Last night while walking our dog on Green River Trail at 212th St. in Kent, a man riding a bicycle at a high rate of speed went between my wife and our dog, hitting the leash and tumbling to the pavement.
The force of his bicycle hitting the leash ripped it from my wife’s hand, knocking her to the ground and sent our miniature schnauzer flying. My wife hurt her left thumb, her right shoulder and had a couple of cuts on her forehead. The man on the bicycle was also in obvious pain. He said he yelled his intention to pass, but I was behind my wife by about 20 feet and did not hear anything until I heard him fall.
My wife heard nothing either. Fortunately there were no serious injuries. I have walked on this trail quite a bit and cannot count the times I have almost been struck by these bicycle riders, who think they are in the Tour de France, traveling at high rates of speed.
Sometimes they give warning of their intentions to pass, however, at the speeds they travel their warnings come as a surprise and you cannot understand on which side they are going to pass. I think they should be required to slow down when approaching pedestrians. They need to realize that there are small children and senior citizens who also share this trail and their reaction time might not be fast enough for them to get out of the bicyclist’s way.
Those who want to travel at a high rate of speed should use the public streets and compete with the autos.
Ted Hillis
Kent
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