1 dead, 5 injured when pedicab collides with scooter, van in Seattle

[Trixi.com]

One person was killed and five injured when a pedicab collided with a scooter and a van shortly before 7 p.m. Wednesday at a busy Belltown intersection.

1 dead, 5 injured when pedicab collides with scooter, van in Seattle

One person was killed and five injured when a van, a scooter and a pedicab collided at Western Avenue and Cedar Street in the Belltown district on this evening. The damaged pedicab lies on its side in the intersection following the accident the accident.

Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel said preliminary witness statements indicated a pedicab with two passengers may have suffered an equipment failure and was coming downhill westbound on the sidewalk of Cedar Street when it entered the intersection with Western Avenue against the red light. The pedicab first collided with a scooter and then a white van, he said.

A 60-year-old male passenger of the pedicab died at the scene. A female passenger, also 60, and the male pedicab driver, 23, were transported to Harborview Medical Center with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries, Kappel said.

The male scooter driver, 57; the male van driver, 20; and his female passenger were all treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Kappel said there was no indication that alcohol was a factor in the accident.

Vinnie Brassesco, who lives in an apartment building at Western Avenue and Cedar Street, saw the aftermath of the accident.

"I was sitting in my apartment, and I heard a boom. Really loud. I looked out. One guy was under the van, the other guy was pressed up against the front tire, and the lady was laying in the road," he said.

[Ken Cameron]

I have collected many of the news reports on this accident together on my website.

http://austinpedicab.org/category/seattle-accidents/

From what I can tell the pedicab had a single "brake". It looks to be a band brake of some sort. One story is quoting another pedicab owner as saying that the cab in question did not have any hand brakes. From the pictures that I have seen of the cab in the accident, I could not see any hand brakes at all.

Also the driver on the cab had only been working at that company for a few weeks. Previously he had been working in Austin. I don't know his name.

One thing that I can tell you is at that the City department in Austin that inspects our vehicles checks to make sure that brakes can stop the cab quickly.

It sure would suck to be the new guy stuck with the crappy cab that has no brakes in a city your don't know, especially after having ridden cabs that do have good brakes.

[WhyWalk]

[FONT='Calibri','sans-serif']I would like to send my condolence to all that is involved and I wish
the best for Ryan and His crew at Cascadia Cab.

The pedicab in question is not a Why Walk Pedicab. However, we did
sell Cascadia Cabs their first 8 bikes which had three braking systems
2 which are disc brakes, also comes with a lightning systems. The
owner then back doored me through my supplier of cab bodies and
brought in a whole bunch of bikes that by no means should have ever
hit the streets. We manufacture our bikes in Orlando, Florida with
the best in foreign and domestic parts. 21 speed shimano gears,
Suntour suspension forks with lock out, front and rear avid disc
brakes, 1 1/8 cane creek headsets, with rhino lite downhill front
wheels. I only wish that he might have listened to me when I said it
not as easy as it looks to manufacture bikes there is a lot of
scrutiny that goes in to the components that go on our pedicabs. I
have decades of experience in the cycling industry and we do a
tremendous amount of research and development with our pedicabs. I
know the difference of what works and what doesn't on a pedicab. I
would have never brought that bike on to the street without making
serious safety modification to the pedicab, which by the sounds of it
was obviously not done. They use are picture for their website to
entice people to buy their bikes but that is not what you are getting.
You are getting a sad knock off without the attention to detail that
my company puts into each and every trike we put on the streets. My
family has been in this industry well over 50 years and we care about
the operators and passengers and believe that safety comes first and
foremost.

So from all of us at Why Walk Pedicab be safe and happy pedaling,

Gina M. Garcia
Executive Director
Why Walk Enterprises

[/FONT]

[tdayuk]

My condolences to all involved, this accident sounds like it could have been prevented, which may leave some one open to a law suit for negligence.

I hope the company & makers have done all possible checks, test and have insurance, as it has cost some ones life and badly effected two others.

It's any companies worst nightmare & I hope that it will offer a sharp warning to thous members of the industry who are looking to save money in the wrong place. I'm gutted and saddened that this has happened.

[Ken Cameron]

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/C...?oid=643648&hp

Concerned that the driver of a pedicab involved in a fatal crash in Belltown on August 6 is being set up as a fall guy in the accident, a now-former worker for the same pedicab company has told The Stranger that it’s just as likely the accident was caused by shoddy maintenance and lax safety.


