Truck at fault
This "ghost bike" on a pole at Maryland and Lafayette avenues commemorates John R. Yates, a bicyclist who was killed there last week in a collision with a truck. (Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / August 9, 2009)
As Baltimore police continued to search Wednesday for the driver of a truck that fatally struck a bicyclist this month at a downtown intersection, an attorney representing the victim's family said a surveillance video shows that the vehicle "just abruptly took a right without a turn signal," causing the collision.
About 11:40 a.m. Aug. 4, John R. "Jack" Yates, 67, of Charles Village was riding south on Maryland Avenue when he got tangled in the rear wheels of the truck at West Lafayette Avenue. He died at the scene.
Investigators have not identified the driver of the truck, said Agent Donny Moses, a city police spokesman.
But attorney Steven D. Silverman, who is representing Yates' family, said the outdoor surveillance video obtained from a nearby business shows that the truck driver had not signaled the right turn onto West Lafayette from Maryland Avenue. The video, however, does not show the license plate or any other identifying marks on the truck. Yates' family is looking for video from any other sources within a 10-block radius of the accident scene that may contain that information, Silverman said.
Police have said that the driver may not have been aware of the collision. But according to Silverman, two eyewitnesses to the crash described loud noises when both Yates and the bicycle were hit.
"The driver had to have known he had hit somebody, and that's why he hasn't come forward," Silverman said, adding that under state law, drivers must remain at the scene of an accident when someone is injured.
Based on the eyewitness reports and video, Silverman believes the driver of the truck was at fault for failing to signal the turn and for making a turn without determining that the intersection was clear.
"Mr. Yates was traveling on the far right side, going straight," Silverman said. "...He did not crash into the rear [of the truck]. He was literally taken under the passenger-side rear wheel." http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-bicyclist-death0812,0,5941143.story
What's Related