Somehow the grieving family has had plenty of time to meet with lawyers to ensure their "payout" (apparently according to other newspaper reports, they have already "settled" with insurance companies.) Sometimes an accident is just an accident. Too bad our culture is so ingratiated with a "need to punish" and greed to be paid blood money to follow... but when it comes to using up public dollars (and they are) well...my sympathies to this family become occulded by the face of their need to be paid cash to make them "whole again"

Susan -

Would you feel differently if you found out this was the truck driver's third fatal accident in less than a year?

Sorry - I meant to say TEN years.

Since I, my husband, and our son often bike "The Loop" -- along with thousands of other local cyclists -- I am deeply grateful to the CHP for pursuing this. How else can our public safety officials try to ensure that it doesn't occur again?

Since the collision was, without third-party witnesses, hard to comprehend, there remains a chance that, for example, that type of truck causes significant suction through that stretch -- which signage or a bike lane or some other mitigation could ameliorate ... or worsen. I'm glad the CHP is trying to understand, as best they can, exactly what might have occurred.

It may not be all about money -- it may be about saving a life. Mine. My kid's. My husband. Yours.