Bicycling, Accident Rate Ride in Tandem to New Heights

On the last day of the Thanksgiving Day weekend, 13-year-old Tracy Pulley, a popular eighth-grader from Huntington Beach, took her dad’s bicycle out of the garage and pedaled away to her part-time job as a horse exerciser at a local stable.

She stopped along the way at a hamburger stand, grabbing a burger and fries to go and waving hello to some junior high friends before bicycling on.

Tragedy struck only a few moments later--just a block from the stables--when, police said, Tracy attempted to turn left from busy Golden West Street onto Ellis Avenue and was hit by an automobile traveling in the oncoming lane.

Illegal Left-Hand Turn

Paramedics took the critically injured girl to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, where she died the following day. Police did not cite the motorist, saying Tracy made an illegal left-hand turn.

“What Tracy did was what any of us might have done,” said her grief-stricken mother, Karen Pulley. “She just didn’t see the vehicle.”

The Nov. 28 accident was one more statistic in what police call an alarming increase in bicycle accidents both in Orange County and across California. Although statistics are not fully compiled for 1987, California Highway Patrol figures for the preceding five years show a steady upward trend in both Orange County and across the state.

Statewide figures compiled by the CHP show bicycle accidents resulting in injuries jumping 71% during that period and fatal bike accidents increasing by 74%. The Orange County figures show a 51% increase in injury accidents between 1982 and 1986. Fatal bicycle accidents in the county went from 7 in 1982 to 20 in 1986.

The actual number of injuries associated with bicycle injuries is much higher than police accident statistics indicate, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Bethesda, Md.

While police agencies nationwide counted approximately 50,000 bicycle accident reports during 1986, the safety commission tallied more than 500,000 bicycle-related injuries that year in a survey of hospital emergency rooms.

The huge gulf between numbers of reports and actual injuries is attributable to the fact most bicycle accidents go unreported, said Joel Friedman, director of the safety commission’s injury information clearinghouse. Friedman said most accidents are unreported because the injuries are generally minor, with victims being treated and released at hospitals.

The increase in accidents is proportionate to the explosion in bicycle sales over the past five years. According to industry estimates, bicycle sales nationally nearly doubled, from 6.7 million in 1982 to 12.3 million in 1986. Sales figures for 1987 have not been compiled.

Today, an estimated 82 million Americans ride bicycles, and the sport is considered the second most popular nationally, behind swimming. In California, the state’s 19 million bicycles far outnumber the state’s 15 million motor vehicles, said Bill Tigue, Southern California manager for California Bicyclist magazine.

“We’re beginning to ask ourselves in the industry how high we can go,” Tigue said.

Reasons for the bicycle’s popularity boom are multifold. One factor, bicycle industry officials say, is the crossover of many fitness buffs from jogging to bicycling in recent years. Bicycling is considered not as taxing on the body as jogging, said John Cornelison, director of the League of American Wheelmen in Baltimore, Md., a national organization of bicyclists.

Bicycling also gained in popularity after the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where bicycle racing events were featured, Tigue said.

California, with its year-round temperate climate, leads the nation in bicycling activity, according to Tigue. And within California, Orange County serves as “the white-hot center” of bicycling, Tigue said.

“At least two new (bicycling) shops are opening up every month in Orange County,” Tigue said, adding that bicycles are so popular in the county because of its high concentration of high-income people who have the leisure time to enjoy riding. There are about 130 bicycle shops in the county.

So many people are now riding bicycles that on weekends some roads seem clogged with them. Dozens of cyclists, for example, can be seen pedaling along Coast Highway between Laguna Beach and Newport Beach on almost any weekend day. Laguna Canyon Road, similarly, plays host to processions of bicyclists, many of them belonging to touring clubs.

With more bicycles on the road, police officials say there is more potential for conflict with motor vehicles. In the overwhelming majority of cases, police add, bicyclists cause the accidents by ignoring simple safety rules.

Kathie Parnell, in charge of the bike safety program for the Huntington Beach Police Department, said the three biggest problems are bicyclists riding on the wrong side of the road, riding double and running stop signs and traffic signals. Bicycles have to conform to the same traffic laws as motor vehicles, she said.

“Riding on the wrong side is the one that causes 90% of our accidents,” said Parnell, whose department investigated 259 injury bicycle accidents last year.

She said riding on the wrong side is so dangerous because the combined speed of bicycle and motor vehicle makes it difficult to avoid collision if the two cross paths.

