Bike vs car vs bus

[Gob]

This is an attempted hit and run accident that occurred on the Fahy Bridge in Bethlehem, PA on 4/2/12.

The offending driver, a juvenile, attempted to pass a bus on the left and struck a bicyclist from behind. As the driver fled the scene, the bus driver blocked the bridge to prevent the person from fleeing. Another citizen also blocked the offending car's path.

The driver was taken into custody and charged with multiple offenses, including Pennsylania's latest law to protect cyclists that went into effect on this day.

On 02 April 2012 at approximately 3:06 p.m., expert cyclist Frank Pavlick was struck from behind while riding across the Fahy Bridge. Mr. Pavlick was hit by a seventeen year old juvenile who was attempting to pass a LANTA bus. Immediately following the impact, the juvenile attempted to flee the scene to avoid identification and apprehension.

The driver of the LANTA bus, identified as Richard Gubish, Jr., saw the crash in his rear view mirror and also saw the driver attempting to get away. Mr. Gubish took immediate and decisive action and positioned his bus across the lanes of the bridge, effectively blocking the path of the getaway driver. Another witness to the crash, Judson Smull, stopped to render aid to the injured Pavlick, who implored Smull to go after the offending driver to get the license plate. Smull also took immediate action, and following the lead of Mr. Gubish, positioned his car directly behind the offending vehicle, further blocking any attempt to escape.


The next vehicle across the bridge was a marked Bethlehem Police car being operated by veteran Officer Wade Haubert. Officer Haubert stopped at Mr. Pavlick to render aid, and learning that he was not seriously injured, proceeded to take the offending juvenile into custody.

The quick and selfless actions by Mr. Gubish and Mr. Smull brought this potentially tragic situation to a very positive conclusion. Without their decisive actions, the offending driver may not have been apprehended. We would like to thank Mr. Gubish and Mr. Smull for their selfless dedication to their community and for acting to help another in a time of need.

Good work by the bus driver and the other car!

[BoSoxGal]

Score one for the good guys!

[The Hen]

Yay!

[Jarlaxle]

If there were any passengers on the bus, I hope they shit-canned the driver on the spot.

(And damn, what IDIOT tries to ride a bicycle on THAT bridge! Walk it across on the pedestrian path, dude!)

[The Hen]

Thanks for that Jarl. I mustard mitt after viewing the clip, I was surprised to see him riding in the middle of the lane with a path next to him.

Over here, even the most hardened cycle nazis would not position themselves as he had when.

[Lord Jim]

And damn, what IDIOT tries to ride a bicycle on THAT bridge!

An extraordinarily arrogant one....

If there were any passengers on the bus, I hope they shit-canned the driver on the spot.

Absolutely. What if the kid had been packin' heat?

That dope of a bus driver had absolutely no idea what kind of endangerment he could have created.

[BoSoxGal]

Really??

The speed limit on the bridge is 35mph; the law allows cyclists to travel in the lane; there are two lanes.

There is no reason for the cyclist not to continue traveling on the road.

The bus driver has an elevated view of the road and presumably used good judgment in barring the offending vehicle's getaway. He may have seen the oncoming police cruiser, too.

I think what he did was reasonable. So too, apparently, did law enforcement and city officials.

eta:

Frank Pavlick was riding home from his welding job Monday afternoon when a car hit him.

A welder who bikes to work! Who'da thunk it? Wasn't there one in a movie once, too?

[Lord Jim]

He may have seen the oncoming police cruiser, too.

That would be all the more reason for him not to do what he did, and endangering his passengers...(and if he could see that then he could presumably see that the bicyclist was completely uninjured as well)

I think what he did was reasonable. So too, apparently, did law enforcement and city officials.

Are law enforcement officials generally in the habit of encouraging civilian drivers to use their vehicles (especially public transit vehicles) to assist them in stopping hit and run suspects?

The proper thing for the driver to have done would have been to pullover to the side of the road and radio in a car description and hopefully a license plate number.

The quick and selfless actions by Mr. Gubish and Mr. Smull brought this potentially tragic situation to a very positive conclusion. Without their decisive actions, the offending driver may not have been apprehended. We would like to thank Mr. Gubish and Mr. Smull for their selfless dedication to their community and for acting to help another in a time of need.

Are you assuming that's a quote from the authorities? (If it is, it sure reads like a very strange thing for them to say....if it's a press account it's not very professional with that type of slanted editorializing) There's no link in the OP attributing the article. It could have been written by a cycling blogger or a personal friend of the guy who got hit for all we know...

[BoSoxGal]

G - O - O - G - L - E

LANTA bus driver, Bethlehem teen honored for helping catch hit-and-run driver during Fahy Bridge bicycle crash

The 43-year-old LANTA bus driver and 17-year-old Liberty student who helped police catch the teen who struck a bicyclist on the Fahy Bridge Monday said they acted out of instinct when they boxed in the suspect who tried to flee from the wreck.

Bethlehem Police Commissioner Jason Schiffer and Mayor John Callahan honored Richard Gubish Jr., 43, of Northampton, and Jud Smull, 17, of Bethlehem during a news conference this afternoon to commend their quick thinking.
“I’m just glad I got there quick,” said Gubish before the event, his hands stuffed in his LANTA jacket.

