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A bicyclist was killed on Foothill Expressway on Feb. 13 after an automobile hit her in the southbound lane, according to Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff.
A bicyclist was killed on Foothill Expressway on Feb. 13 after an automobile hit her in the southbound lane, according to Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff.
Deputies learned about the collision at about 10:43 a.m. It occurred about a mile south of Arastradero Road, near Old Oak Court in Los Altos Hills, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. The bicyclist, an adult female, was pronounced deceased at the scene by the Santa Clara County Fire Department.
The cause and circumstances surrounding the traffic collision are still under investigation. The Sheriff’s Traffic Accident Reconstruction Specialist (STARS) team launched an investigation, the news release stated.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner identified the woman on Thursday as Maria Elise Jabon, 38, of Los Altos.
Deputies closed off southbound access on Foothill Expressway, between Arastradero Road in Palo Alto and Edith Avenue in Los Altos, at about 11 a.m. while emergency responders and investigators from Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff surveyed the scene.
The road remained closed as of 3 p.m., more than four hours after the incident. A reporter observed at the scene a downed bicycle and a helmet.
Resident Fred Balin said he was driving by the area at about 11:20 a.m. when he saw that the road was closed near Arastradero. About two hours later, as he was driving north on Foothill, he saw more officers and deputies. There was a vehicle on the side of the road and heavy law enforcement presence in the southbound lane.
“I could see a yellow cover over something and a photographer with a tripod on the street, as well as a few other police cars,” Balin said.
On Wednesday morning, the Sheriff’s Office issued a statement on X requesting to speak with anyone who may have witnessed the collision. The office is asking any motorist who may have been driving in the area between 9:30 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. on Feb. 13 to review their dash cameras to see if the collision may have been recorded.
Editor’s note: A photo was removed from this story due to the sensitive nature of the content.
So sad to read about this!
( First picture caption’s date should be corrected to Feb. 13. )
Why is the word “driver” completely absent from this article?
“A bicyclist was killed on Foothill Expressway … after an automobile hit her” sounds like two vaguely related events whose cause is unknowable.
While “Woman was struck by a vehicle” is technically true, would we report a shooting as “Man’s body was pierced by a bullet” without mentioning the person who fired the gun?
Touche
Ed is absolutely correct.
A person might be hit by lightning or killed by a falling branch – using the passive voice in those cases is totally fine.
But in this case it is clear that a car driver hit and killed a female riding her bicycle. The deceased deserves that much accuracy. It’s not an act of god that killed her, it is clearly somebody who was driving too fast or somebody who was driving distracted.
What is the name of the driver?
I’m in agreement with Ed. We need to stop seeing cyclists and pedestrians killed by cars driven by people as inevitable accidents. (I do note the lack of the ‘a’ word in the article, thank you) Passive language, whether from law enforcement/public safety people or the reporter should not be ok.
The correct lede is:
“A bicyclist was killed on Foothill Expressway on Feb. 13 by a driver with their automobile after being struck in the southbound direction, according to Santa Clara County Office of the Sheriff.”
Note that saying “hit her in the southbound lane” already has implications. Which lane? The bike lane? The “vehicle lane” (to which the deceased would have been entitled to use even if it is dangerous. This time of year, it is often necessary to avoid debris that has not been cleared from the ‘bike lane’ (not all that look like bike lanes are bike lanes although I believe that part of Foothill is)
If struck by someone operating a vehicle, it is unsaid but highly likely that the vehicle operator was overtaking the deceased cyclist. As such, there should always be the presumption of fault to that vehicle operator. Yet, SC Sheriff and the article act as if it is completely unknowable. Sure, final judgments can and should wait. But this is far too passive and uninformative.
And one GIANT missing bit of information is whether the driver of the vehicle that killed her stayed? Or has been identified (We do not need the name to be published at this point in the process)?
The cyclist was out riding on a clear morning, no sun or rain blocking the driver’s vision. Rather than move to the left lane the driver hit the cyclist with a 4000 pound killer machine. Did the killer stop at the scene?
Foothill Expressway is not a freeway. It’s a 4 lane road with adequate space for drivers to move to the left when passing a bicyclist. Too many inexcusable cyclist deaths on Foothill Expressway. The county can be praised for traffic calming between Page Mill and Sand Hill. Now work on making south of Arastadero safe.
My spouse happened upon the scene shortly after it happened. He took a picture. Visible in the photo is a long line of first responder vehicles, the bicycle – on it’s side on the road – and what looks like a civilian car stopped about twenty feet beyond that. Spouse surmised that was vehicle that hit cyclist. Only other comment from spouse was, “this is an area where there is a lot of debris in the road.”