Referring to the owner of Cascadia Cabs, Ryan Hashagen, this former employee said: “I’ve been reading what Ryan has been saying to the media and I want to say the other side of it… He’s blaming the driver when I think that there are poor management practices that are actually to blame for the accident.”


According to an August 7 report by KOMO News headlined “Pedicab owner: Driver at fault in deadly crash,” and still posted on the station’s website, Hashagen placed blame for the accident squarely on the driver of the pedicab: “There were no mechanical problems with a Cascadia Cabs pedicab involved in a deadly collision with a minivan Wednesday in Seattle, says the owner of the company, who blames the driver for the crash.


“Ryan Hashagen of Bellingham, the company’s owner, said the brakes of the three-wheeled touring vehicle were working properly, and that the driver should never have taken the pedicab down such a steep slope.”


The former employee, who spoke to The Stranger in our offices on the condition of anonymity out of fear of legal retribution, worked at Cascadia at the time of the accident. The former employee, along with a current employee whose employment could not be verified by press time, said Cascadia doesn’t provide enough braking mechanisms on its pedicabs, relies on inexperienced bikers, and is insufficiently thorough in safety training.


Cascadia’s pedicabs have only a simple braking mechanism: a metal bar connected to a leather strap. There are no hand brakes on the pedicabs.


The August 6 accident occurred when the pedicab, apparently out of control as it headed down a hill in Belltown, ran a red light and collided with a minivan. A 60-year-old man, in Seattle to celebrate his anniversary, was killed. He had been riding as a passenger in the pedicab with his wife, who was injured in the accident. The driver of the pedicab was also injured.


Contacted by The Stranger on August 12, Hashagen, who runs Pedicab operations in five Northwest cities, said he could only read a prepared statement.


“Our heart goes out to all those affected by this incident,” Hashagen said. “We want to get to the bottom of this situation as much as anyone. We are conducting a full investigation into what has occurred. We are cooperating with all relevant local authorities investigating this incident.”


Told of the former employee’s specific complaints, which included concerns that pedicabs are allowed onto the streets of Seattle without proper maintenance and sent into traffic with poorly functioning brakes, he said: “Our company policy is safety first. We have a motto. That is, ‘Be safe, have fun, and make money.’ …[Drivers] are not allowed to leave the shop with nonfunctioning brakes.”


He also said that drivers are told to avoid hills like the one that was apparently a factor in the August 6 crash. “All of our drivers receive extensive training and extensive ongoing training and are told, ‘If you can’t go up it, don’t go down it,’” Hashagen said.


But the former employee who spoke to The Stranger said: “They do do a very short training, but they never tell you not to go down hills.”


The former employee, along with a second current employee, also said that Cascadia Cabs called some pedicab drivers into a meeting on August 8 and asked them to sign an agreement limiting what they could say to the media about the accident. The former employee who spoke to The Stranger decided not to sign the agreement. Hashagen said there was a safety meeting on August 8, but that pedicab drivers were not asked to sign a confidentiality agreement.


The former employee also told The Stranger that another pedicab driver recently had to hop off his pedicab and stop the vehicle with his hands because the brake had failed. This could not be verified.


“It’s not something that’s inherently dangerous with pedicabs,” the former employee said. “It’s just this company.”

[andya]

My god, one leather strap brake!?!?! I wouldn't ride a bicycle with only one method of slowing down.... Surely this can't be their first accident

[PedalPowerBikeTaxi]

I believe what they were talking about was the obvious fact that they are the same exact cab frame, and either you are importing the same cabs, and retrofitting them with your scrutiny (or senility), or you are robbing them of their designs......such a classic maneuver around the question of overall safety.

My guess is that you are actually importing them and retrofitting them to "make them better"......but you should know that there is no way to make a weak and unsafe trike any safer by adding high quality components.........point blank. Does the name Shimano endorse your products on a work bike??? Does a man named Shimano create your frames for you???

.........and why would you try to imitate a completely useless cab frame design that you find unsafe? if you are actually welding the frames together in the "USA" with over "50" years in the cycling industry........you should know that the industry average load for a normal two person trip is far greater than 500 lbs max. capacity, and most of the pictures you have placed on your site show a greater load than that!!!!??? Why, if your company cares so much about safety, have you chosen this path in design, and even used bent and collapsed walls to support the front of the bike at the point it connects to the cabs....how do you expect that bent material with a collapsed wall to stabilize and support 500lbs going through the most active frame flexing that I have ever seen in any bike over the last 34 years of my life............What does it matter if you add a bunch of oversized components into the frame if the frame can't handle the weight, nor handle the turns without flexing four to six inches to each side during a turn at 10 mph??