Frank Pavlick, 50, of Bethlehem, was hit Monday afternoon by a 17-year-old driver in the northbound lanes of the Fahy Bridge. Seconds after the impact, the driver sped off, but up ahead Gubish, driving a Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority bus, quickly maneuvered the vehicle to stop him. Smull followed the suspect, blocking him from getting away until police arrived.

Smull, who is on track to be valedictorian of his class, was on his way to a track meet after leaving a Lehigh University class when he saw the crash unfold in front of him.

Smull said he followed the driver after Pavlick frantically waved him on.
“I was thinking he was going to stop and get out and say, ‘Are you OK?’ But he did not. It looked like he was going to get away,” Smull said. “I was worried he would take off on foot. But he stayed there and accepted that he was trapped.”
Pavlick, who attended today’s event, expressed his gratitude to both men.
“These guys, I’ve been waiting to meet and say thanks in public and in private,” Pavlick said during remarks.
Pavlick suffered minor injuries in the wreck and said he expects to meet next week with a chiropractor. His bike, however, was totaled and is in police custody as evidence. The 50-year-old acknowledged that the result could have been far worse than bruising and a busted bike.
“If I didn’t have any more work to do here, I don’t think I would be here,” Pavlick said. “It’s a real gift to be here.”

The police commissioner showed a video of the wreck unfolding, recorded by bridge cameras. The suspect can be seen trying to pass a car, swerve back into the right lane and then hit Pavlick from behind. The teenage culprit takes barely a moment before he speeds off and is stopped by Gubish’s bus.

Frank Pavlick, Jud Smull and Richard Gubish Jr. sit together during news conference honoring quick actions by Gubish and Smull that helped police arrest the driver who struck Pavlick on Monday on the Fahy Bridge in Bethlehem.

Callahan said the incident reflects the character of Bethlehem residents. He hopes citizens remember that bicycling is a form of transportation in the city that deserves respect of other drivers.
“Motorists in the community need to be aware this is a bike-friendly community,” Callahan said. “We need to share the road.”
The crash occurred on the first day of the state’s new bicycle law requiring motorists to give cyclists a 4-foot cushion while passing them on the road.

Schiffer, an avid cyclist himself, said the city expects such heroic and quick thinking as was displayed Monday from its public servants, but not always its residents.
“When we see that type of quality in our citizens, it warms our heart,” Schiffer said, addressing the men of the hour. “We don’t know if we would have caught the driver, so I thank you.”

Gubish’s father, Richard Gubish Sr., of Bethlehem, said he watched the video with pride, if not surprise.
“That’s my son,” Gubish said. “He’d do that.”
Smull’s mother, Deb Smull, said her son is willing to go out of the way for others, so Monday’s actions were not out of character.
“He’s a very good boy,” she said, as her son smiled sheepishly and looked away. “I feel so blessed.”

[Gob]

Beat me too it...

From the side mirrors of his LANTA bus, Richard Gubish Jr. looked behind him to see that a motorist had struck a cyclist and was attempting to flee the scene on the Fahy Bridge in Bethlehem on Monday.

Gubish, who has driven the bus for more than four years, didn't want the driver to get away, so he used his bus to pin him against the bridge.

The driver, an unidentified 17-year-old boy, attempted to reverse his way out, but he had no luck there.

Jud Smull had just finished a calculus course at Lehigh University – the school he will be attending in the fall – and was headed over the bridge to get to his high school track meet when he came upon the hit-and-run crash and the bus attempting to stop the fleeing driver.

Using his car, Smull blocked the hit-and-run driver and Bethlehem police arrived shortly after.

On Thursday, Gubish, 43, of Northampton, and Smull, 17, of Bethlehem, were honored by Bethlehem city officials for their courage in stopping the driver who struck Frank Pavlick, one of the area's leading bicycling safety advocates.

Pavlick suffered mostly scrapes, bruises and soreness from being thrown off his bike, which was destroyed in the crash.

Mayor John Callahan presented Gubish and Small with proclamations naming the day in their honor, and also stressed that their actions should be a reminder that motorists need to "share the road."

"They need to be aware and cognizant that they are out there and handle their motor vehicles appropriately," he said.

Police Commissioner Jason Schiffer, an avid cyclist, presented the two heroes with commemorative coins and said if it wasn't for their actions, police may have never have caught the fleeing driver.

"It warms your heart that people still care about one another enough to put themselves out there and take immediate action and do the right thing," he said.

Pavlick met Gubish and Smull – who is on pace to be Liberty's valedictorian this year – for the first time during a news conference Thursday at Bethlehem Town Hall.

"I've been waiting to meet you guys and say thanks," he told them.

Pavlick's $1,500 bike was destroyed and his helmet was cracked, but he said the crash will not keep him from riding. Pavlick, who turns 52 next week, said this is the second time he has been struck by a car in his 30-plus years of cycling, but he has had "thousands" of near misses.

Pavlick, manager of the Coalition for Appropriate Transportation's Bethlehem Bicycle Cooperative, said now is an important time to stress bike safety since many people will be gearing up to ride in nicer weather. He also said he will use his own crash footage when he gives lessons on bike safety.

"This is a great message to put out there," he said.

Absolutely. What if the kid had been packin' heat?

That dope of a bus driver had absolutely no idea what kind of endangerment he could have created.

What a sad way to live.