A woman was killed after her bicycle collided head-on with an SUV on rural Mines Road south of Livermore on Sunday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The situation unfolded at about 2:30 p.m. on Mines Road south of San Antonio Valley Road in Santa Clara County, not far from Mount Hamilton.
At that time, a Land Rover driven by a 27-year-old man was traveling southbound on Mines Road while the bicyclist -- identified only as an adult female -- was riding northbound on the rural county road in the same area, according to Officer Ross Lee of the CHP-San Jose office.
"As the Land Rover entered a right-to-left curve in the roadway, the driver allowed the vehicle to drift over the center divider lines by approximately one to two feet," Lee said. "The bicyclist entered this same curve in the roadway, from the opposite direction, and while negotiating through the curve, allowed the bicycle to cross over the solid divider lines."
The SUV and bicycle collided, throwing the cyclist off her bike and onto the roadway, Lee said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office had not released the decedent's name as of Tuesday afternoon. The name of the SUV driver also has not been revealed publicly.
Lee said neither alcohol nor drugs appear to be factors in the crash based on the evidence thus far. The fatal collision remains under investigation by CHP-San Jose.
Comments
Registered user
Livermore
on Feb 8, 2022 at 9:50 am
Registered user
on Feb 8, 2022 at 9:50 am
The CHP is completely wrong and it shows their bias against cyclists. Cyclists who were there say only the car driver crossed the center line. Unless there is video evidence to the contrary we cannot accept the CHP account.
This is common on Mines road - motorists (car, truck, and especially motorcyclists) cross the center routinely. I have personally ridden that road over 200 times and survived many near head ons simply due to my care of keeping to the extreme right on all curves. I have see motorists completely in my lane even on the portions that have a center line (much of the road has no centerline).
This reeks of the same bias as the cyclist fatality in Livermore in December 2021 wherein a negligent gravel truck driver ran over and killed a cyclist. The Livermore police at first claimed the cyclist was at fault because she was in a cross walk. They retracted the claim after numerous people who actually know the law pointed out that the cross walk in question is part of a bike path so cycling across is it is perfectly legal. The Livermore police then "investigated" the incident for another 6 months (!) and then claimed they could not make a determination of who was at fault. Well, clearly the cyclist was not at fault - she was in a cross walk, on a bike path, with an active WALK signal. The driver had a clear view of the cross walk. The driver claims he did not see her - which is an admission that he was not paying attention to the road in front of him - that is, he was clearly negligent and therefore at fault.
We cannot let the CHP do the same thing - "investigate," come to the wrong conclusion and let a dangerously negligent driver off.
Registered user
Livermore
on Feb 8, 2022 at 6:37 pm
Registered user
on Feb 8, 2022 at 6:37 pm
The claim about how both the driver and cyclist crossed the middle lane is wrong. The cyclist was a dear friend of my dads. He talked to the Sargent and coroner himself and both said she (the cyclist) did not cross the yellow line. I don’t know how this false news managed to get on these articles but it’s wrong and I need to make sure what is out there is true.
Registered user
Del Prado
on Feb 9, 2022 at 9:39 am
Registered user
on Feb 9, 2022 at 9:39 am
Pure laziness on the side of the CHP and no conscious on the driver of the SUV. I hope karma gets you. Without a camera it's ALWAYS the cyclist at fault.
Registered user
Livermore
on Feb 16, 2022 at 2:31 pm
Registered user
on Feb 16, 2022 at 2:31 pm
I wish reporters would get the facts right. The description of the incident site is incomprehensible. Mines road stops at the junction of highway 130. After that, south of that junction, it is San Antonio road. So the description given completely mixes up those two roads. It was nowhere near my Hamilton from information given by cyclists on Strava. It was actually north of that junction between mile 22 and 23 of mines road, on a ridge known as Elar ridge.
Registered user
another community
on Feb 20, 2022 at 9:40 pm
Registered user
on Feb 20, 2022 at 9:40 pm
Thank you for the input on the case, including the descriptions of the terrain and location. The circumstances described in our story correctly reflects the incident details provided by the CHP-San Jose office, and is cited as such. We will ask follow-ups on these points of factual disagreement, as well as continue to track the status of their (likely months-long) investigation into the cyclist's death.