A Death in Springfield

In Springfield last weekend a young man was killed on his bicycle when he was stuck by a car. I don't have much to say about this. It's a terrible tragedy, and I can't even begin to imagine the pain that his loved ones are feeling.

After reading the story linked above, I made the mistake of scrolling down to read the comments. And that's where I found a couple of commenters using the article (in which the victim's name was released, no less) as a sounding board to advocate for bicycles to be on the sidewalks where they belong.

Here's Kelli Jones Hodges, showing her keen intellect and insight on bicycle safety:

Nothing to do with the accident indeed. I particularly enjoyed that this dumbass comment received a 'Like' from some other idiot.

And Kelli was followed a few hours later by Laura Stitt with this gem:

See what Laura does there? She doesn't come right out and blame the victim. Instead she indicates that the motorist's only fault was leaving the scene. That's just disgusting.

I was glad to see other commenters noting that bicycles are much safer on the roadways acting predictably as a part of traffic than they are on the sidewalk. But even so, the above comments are prime examples of some pretty disgraceful shit.