Cornelison said riding at night is also considered extremely dangerous, since it is hard for drivers to see bicyclists. He said that 40% of bicycle accidents occur at night. Cornelison said adults are most likely involved in a bike accident after dark, while children are involved in most of the accidents by day.

In fact, national studies show that two-thirds of all bicycle accident victims are children under age 16, who, like Tracy Pulley of Huntington Beach, ride out in front of motor vehicles.

Karen Pulley, a risk management officer for the city of Anaheim, said her daughter had been cited three previous times by Huntington Beach police for illegally riding her bicycle. On one occasion she was ticketed for riding on her handlebars, her mother said.

News of the tragedy came first to Tracy’s older brother, Andy, 15, who was alone when a police car drove up to the family’s home on 12th Street. His parents were away for the day at a wine-tasting engagement in San Diego.

“It’s still hard,” Andy said the other day, crying gently as he leafed through his sister’s Dwyer Middle School 1987 yearbook, which is brimming with autographs and penned messages from school friends.

Members of bicycling organizations contend that some motorists, irate at having to share the road with bicyclists, do little to avoid them. Pam Chadwick, co-owner of the Costa Mesa Bike Shop, said one motorist intentionally struck her husband’s bicycle while he was riding recently, causing him minor injury. He has been struck by three other cars while riding, Chadwick said.

“Some motorists just don’t like bicycles,” she said.

Accidents sometimes result from motorists’ inattention, as typified by last October’s case of an 18-year-old driver who looked down momentarily to search for a cassette tape. Her car struck and killed two married couples on a county road outside San Jose.

Authorities said the bicyclists, all experienced riders, were wearing helmets and well within the road shoulder at the time of the accident. The driver pleaded no contest to four counts of involuntary manslaughter and is serving 700 hours of community work.

More such prosecutions are needed to deter motorists from hurting bicyclists, said Cornelison, whose organization is retaining lawyers around the country to assist cyclists in fighting motorists in civil court. The organization also dispatches members in their cycling uniforms to provide a show of support at some trials involving motorists allegedly at fault in the death or serious injury of a cyclist.

Road conditions are the culprit in some accidents. In Riverside County last year, 1,000 bicyclists successfully petitioned the Board of Supervisors to construct a bikeway around a railroad intersection where at least two cyclists had been killed and 50 injured.

Roadway Dangers

Dick Lewis, a Riverside bicycle shop owner who helped organize the petition drive, said the rail tracks ran at a 12-degree angle to the roadway, causing riders to lose their balance and fall into traffic when they tried to pedal across. The route on Magnolia Avenue in the Home Gardens area west of Riverside is the primary one used by Inland Empire bicyclists to get to the beaches of Orange County.

“One gal fell off her bike and saw a car tire coming at her face,” Lewis said. “She said she literally saw her whole life pass before her.”

Designated bikeways are one remedy to the safety problem. Bike paths have been established throughout the state to give bicyclists room to maneuver away from motor vehicles.

But since state studies show bikeways are used by only a small percentage of cyclists, bicycle safety proponents say public education is the most pressing need.

Although bicycle safety is taught in the public school system, bicycle activists say the current instruction is not sufficient. Ellen Fletcher, a bicycle safety proponent and city councilwoman in Palo Alto, said youngsters get no real-world practice of riding on roads. Instead, she said, they perform in “bike rodeos” on school property, dodging pylons and other obstacles.

“What they are told goes in one ear and out the other,” Fletcher said.

On-the-Road Instruction

The school district in Palo Alto is experimenting with a program in which bicycle safety is taught by taking students onto roads for practice. Alan Forkosh, president of the California Assn. of Bicycling Organizations, which represents the state’s major touring clubs, said more such programs are needed but that leadership is lacking from the state.

Pat Valladao, former traffic safety consultant for the state Department of Education, agreed that the state needs to get more involved in the issue. But he said budget cuts under the Gov. Deukmejian Administration have eliminated the bicycle safety program in the department.

“There is now no contact for bike safety within the Department of Education,” said Valladao, whose position as traffic safety coordinator was eliminated last July. “Whatever school districts are doing, they are doing through their own efforts.”

Bicycle safety programs have also been slashed in the CHP and the California Department of Transportation.

Caltrans conducted a bicycle program from 1972 until 1984, helping local agencies develop their bike plans and identifying places where bike riding would be safe, said Caltrans spokeswoman Lisa Covington in Sacramento. The agency also provided bike path maps at its regional offices. Those maps are now provided by private bicycle companies.

