are plenty of much safer routes.
May be we should establish a very strong financial disincentive for bikers who continue to ride on Alma etc, the mere preservation of life and limb does not seem strong enough on its own
it looks as if neither the driver nor the child were at fault. It was an accident and it could have been avoided if the parent had not taken the child on a such a road and expect drivers to see everything the child was doing when clearly he wasn’t doing that. I don’t consider him at fault. We cannot foresee everything that might happen or be in full knowledge of everything. That is why this was an accident. Please stop the absurdity of blaming the driver. She was on her lane and had she been driving carelessly the child would probably have had fatal injuries.
To tell the driver, who is most assuredly traumatized by the accident that she should have been doing this or that when clearly it looks as if she was driving carefully and within the law is bullying and purposefully causing even more distress. None of us liked the result of the accident. But none of us is free from such a thing to happen.
Ann
It sounds to me as if you, who freely admit that you did not witness the accident only the aftermath, is trying to blame a driver for not giving enough room to a bicycle in a bike lane. Forgive me, but I was under the impression that a bike lane should be wide enough for a bicycle without the need for extra room.
If a child is not safe enough on a bike that they may wobble, lose balance, or veer into the traffic lane, then perhaps the parents should not let that child ride a bike in such a traffic busy area of town.
Palo Alto may be attempting to get us all to ride our bikes everywhere, regardless of age or riding ability, but there are some places that are just unwise for children who are still wobbling on bikes to ride. Children need to learn to ride a bike safely in a quiet place and when they have practiced the mechanics they can venture into slightly busier roads and learn how to deal with traffic before attempting to ride in busy downtown areas. Just because a child can ride a bike does not automatically mean that it is a good time to take them on busy downtown roads.
We are all sorry that this accident happened, but like all accidents there was a reason. If everyone was doing what they should have been doing, this accident would not have happened. However, it happened and this like all accidents should be a learning tool for all of us.
I believe my comment was misread – I said that it is the law for bicycles to ride with traffic – NOT against it!! All bicyclists must follow the rules of the road like automobile drivers. After having almost hit some bicyclists who were travelling against traffic I too would be appalled if anyone recommended doing this, which I definitely did not recommend.
Today, Wednesday at 5 PM a biker was riding on Alma she took a left from Homer and rode Alma to Churchill and took a right.
This is crazy, at any time and particularly at rush hour, such bike riders should be jailed, there are plenty of safe cross town routes, our family uses them all the time particularly Bryant Street.
The bike rider today was not only putting her own life in danger but also that of many others who had to endanger themselves to avoid her.
Such bikers need to serve serious jail or prison time.
I wonder at Ann’s comment about the “two girls” cycling. Were they perhaps cycling side by side, and that’s why they needed more room? I see this all the time, and not just with kids — people chatting as they ride, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings.
If I can, I do drive on the wrong side of the street to give a cyclist as wide a berth as possible, but it IS illegal (and also unsafe) and bicyclists (and their parents) should not expect it.