OOOOklahoma, where the texting will kill you just as dead...

[jtuck004]

Man Bicycling Across America Killed In Oklahoma Wreck

ELK CITY, Oklahoma - A man bicycling across America to raise money for affordable housing died after being hit by a car in western Oklahoma Thursday morning.
Patrick Wanninkhof, 25, was hit while riding on Highway 152 south of Elk City at 8:05 a.m. on Thursday, July 30, 2015, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. He died at the scene.

The OHP said another bicyclist - identified as Bridget Anderson, 22 - was hurt in the same crash. Troopers said she was stable when she was airlifted to OU Medical Center with a leg injury.

According to the trooper's report, Wanninkhof and Anderson were riding west when a westbound 2014 Chevy driven by Sarah Morris, 34, of Cordell hit them. She told troopers she was distracted by looking at her phone when she hit the bicyclists, according to the OHP report. Morris wasn't hurt, troopers said....

http://www.newson6.com/story/29673795/man-bicycling-across-america-killed-in-oklahoma-wreck

Part of a Habitat for Humanity Team that biked across the country, raised money to build homes for the increasing number of people who can't afford them.

This is the loss of a good guy for nothing. Not a fucking thing. The woman he was with was airlifted with injuries to OKC. I don't know how she is.


It won't do him any good, but I would just as soon people be charged with second degree murder in such cases.

[BlueJazz]

1. Aw Geez...distracted by looking at her phone. How many times have we heard that?

[Art_from_Ark]

2. I simply cannot understand the "need" to look at a phone while driving

When I'm driving, I try to have no distractions at all-- no phone/texting, no eating, nothing dangling from the rear-view mirror. Those are just unnecessary risks that could have terrible consequences.

[840high]

3. Today I actually screamed at

a man who stopped in the middle of an intersection to check his phone.

[jtuck004]

4. There isn't a need that overrides others need, or right, to live. I am no longer

astounded at how low we can go, but I can't imagine what the first person who made an excuse for that special kind of stupid was thinking.

[uhnope]

10. "thinking"? nt

[Duppers]

12. Same here, Art. My son was rear-ended last summer

By a 19yr old texting. Totalled his car. The young man's ins. co. paid blue book on my son's car, which covered only a fraction of a new car. And then, there was the huge time sink, work days lost.
Yet, it could have been worse--no one was injured or KILLED, as was this innocent biker.

Why must these idiots endanger lives and property over something that can wait? Stupid, self-indulgent, impatient, impulsive...people. Sounds like some collective personality disorder has struck U.S. drivers.

[murielm99]

14. If I am in an unfamiliar area,

if the weather is bad, or if the traffic is fast and heavy, I do not even listen to the radio. I turn it off and concentrate on driving.

Kids can be the worst distractions of all. I guess it is a good thing mine are grown.

[longship]

5. Jail for Sarah Morris for texting while driving.

Seize her phone and see that she was texting. Then lock her up for manslaughter.

[oasis]

7. The accident must have traumatized her to the point she admitted to

texting while driving.

[Divernan]

9. Her FB photo was selfie taken while driving.

From the Comments section to the OP link:
Bill Asher · Lake Washington High School
Her Facebook profile pic, which she removed today, was a selfie she took while driving. Irony much?

Liz Kowalsky
link?

Bill Asher · Lake Washington High School
Like I said, she deleted her fb page. But I downloaded the selfie before she did. So it exists somewhere. There were more than one driving selfies on her page. She is a reckless stupid person.

Bill Asher · Lake Washington High School
Her fb profile was under the name Sarah M. Purdon.

[Logical]

16. How long? nt

[Lizzie Poppet]

6. Second degree murder, for sure.

If common fucking sense isn't enough to keep morons from indulging their text addiction at lethally appropriate times, maybe a couple decades in an orange jumpsuit will do the trick. No smartphone in prison, either...

[Divernan]

8. Just a question of what degree of manslaughter to charge her with.

He was part of a group called Bike & Build, whose members ride across the country to raise money for affordable housing. This particular group had stopped in Tulsa on Sunday, July 26, 2015 where they spent time working with Habitat For Humanity. Tulsa Habitat for Humanity said Wanninkhof was a group leader of the 26-member team that stopped in Tulsa.

(7/26/2015: Related Story: Group Bikes Across America, Stops In Tulsa To Help Senior Citizen Paint His Home)

According to his Bike & Build page, Wanninkhof graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida in 2012 with a degree in Materials Engineering. He was then accepted into Teach for America and was teaching Physics and Computer Science at a public performing arts school in the Bronx. He said he earned a Masters in Teaching Adolescent Physics from Fordham University in 2014.

He wrote that he decided to bike from Maine to California after a student told him she and her mom had been moving between relatives' houses every week because they couldn't pay rent. "How on earth could I expect her to give her all to Newton's Laws when she wasn't sure where she'd be sleeping that evening?" he wrote.

[uhnope]

11. the bikers' lives, the driver's life, their families' lives, wrecked because of the "smartphone"

[Live and Learn]

13. It doesn't say she was texting.

It said she looked at the phone. There could be multiple reasons for her action including using a gps mapping app like Waze.

There are so many ways to be distracted while driving and most of us are sometimes distracted and lucky that nothing happens.

[Logical]

17. True, no worse than changing a radio station, makeup, smoking, looking at GPS, etc. nt

[Mnemosyne]

15. Dammit! Have had this ear worm since yesterday. Thanks so much, jtuck!

[jtuck004]

18. 50 years+ of listening to that state song makes it echo at the oddest times. n/t

[Mnemosyne]

19. Seriously, I bet!

[LiberalElite]

20. Great title! but

Sad story. When will people wake up?

[Initech]

21. I had to honk at a texter driver earlier. Boy that pisses me off to no end.

[kwolf68]

22. Horrible

The victim seemed like one hell of a great guy, a smart cookie, proned to helping others by hearing a story about a homeless relative of a student. We need MORE people like him, NOT less.

[Jowen64]

23. Bike and Build rider killed

My daughter is riding with this group. They're at the Grand Canyon today heading west tomorrow. Bridget, the other cyclist hit, just had her 6th surgery Saturday. I personally couldn't give one goddamn what SARAH MORRIS' story is, whether she's a doting mommie, a productive member of the work force, or a pillar of society...she took her eye of the road long enough to kill one person and maim another. If she'd have been drunk, she'd have never left the jail cell from the time of the accident. Texting while driving is worse in my opinion. At least drunks have the decency to look down the road before they go to jail. This idiot took an incredible human being away from us and scarred 30 others for life. She had better be charged or I personally plan to shame the hell out of the OSP and prosecutors office.

[LeftishBrit]

24. In the UK, it is ABSOLUTELY forbidden to use a mobile phone while driving

The ONLY exception is for an urgent call to Emergency Services.

I'm surprised it's not the same everywhere.