triathlete killed by drunk this morning

I was there.  The front of the car was destroyed along with the guys bike(I didn't see his body).  Happened about 20 minutes before I got to the scene.  That was scary!!!!!  As a side note, this was my first triathlon, and I am not too sure about my future.  They cancelled the race half way through and made everyone leave.  Very eerie.

So the not only drinks and drives and KILLS a cylist, but then FLEES, and THEN assaults an officer ?

x2 on the so sad and so angry.

This is just horrible.

I'm pretty sure (and hope) that this guy is getting locked up for a LOOONG time.

So Sad.

So, so sad.

R.I.P. Mr. Carr.

Wow, is that horrifying!  Thoughts and prayers to the family and friends he leaves behind.  

As sad as it is, don't let this scare you away from triathlon. As morbid as it sounds, you can get killed doing just about anything. The most dangerous part of your race, statistically speaking, is still the drive to the race site.

I see dead/dying/injured people all the time, and if anything it's motivated me to live life to the fullest, because you really never know when it's going to be over. There's really no way to absolutely shield yourself from getting hurt/killed in this world--you just do the best you can to be safe and accept that sometimes your number's just up.

Well said.

I always feel safest on early morning rides because there is less traffic--I would never have thought I'd have to worry about a drunk driver at that hour. What a horrible tragedy.

I see dead/dying/injured people all the time, and if anything it's motivated me to live life to the fullest, because you really never know when it's going to be over. There's really no way to absolutely shield yourself from getting hurt/killed in this world--you just do the best you can to be safe and accept that sometimes your number's just up.

Stick with the awareness part. Mirrors and blinkies and bright colors, for the most part, are maybe a tiny bit effective but mostly a false sense of security. There's no amount of bright color and blinkies that would've prevented the tragedy in this thread.

Unless it's a COMPLETELY closed course, and even then, being a little wary when you come to an intersection is never a bad idea. You never know when some yahoo is going to blow by the road guard. Happened in a crit I was racing once--dude rolls right over a row of orange cones with a road guard screaming at him and almost runs head-on into a 120-rider pack.

Edited by DrPete 2009-08-01 6:27 PM

I used to do criminal defense work and I am very in-tune with a lot of the inequities of the criminal justice system.  There's a lot of over-charging and bogus charges being laid against people.  It's a shame and it really makes some people's lives very difficult.  [I won't get into that here, there's valid points on both sides, but a lot of law-and-order people don't see the whole picture.]

That being said, I think its a good thing that drunk driving accidents involving deaths are being treated as murder cases.  Its tough to say that knowing that I'll typically side with the defendant. This is such an easily avoidable tragedy.

This is chilling and horrifying.    My thoughts go out to the family.