The CHP used to send officers into schools to lecture about bicycle safety, but that program was abolished as state funds became squeezed, said CHP spokesman Kent Milton in Sacramento. Milton said the CHP was awaiting the compilation of bicycle accident figures from 1987 before determining whether “the problem is getting out of hand” and needs to be re-targeted with enforcement and education.

In the absence of state aid, local communities are conducting their own bicycle safety programs.

For example:

Huntington Beach police conduct bicycle safety lectures in schools and actively enforce bicycle riding laws, ticketing offenders.

In Los Angeles, the city is considering building a two-mile elevated bikeway above congested streets in the Westwood Village area. The bikeway would run from Sepulveda, up Veteran Avenue and end in Westwood Village. The project is still hung up on source of funding. The estimated cost of the project is as much as $10 million, said Terry Oberrieder, bikeways supervisor for the City of Los Angeles.

And in San Diego, the city is equipping all traffic signals with special sensitizers so they are activated to turn green when a bicycle pulls up. This is to deter cyclists from running red lights when they think no one is around.

Study in San Diego

The City of San Diego has also initiated a two-year study of hospital emergency rooms to determine exactly how many bicycle accidents are occurring. CHP figures show there were 1,637 injury bicycle accidents during 1986 in San Diego County.

“I have a suspicion it will be frightening,” said Gordy Shields, chairman of the bicycle facilities committee for the San Diego Area Governments Assn., which gave the city $15,000 to conduct the study.

On the national level, the Consumer Product Safety Commission next year will launch a study to determine whether new laws and regulations are needed to curb the accident rate. Mandatory wearing of helmets and use of night headlamps are among the issues to be explored in the study, said Debbie Tinsworth, a safety commission statistician.

To determine which measures may be needed, Tinsworth said the commission investigators first are going to analyze bike accidents to find common causes. Results of the study will be forwarded with staff recommendations in 1990 to the commission board.

The bicycling industry has also taken steps to improve bicycle safety. Many of the touring clubs now require helmets to be worn by members, because national studies show 75% of the people who die in bike accidents have head injuries. Safety tips and riding maps are also put out by many retail bike shops. Some touring clubs are also putting together safety videos for use by schools and civic groups.

Parnell, of the Huntington Beach Police Department, said bicycle accidents are especially tragic because they are so preventable. Many accidents, she added, could have been prevented if cyclists just walked their bicycle across an intersection rather than trying to pedal across.

“You’re only talking three minutes at most to walk the bike across the street,” Parnell said. “But with some kids, it just seems like they’re always in a hurry. They just won’t slow down.”

BICYCLE SAFETY TIPS The California Highway Patrol offers several safety tips for bicyclists. Among them:

Cross sewer gratings and railroad tracks at an angle.

Stay in single file when riding with others.

Cross busy intersections by walking your bicycle.

Wear shoes--avoid getting toes caught in moving parts.

Avoid long skirts and flare pants. Clasp pants to legs with clips or leg bands. Clip or band hair to keep it from blocking vision. Avoid scarfs which can flap over eyes.

Wear proper safety equipment at all times. This includes bright clothing, approved bicycle helmet and safety goggles.

BICYCLE LAWS

The California Highway Patrol says bicycle riders and automobile drivers in California follow the same rules and have the same rights. For example, both cars and bicycles must stop at a stop sign. Bicyclists also must ride in the same direction as cars.

Laws that apply to bicycles include:

When moving slower than the normal traffic speed, stay near the right edge of the road except when passing another bike or vehicle or when turning left.

Whenever there is a bike lane, use it if moving slower than normal traffic speed.

Keep at least one hand on the handlebars. Carry no passengers unless there is a separate seat.

Give proper hand signals when turning or stopping.

The state also requires minimum bicycle equipment standards. They include:

Handlebars must be set so the rider’s hands are no higher than his shoulders when he grips the steering handle.

Bicycles must not be so big that the operator cannot safely stop with at least one foot on the ground.

Brakes must be able to make one wheel skid on clean, level, dry pavement.

For night riding, the bicycle must be equipped with a white headlamp, attached to the bicycle or rider’s body and visible from 300 feet to the front and from the sides. In addition, a red reflector is required on the rear; white or yellow reflectors are required on the front and back of each pedal; and white or yellow reflectors are required on each side rear of center. (If you have reflectorized tires in front and rear, side reflectors are not needed.)

Source: California Highway Patrol