So after going south on the LRT trail today, I noticed the traffic was backing up on Lake Street, a squad car was parked in the middle of the street, and an officer was directing traffic south on Hiawatha.

There was an older man, lying face down in the middle of the intersection (where all of those dotted turning lanes are). Next to him was a van with the windshield smashed in completely, and his bicycle was bent and leaned against a street sign. He wasn't moving at all and finally the fire truck and ambulance rolled up, cleaned some of the blood up, and took him out on a stretcher.

There were a few other cyclists/pedestrians watching the scene and someone said the victim was still breathing. That's the last I've heard from the situation. I went by an hour or so later and the police were taking pictures from the southbound ramps exiting onto Lake Street heading east.

Anybody else have any information?

I arrived at the bottom of the southbound ramp at probably 3:45 or 3:50 (best guess). The police wouldn't let me and another cyclist cross Lake until they left the intersection, maybe 7 or 8 minutes.

There were around ten squad cars there controlling traffic while one squad repeatedly came down the street quickly and slammed on its brakes and skidded right where the bike/walk crosswalk is. It looked like a re-enactment of some sort or a stopping distance test.

The actual bike was maybe 50 feet further east, mangled and up against the median curb right under Hiawatha Avenue itself. The victim and the car were both gone by the time I arrived. Only a mangled bike, a wet street, lots of cops and a cameraman of some sort remained. One cop threw the bike in his trunk when they all left.

Once we were finally able to cross the street, I saw that cameraman filming our progress.
At the other side he asked both of us if we had a minute. Neither one of us stopped. I came by second and said no to him as I passed slowly by. As the woman who crossed when I did and I were pedaling a bit harder and picking up speed, he yelled after "Someone was killed here today"... then a second later... "they were on bike".

I felt bad, but had no desire to speak to an ambulance chasing cameraman. Once he yelled that stuff after I passed, I was confident that I had made the right decision. I suppose that he could have been some sort of cop, but I didn't see anything...

Whether the victim was truly killed or not, I have no idea. A sad experience.

Mike

Found a story: http://kstp.com/article/stories/S224647 ... ?cat=12196

Thank you for the link, but everyone should take a look at the comments posted below the thing - cyclists seem to still hold the "outlaw" tag around here, and no matter how often we stop at lights we are still branded.

And that is precisely why I don't look at the comments posted on such stories. Nothing good can come from wading into that cesspool.

Comment added.

I read it. Well played sir, well played.

The news cameraman said that? Was he trying to act like some kind of self-righteous "teacher" because he drove to the scene? A good response to that could be, "yeah, have you learned about the majority of deadly traffic accidents around the state every year? They're usually driving cars." Everyone is vulnerable to anything. I hope he thought hard about what he said after that.

He was baiting him to try to get a comment. Especially an angry comment from someone frothing at the mouth (not that he was, but I'm sure the cameraman could have laid down a few choice trolls to get a rise). Makes for great TV.

So, I literally rode up less than a minute after this happened. Right before police showed up. I never saw the bike so I had assumed a pedestrian was crossing the street and someone got gas-pedal happy when the light turned green. It was not a pleasant site to see. There was a lot of blood, and a broken windshield, and the guy had not moved an inch the entire time I was there. I really do hope that he's able to pull through if he's still alive.

KSTP and Pioneer Press forums seem to attract an unusually high percentage of redneck morons for some reason.

http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/mpls-longfellow/messages/topic/3PfEhYJyFvLIFmbxIRiXKO

This idiot referred to the crash as a "dust up" and the thread talks about how "bad" it is that the Lake St could be closed at 4pm on a workday.

That was my impression of what he was doing.

If he'd found a couple of different riders-by he might have gotten his screamer/ranter. Maybe he did, although I doubt it as we'd have seen it by now.

A parasite trying to create controversy and "good TV" out of a bloody collision is apparently preferred over a "good journalist" (where ?) as a cameraman. I wish that were a bit more surprising to me.