I am so sorry to hear this and my condolences to the family. RIP.
The English language defines an accident as an incident that happens unintentionally and unexpectedly. That does not mean it happened without cause. Most accidents do have a cause, but they are still accidental in nature as there was no intention or expectation of it happening. From this definition, it appears that this is what happened. When I trip on uneven ground the cause is the uneven ground and my accidental falling due to not noticing the fact that the ground was uneven. If the ground is a forest trail it is a different situation than a city sidewalk. The blame and causes are different, but both falls are accidental in nature.
Hopefully we will have more information about the cause in due course.
Let’s use this definition of “accidents” and compare it to a real case:
2023/09/01 – an Australian drove his car on Hwy 84 around La Honda through a road lane closure area. Used to driving on the left side of the road, after the road closure he just stayed there. Unfortunately he hit and killed a 80 year old local couple.
The driver was arrested and taken into custody on the spot.
2023/09/06 – the name of driver and victims were published within just a few days and the driver was charged with Vehicular Manslaughter.
That is how the hard hand of “Law and Order” should work in cases of killings – “accidental” or not.
Unfortunately in front of American Law, people seemed to be judged by their mode of transportation. When the dead person is “just” a pedestrian or a cyclist, the law often goes “gentle and soft” and the case never makes it to court.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the Professional Driver Handbook, and the DMV would give the driver at least a part-fault each and every time making every case where a person is killed by a driver of a car a Vehicular Manslaughter case.
There are almost no “accidents” in traffic – someone is always too fast or too distracted when doing a very important and very dangerous task.
I do not know the exact circumstances of this accident so I can’t comment on this particular accident.
I’m always terrified of bikers when I use (about once or twice/week) that stretch of the expressway. Bikers use the bike lane but when they arrive at an intersection they just go ahead at the same speed they were on the bike path but on the pedestrian crossing and suddenly there they are right in front of you without warning or seemingly without any concern. Turning right onto Arrastradero it’s really very chancy if a biker decides to use the crosswalk speeding and, of course, it’s illegal. Many bikers are in clubs or training and their speed is considerable. I understand why bikers do that but at the same time if that’s their calling, it’s also their responsibility to make sure they dismount and use the pedestrian crossing on foot, not on their bike. If there is a solution for this problem (tunnels, bridges, special signs, etc?) I am all for it to be implementing since bikers deserved more safety.
It’s a miracle that there aren’t more accidents.
I must correct some misinformation. Foothill Expressway has a well defined Bike Lane (and well marked ” Bike Lane”) that bikers “must use” instead of the main road lanes (that’s the law). The lane disappears to merge with the right lane (right lane forks going south and right to Arrastradero Rd) and suddenly there is a biker on that lane and if the biker has suddenly veered to the left to exit the bike lane there is a very good chance of an accident specially with a novice driver/biker. On the crossing beyond the light, crossing Arrastradero there is no bike lane and cars and bikers must wait for the light to change to green. Countless times if the biker sees no traffic coming from Arrastradero they cross the road to avoid a waste of time and energy. That is a recipe for disaster because no driver (no matter how careful, specially a novice driver) can anticipate the change and avoid a collision.
If we want to make our roads safe/safer we must start to understand the underpinnings of accidents. We must not start by blaming people wanting to know names so that they can start shaming them, without knowing the circumstances and (by what I see in some posts) not even knowing the road well.
We don’t know what happened. Let us stick to that fact and keep the vitriol at bay at least until we know more. To make a road safer we must know it.
Does the law force a person on bicycle to take the “bike lane”? No, absolutely not.
However, we know the driver broke one law – the one that says they must stay away 3 ft from cyclists.
The technical term in the vehicle code is “Bikeway” and there are very different laws and regulations about them. Class 3 means a cyclist MUST use the street, Class 1 and Class 4 (aka “bike lane”) mean a cyclist CAN use the street, Class 2 (aka “bike lane”) means a cyclist MUST use the street, but ONLY if it’s clean and usable. And most Bay Area bike lanes are full of gutters, branches, debris, garbage cans, parked cars, delivery trucks, Uber, Lyft, police cars, etc.
All lane markings end when going through an intersection, that doesn’t mean the bike lane ends, it continues through the intersection. A bike lane never really ends – it is MERGING into the other lane and regular merge rules apply. When a bike lane does end – not the case in this situation – that means the car lane becomes a “shared lane” (aka class 3) – that does not give the driver the right to run a cyclist over.
