A traffic collision involving a box truck and two electric scooter riders left both riders with significant, life-threatening injuries on Saturday evening, September 27th.
At around 7 pm, Fullerton Police Officers responded to reports of the incident at the intersection of Associated Road and Yorba Linda Boulevard. Upon arrival, officers found two females in the roadway suffering from serious injuries. A white box truck was situated nearby.
Emergency responders from the Fullerton Fire Department quickly transported the victims to a nearby trauma center, where they are currently in critical condition.
Preliminary investigations indicate that the two women were riding their scooters southbound in the #2 lane of Associated Road when they were struck by the box truck, which was traveling in the same direction and lane.
Authorities have stated that, at this stage of the investigation, alcohol and/or drugs do not appear to have contributed to the collision.
The Fullerton Police Department is seeking assistance from the public. Witnesses with information regarding the incident are encouraged to contact Traffic Accident Investigator J. Munoz at (714) 738-6812 or via email at jmunoz@fullertonpd.org. Those wishing to remain anonymous can reach out to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS or visit occrimestoppers.org.
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Categories: Local Government, Local News
It is sadly no surprise to hear of this tragedy.
The city considered bike safety improvements at this stretch of Associated a couple years ago, but decided not to move forward with them because of the potential for inconenience to car drivers.
The changes they did end up implementing were nothing more than poorly-placed paint that fails to remove a point of conflict between southbound bicyclists and cars, who must negotiate in the moment instead of relying on clearly-marked infrastructure.
Several years ago, the city conducted a Walk Audit of Yorba Linda Blvd near this site, yet ignored the glaring need for major active transportation improvements.
Traffic collisions are not accidents; they are predictable infrastructure failures, thanks to the decisions of human beings who chose to put car driver convenience above the safety of road users.
We have been calling out the dangers of this very intersection but the city refused to listen. And this is the result.
I wish these scooter riders a quick and complete recovery. Sadly I do not believe the city will learn its lesson, and it will continue to build unsafe infrastructure under the premise of ‘good enough’ – because that’s all the lives of bicyclists, scooter riders, and pedestrians are worth to the City of Fullerton.
Amy, I am the attorney for one of the women injured. Can you call me at (818) 613-0665
It sounds like they were hit from behind. Gad! Was the truck driver texting? Having a fight on
the phone? Angry/road rager? I hope these women were wearing helmets, and had lights and reflectors. Article didn’t say the if the driver was booked or not, but I sure wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now.
The design of this stretch fails to protect vulnerable road users from such incidents. It forces them to merge into the car travel lane without giving any indication of who has the right-of-way to go first. There are many more options for safer design but the city chose to go with this one, and this horrible tragedy is the result of the city’s negligence.
Let’s pretend scooters are bicycles, they are supposed to follow the rules of the road… rider signals and moves into the lane they want to be in when it is safe to do so. If you are a cyclist in front I guess you have the “right of way” you could go for it but I wouldn’t recommend it. You signal, if they let you in you can go but I would generally slow down watch for an opening (vehicles have passed you) THEN signal and move. If you can.
At this intersection you could be doing three things as a cyclist. Turning right, going straight or turning left.
If you’re approaching the intersection you would already be to the right to turn, staying in the bike line to go straight or signaling to get over to the #2 lane and then the #1 / left turn lane.
The article says the scooters and truck were in the #2 lane which doesn’t actually make sense. The bike lane is separated. There’s no reason to share if you’re going straight.
Maybe they were getting to the left turn lane or maybe they were in the driving lane instead of the bike lane. Or maybe this information is incorrect. Don’t know.
Take a look a the intersection in Google Maps.
I wish someone would create a design that would work and send it to the Observer.
I’m not quite clear what happened.
For a scooterist, southbound at that intersection would be on associated. If they were travelling straight there like a vehicular cyclist, they would be in the green painted bike lane to go straight across into CSUF. A vehicle shouldn’t be sharing the lane with them at all unless it was very wide.
So what happened? Was the box truck hanging over or in the bike line? Was it to their left and going straight or turning?
The article says both vehicles were in the “number 2 lane.”
Does that mean the scooterists were in the car lane? Or are we thinking of the #2 lane as split between the green painted bike lane and the car lane?
The safest conduct of a scooter there is probably riding on the sidewalk and then walking it across the crosswalk which did not happen.