No other bike handles as sloppily as your company's do in the entire world.....not even a Huffy. Your claims are never backed by any rider I have spoken to about this lie you have portrayed.....or fabricated here in the USA.

If you were a proud manufacturer of bikes in the US....then why did you imitate a cheaper cab frame from China, overcharge for the "Upgrades", then complain that after your first 8 cabs to him were so ridiculous of an imitation that he decided to "back door" you, and go for the REAL CHEAP alternative, you complain because you think he is required to buy from YOU???...because your cabs are no different than the exact "replication" you have "fabricated".......it is what I see on your site....there's no denying that.

Also your braking system is connected to a chain driven axle, at the hub.....which allows the chain to jump off at any time under the intense stresses of braking...just try to deny this....cause I learn from experience, not from the advertisements you have displayed as proof of a stable and functionally safe vehicle. You are about to face the heat on this one.

My guess is that your bikes are no safer than the one in the accident photo, and I am not guessing, having rode a Why Walk for three weeks to have it snap in half....that's right... the Red White and Blue made imitation of a Chinese novelty.......ever seen the average couple weighing in around 400 pounds...with a skinny rider, that makes it about 50 lbs heavier than your max. Guess I should have carried a scale around with me just to make sure that your two person and a driver cab could handle the immense weight of two average Meat and Potato eating American classic passengers!!! Do you offer that scale as an upgrade???

Here's an example of your research and it's current state of use....just so you can step outside your enterprising defense and get into a real discussion about engineering, old masters. Seems to me that you started something that has gone downhill (no pun intended) and has become a safety issue for many to have to ignore now with your verbal guarantee to keep on buying right??

So what guarantee do you have for anyone who now has a broken frame, or for anyone who is DEAD, what advice in your consultation ($fee$) do you give to the customers paying for this novelty that they can feel safe about.??

Because I happen to have a frame that was made by you and was so very safe that it snapped in half and could have killed one of my riders, or anyone on the cab that night........By the way......it snapped when the passenger was climbing into the cab....it wasn't even moving???? How do you explain that.....???

I think it is about time that your company ended it's southeastern monopoly and is forced to recall these unsafe vehicles.....just like we do in the good ol' US of A when a shiekester of a company tries to put up an executive front as a defense against their obvious illusion, and the deaths they have caused........don't try to hide any more...you already admitted to selling them to him, then to find that he went to the same resource you did to select a frame design. Your company is as responsible for their deaths as the operator and the owner. You won't get away with this....You robbed me, and now there is a death related to the same unsafe designs.............what happens when the chain pops off and the front brake doesn't stop the 500+lb load in time???

Any excuses for this illusion miss oblivious executive???? Guess your LLC status will take care of it.......and your insurance too right???

I will wait to hear back from you concerning my broken cab and the lack of any care about it's rigidity.....do you plan to repay me for the loss???? Doubt you will even admit your responsibility to do so.

Biggest lie since federal income taxes were first levied here.

Whoo hoo...Red White and Blue.....!!!!

[PedalPowerBikeTaxi]

By the way...I got so tired of the fear of riding the "s**t box on wheels" theory around town that I created my own designs that are being featured in the Vehicle Design Summit this year at MIT.

"There's not enough C-4 in the world to take care of this issue, have to get more creative than that."

[PedalPowerBikeTaxi]

How the hell does a guy go from austin, with the strict regulations there, and not recognize this fault in designs????

[Ken Cameron]

Umm are you talking to me? Do realize I was re-posting a news article found at the link at the top of my last post.

I hate the crap Chinese market cabs. Maybe they work there, but they suck in the good ol' USA. Every Chinese cab I have ridden was shit. Some are slightly better than others, but even the clones are just the cheapest possible version of the originals. They always miss the important details. Like making brakes that work but can't drag when they are not applied, or axles that roll smoothly, wheels that don't fall apart, bearings that you can't replace easily, etc, etc, etc. They end up heavier, made with cheaper materials, with terrible quality control assembled with idiots with air tools that damage every bolt. They are the Walmart bikes of the pedicab world.

-Ken Cameron