The number of bicyclist-related collisions along Mountain View’s roadways grew during the first half of 2016, according to a new report released by the Mountain View Police Department. The report shows that the city has experienced a steady increase in pedestrian and bike-related collisions since 2012.
The report, which is available on the Mountain View city website, shows that police responded to 20 bike accidents in the months of April, May and June, amounting to a 54 percent increase compared with the same period in 2015. Most of these traffic accidents led to either a “severe” or visible injury, while seven bicyclists reported pain following the collision.
Consistent with past traffic reports, most of the collisions occurred on major thoroughfares in the city, with five occurring on or near Rengstorff Avenue, according to the report. The most severe collision occurred on June 6, when a driver who had parked on the side of Rengstorff Avenue opened a car door into the bike lane, causing an oncoming cyclist to crash into the door and fall onto the pavement. A witness at the scene told the Voice that the victim was badly injured, and was treated by Mountain View fire crews before being taken away by ambulance.
Despite the overall uptick in pedestrian collisions in the first half of 2016 compared with the same period last year, police reported 43 percent fewer car-versus-pedestrian incidents in the second half of that period compared with the same period in 2015. Two of the four accidents over the last three months, however, resulted in severe injury, according to the police report.
One of the pedestrians was pushing a 2-year-old in a stroller across Leghorn Street on May 4 when they were both struck and injured by a driver, roughly 150 feet west of Rengstorff Avenue. The 48-year-old pushing the stroller suffered severe injuries, while the child suffered a “visible” injury, according to the report.
Seven days later, another pedestrian suffered severe injuries when struck by a driver while walking across Rengstorff Avenue, just south of San Ramon Avenue.
In both of the accidents, the pedestrian was determined to be at fault, according to police reports.
In response to a Voice request for additional information, police spokeswoman Katie Nelson said department won’t release details of traffic collisions to the general public, with the exception of incidents that result in fatalities.
Bruce England, a member of Mountain View’s bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee, told the Voice in an email that the committee relies on the same, fairly vague traffic reports by the Mountain View Police Department that the Voice has access to, and that committee members have expressed hopes that police could release more useful details in the reports.
“It can be a challenge to envision what happened in specific cases based on the report entries themselves,” England said in the email. “Our understanding of these reports, not to mention the public’s, is key to our being able to recommend or request systemic changes for improvements to help reduce the number and severity of incidents.”
The other challenge is comparing year-to-year counts on bike and pedestrian accidents when the police department is changing the way it tallies traffic collisions. Starting in July of last year, police began reporting out all traffic accidents, rather than just the ones that resulted in injuries, in an effort to improve traffic safety and enforcement in the city. Two of the 20 bike collisions in the second quarter of this year resulted in “no injury,” according to the report.
The bright spot in the report is that Mountain View has had no traffic deaths this year to date. In 2015, the city grappled with a spike in bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities — six in total — prompting demands for greater traffic safety measures along some of the city’s more dangerous thoroughfares.
Residents demanded major safety improvements at the intersection of El Monte Avenue and Marich Way late last year, following the death of 54-year-old Los Altos resident Michelle Montalvo. Montalvo was walking in a crosswalk when she was struck by an SUV heading north on El Monte.
Email Kevin Forestieri at kforestieri@mv-voice.com