Being like a bicycle, the only good way to do that is to follow all the rules of the road, including signaling and yielding to faster moving traffic. I’ve never seen a scooterist signal, but I guess it could have happened. In this case they’re going straight so there is no signal to give except when they changed lanes.
If they were run down from behind, it’s hard to understand how they would not be seen and avoided aside from a very distracted driver.
One other factor is we have the 3-feet to pass rule on the books, but it’s not clear to me the language applies to drivers passing scooters.
Anyway I don’t know that this intersection is all that unsafe for a bicyclist. I don’t know how sharing the road between scooters and cars is going to be safe in any case.
Any updates on how the two girls are doing? Deeply saddened them being hit on their scooters. I pray they have a full recovery!
We were thinking of getting one for daughter. Changed our mind.
Ed Response: An update is pending the permission of the parents. Stay tuned.
There is a gofundme
https://gofund.me/19bc9674b
It’s not exactly clear what happened because there aren’t enough details to reach a firm conclusion.
I ride this intersection on my bicycle all the time. At this intersection, the bike lane ends, forcing bicyclists and scooter riders going straight to merge into the car travel lanes and then enter into the bike lane that resumes between the straight car travel lane and right-turn pocket. Meanwhile, vehicles turning right have to cross paths with them to turn right. The article doesn’t say what the box truck driver was doing. If it was turning right, it’s entirely possible the scooter riders were doing everything right by signaling, etc and a single moment of negligence could have allowed the driver to ram into them from behind.
I think you were incorrect by saying the riders didn’t need to signal. On this stretch, if they were going straight, they would have needed to change lanes, which could have necessitated signaling.
It’s also very possible that, since this is a conflict zone without clear designation as a bike/car travel lane, the Fullerton PD is labeling it the #2 travel lane, leading to the confusion some commenters are expressing online.
The problem with this road design is that it assumes perfect behavior among all parties at all times. This is not reasonable to expect from human beings. This is why good road design matters – it accounts for and anticipates human error, and minimize tragedy from those inevitable mistakes or negligence.
The intersection is absolutely unsafe for bicyclists and the city should have known this.
No, scooter riders should not be required to use the sidewalk to be safe. They are entitled to use the road and the road should be designed to be safe for them. Bicyclists and scooter rides are vulnerable on sidewalks because of driveways that car drivers routinely overshoot, thus risking a deadly collision.
Also – AB 1909 now supersedes the 3-foot rule: Car drivers are required to change lanes when passing a bicyclist. It’s not just 3 feet anymore.
This urban traffic situation always makes me think of a saying a biker used to say: “These days, if you ride in the city on two wheels, it’s not a question of _if_ you’re going to have an accident, it’s when, and how bad it’ll be.”
He wore a full helmet and thick leather jacket, leather gloves, thick pants, and leather boots, no matter what the weather. And yes, he did have an accident. Fortunately, his gear saved him from getting really messed up, he made a full recovery, and he sold his motorcycle right after that.
The laws need to complete overhaul of what constitutes a bicycle, e bicycle, motorized bicycle, and how they relate to other vehicle traffic, etc etc. The present framework of laws is just a patchwork of State, county, and local municipal regulations. In other words, a bureaucratic and confusing mishmash that sometimes contradict each other. We need some clarity and uniformity to protect everybody who wants to use the roads these days. The present patchwork just isn’t doing the job.
Well in my opinion the law doesn’t keep you safe anyway. If anything will it’s the right gear/equipment and best practices.
For a bicycle that means a helmet and vehicular cycling (right in the correct lane for what you’re doing and do your hand signals). For a scooter, I have no idea. I have never seen any of them signal, and it seems like it would be difficult even if they wanted to. They also seem easier to fall off of to the point that I wouldn’t feel safe on one in street traffic. You need to have good control of your machine.
One thing I do recommend against is riding in the crosswalk. Kids bolt out at full speed on scooters and bikes into the crosswalk. Drivers won’t see you until it’s too late. Maybe it’s the driver’s fault for not stopping or looking but you’re still injured or worse.
The gangs of kids on motorized bikes is just ridiculous. The parents are putting kids on basically ungoverned mini motos capable of 30mph+ with bicycle helmets at best. And no one seems to be teaching them the rules of the road. It’s a recipe for disaster.
It would be good to see some mandatory safety classes to be out in traffic.