Nowhere does current law, CA vehicular code, Professional Driver Handbook, nor the bible allow a driver to kill a cyclist if they “veer” into their lane. In the case of a “jaywalker” – the law and NTSB determined “While jaywalking can constitute the illegal preemptive control of the roadway, it is not necessarily the proximate cause of an accident. Had the pedestrian instead been a moose or a disabled school bus in legal control of the roadway, passengers of the car – which failed to assure a clear stopping distance within its radius of vision – may have been killed instead. Motor vehicle operators must always be watchful for children, animals, and other hazards which may encroach into the roadway.”
I’m afraid you are not right:”Bicyclists traveling at a speed less than traffic are required to ride within the bicycle lane” (that’s the law). We know little about this accident and who, if anybody, is at fault, or if more than one person or circumstance were a contributor to the accident. We just don’t know yet. We didn’t even know until a few hours ago where exactly the accident happened – near Old Oak Court in Los Altos Hills the Weekly reported.
What I know however, doesn’t makes me nervous about the possibility of frequent bikes/cars accidents. For example, many times the biker is biking right by the line defining the bike lane, but has the body outside that line on the car lane. Whereas the majority of the biker groups I see bike safely and according to the rules, some (specially the ones traveling alone) don’t and seem not to care at all. Let us all be more careful, biking with visible clothing all within the bike lane where there is one, stoping appropriately and avoiding sudden moves. Bikers are vulnerable on the road and should not expect that others divine their intentions.
Sorry I meant ” does make me nervous”
I’m afraid you are not right:”Bicyclists traveling at a speed less than traffic are required to ride within the bicycle lane” (that’s the law). We know little about this accident and who, if anybody, is at fault, or if more than one person or circumstance were a contributor to the accident. We just don’t know yet. We didn’t even know until a few hours ago where exactly the accident happened – near Old Oak Court in Los Altos Hills the Weekly reported.
What I know however, does
makes me nervous about the possibility of frequent bikes/cars accidents. For example, many times the biker is biking right by the line defining the bike lane, but has the body outside that line on the car lane. Whereas the majority of the biker groups I see bike safely and according to the rules, some (specially the ones traveling alone) don’t and seem not to care at all. Let us all be more careful, biking with visible clothing all within the bike lane where there is one, stoping appropriately and avoiding sudden moves. Bikers are vulnerable on the road and should not expect that others divine their intentions.
Terrible news. When I searched for an update a few days ago this ad for an attorney was at the top of the results.
https://usaccidentlawyer.com/news/maria-jabon-killed-bicycle-accident-foothill-expressway-los-altos-hills-ca/
I ride Foothill entire length both ways at least once/week (Homestead – Page Mill). Last time was Monday Feb 12, the day before this happened. The weather was nice and the roadway pavement was generally dry. But the bike path (the full 6 ft width) was covered with a fairly thick layer of leaves and pine-needles, and was still wet and slippery from the rain that had come the day before. I found it hard to ride without sliding – and had to go into the right lane several times. I worry this may have been a contributing cause in this case (your letters helped me to remember exactly what it was like).
Also, unfortunately, automobile traffic on Foothill can be heavy and vehicles often go far above the speed limit (especially when the traffic is light). The long stretch between Arastradero and Edith is excuse for that. I have ridden this section over 1000 times in the last 20 years and have seen cars driving in excess of 70 mph more than a few times.
I realize this is a county highway and is not in the direct jurisdiction of either state or municipal traffic officials. Please consider ways to make it safer for all of us.
Based on mountains of research into police reports and media articles we can tell a lot of what happened or what didn’t happen here. The driver’s insurance will pay in almost 100% of these cases, they won’t even contest. The sheriff calls this an “accident” even though it’s murder. The DA won’t go to court (#SoftOnCarCrime), but in civil court, any decent injury lawyer wins 95% of cases like this with ease. Not only would the driver have to pay, the engineering mistakes plus lack of speed enforcement along Foothill Expy would guarantee a million dollar settlement with city or county as well. The 12ft car lanes here support freeway speeds of 60-65mph. When law enforcement is at fault and works for the jurisdiction that is at fault there is a clear incentive to sweep pedestrians and bicycle deaths under the rug. And they will send out people to blame the victim on social media. They might also send out “The Education Clowns” reminding cyclists to wear helmets and always ‘dress like a clown’. Politicians will lament that “they don’t have the budgets to provide safety, vote for upcoming Measure XYZ”. Law enforcement will try to pin fault on someone other than the driver, so if the cyclists had even a minimum of fault here, that would have been mentioned. If the driver was drunk or high, committed hit&run, drove a commercial truck, self-driving car or a Tesla – we would know. But if they can’t find anybody else to blame, the county and the sheriff will work together and sweep this under the rug.
https://youtu.be/HDa81tGFixU?t=100