Photo Courtesy RMG News
An 18-year-old apparently lost control speeding downhill and ran into a wall
UPDATE: Sources close to the event informed us that the rider was on a “fixie” bike which has no brakes, and was not wearing a helmet. Very sad for the local biking community. 2000 riders participated in Friday’s Los Angeles Critical Mass event escorted by LAPD.
An autopsy was pending on Saturday into the cause of death of an 18-year-old man who was killed when he lost control of his bicycle and crashed into a wall on the UCLA campus in Westwood, officials said.
The rider died at UCLA Medical Center, where he was taken after the crash at 9:50 p.m. Friday on De Nave Drive and Charles E. Young Drive, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. C. Clark of the West Traffic Division, which was investigating the accident.
Jerico Culata of Los Angeles was participating in the Critical Mass ride when he lost control of his bike and slammed into a masonry wall, Clark said.
Culata went wide on a downhill curve, his friend told a photographer outside the hospital.
Several other riders also crashed, but none was seriously hurt, according to Culata’s friend.
There was also trouble at the Critical Mass cycling event in San Diego on Friday night. A San Diego police officer was recovering after being hit in the head with a screwdriver that a rider allegedly threw.
It was unclear if any of the riders were arrested near Sixth Avenue and Market Street downtown, where the crime occurred about 9:10 p.m. Friday. The officer was taken to a hospital with a bleeding head wound, Officer David Stafford told the U-T San Diego.
The last-Friday-of-the-month ride, held in about 300 cities worldwide, is an outgrowth of the Critical Mass movement started in San Francisco in 1992.
The name of the ride refers to the number of riders needed to dominate streets.
In Southern California, the riders can sometime be rowdy. In other cases, the riders don’t follow the rules of the road.
For instance, “corking” is when a handful of the leaders block an intersection to enable the larger pack of riders to pass through.
Run-ins with police during Critical Mass rides are not uncommon, since some riders apparently embrace the night time tours as a form of protest.
Some of the riders are on bikes with no brakes, said a rider who participated in the Friday night event in Westwood. It was not immediately known whether the teen who died was on a bike with no brakes.
If the truth be known, this Los Angeles Critical Mass Group is a good group. There are very few Problems since the group and the Los Angeles Police Department, came to terms with the Monthly ride. The LAPD, has escorted this ride for a long time. The ride is made up of a cross section Los Angeles, old and young, parents and children alike, with the common goal of making it a safe ride for all involved. Although there is no one Leader, Lots of volunteers, do their best to make the rides safe and enjoyable, as does The Los Angeles Police Department and it’s supervisors and officers alike. Police officers in the past have donated helmets for riders that otherwise could not afford them. The NBC article quoted here, blatantly misstates the goals of Critical mass as I know it here in Los Angeles. I think to re print the NBC article is an affront to the Police officers and riders alike that work so hard to make this a ride for all. The death of this young man is tragic, however it was an accident, not unlike the hundreds of solo bicycle accidents in Los Angeles every year.
most of these riders don’t wear helmets and they ride these stupid trendy brakeless bikes. i’m glad there was only one fatality. this time.