Tuesday morning at around 11, a cyclist collided with a motor vehicle that was heading north on Guerrero at the intersection with 24th.
Peter Bagain, the owner of Jump Start Coffee and Groceries, across from where the collision occurred, "heard what sounded like two cars hitting each other." He ran outside and saw the aftermath. "I saw the guy on the ground, blood gushing."
He didn't see the crash, so he can only speculate about who was at fault.
How did they know the cyclist ran the red light? A couple of paragraphs down, we see the word "allegedly" and the phrase "according to police."
But with that headline, the damage was already done.
Our friends at Hoodline wrote in the body of their story that a "...bicyclist ran a red light [emphasis added] at the intersection of Guerrero and 24th St. and struck a car." That bit of information wasn't even attributed to anyone.
The intersection, looking north, during a rare break in speeding traffic. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
For the record, here are more details about the crash: Luis Sanjose, the manager of Fiore Cafe on the southeast corner of the intersection, showed Streetsblog some security video that captured part of the intersection at the time of the crash. He said that nobody else has seen his video. Although the impact occurred outside of the frame and the bicycle was not visible, the traffic light is visible, along with cars stopping and people looking (towards the sound of an impact presumably), standing, and running towards something across the intersection. And yes, going by that video evidence, and some consistent hearsay about witness statements, it seems likely that the cyclist ran a solid red light.
Either way, Sanjose said he's seen six crashes since 2010 and he wants something done to make the intersection safer.
"People get off San Jose and continue driving like this is a freeway," said Bagain, pointing at the cars on Guerrero street, all clearly going faster than the 25 mph posted speed limit. "If I were a cop I could stand here all day writing ticket after ticket."
He also said he can't get the sight of all that blood, plus the sound of the cyclist's labored breathing, out of his head. "Nobody deserves that, even if it was his fault."
Update on the status of the bike path on the RSR bridge; Santa Cruz transit about to get a lot better; Headstone could delay Metro expansion; Free transit on Clean Air Day (this Wednesday); More
L.A. County needs to embrace physically-protected bikeways, robust traffic calming around schools, and similarly transformative, safety-focused projects