This is really tragic news, and tragically common.  It happens around
Ann Arbor with disturbing frequency (a couple times I can recall last
season, one cyclist killed by a drunk driver, the other by a teenager
on a cell phone).

Cars upset me.	A lot.	Let's all think about ways to help with this problem.
Lower speed limits on non-interstates, better bike/skate lanes, higher
gas and parking taxes... These will all help move us in the right
direction toward truly shared roads with cyclists and skaters common
enough that motorists will be aware of us and appreciative of our
right to be there.

Keep spreading the word.  General awareness of the problem will go a long way.

Danny

> By the time we assembled at the Veloway on Monday, all of us had heard the
> news of the cyclist who had been killed on 360 by a hit and run driver.
> Supposedly one driver clipped the cyclist and another ran her over, then
> fled.  The driver who clipped her did stay at the scene (not every driver in
> Texas flees an accident).  We are all shocked and saddened by the accident.
>
>
> The MS150 (http://www.ms150.org) is referenced in the article below - about
> 15,000 cyclists and 12 skaters, 8 from Austin and 4 from Houston will be
> skating the 182 miles from Houston to Austin over two days this weekend.
> We've all been training hard and I'm personally excited to be completing my
> 3rd go at this ultra-distance endurance event.
>
> For the ambitious skaters on this list (or your ambitious friends), consider
> taking on this well-staffed and well-supported event next year whose
> donation proceeds go to help a great cause.  One note - registration is
> capped and the 15k registrations filled up months before the deadline, so
> registering for the 2007 MS150 by January 2007 would be a wise move.
>
>
> On 4/18/06, blake Æ roadskater.net   wrote:
> >
> > brian...saw this and thought of you, and it's a good reminder to us all to
> > be as safe as we can be. how's the fundraising is going for his
> > participation in the houston to austin ms ride? skateylove, blake
> > http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/19cyclist....
> > Cyclist who died was training for charity ride
> >   Family remembers Gay Simmons-Posey as a giving person.
> >   By Claire Osborn
> > AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
> > Tuesday, April 18, 2006
> >   When Gay Simmons-Posey didn't return from her Monday bike ride for
> > hours, her husband became concerned, he said.
> >   Ron Posey said he called his wife's cell phone three times and got no
> > answer. He then got in his car and started driving the route along Capital
> > of Texas Highway (Loop 360) that she usually rode, he said.
> >   "I saw the traffic blocked off and I started getting sick to my stomach
> > because I knew what had happened," Posey, 40, said.
> >   He found out that his wife, 40, had been hit and killed by a car that
> > had fled the scene. Authorities were still looking for the driver of the
car
> > today.
> >   Simmons-Posey was riding north on Loop 360 when she crossed the exit
> > ramp for Bee Cave Road, said Tela Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas
> > Department of Public Safety.
> >   As she was crossing the ramp, she had her left arm extended, apparently
> > to show that she planned to continue riding north on Loop 360, Mange said.
> >   A trailer hauled by a van swerved and clipped her at about 12:30 p.m.,
> > Mange said. Simmons-Posey fell off her bike and was hit by another car
> > headed north on Loop 360, Mange said. The driver of the van stopped but the
> > second driver who hit Simmons-Posey did not, Mange said.
> >   Posey said he and his wife were training to ride in the MS 150 from
> > Houston to Austin this weekend.
> >   * * *
> >   Turner said she was scared by the bike rides her daughter took, and told
> > her so. "She said, 'Well, Mother, there is an element of danger but you
just
> > have to do the things you love to do,' " Turner said.
> >   She liked bike rides for charity because she wanted to do things for
> > other people, her mother said.
> >   "Gay always said, 'If I go through life and have not contributed
> > something to society I will have to consider life a failure,' " Turner
said.

--
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  google://"Daniel Reeves"