The San Francisco Citizen

How many Tesla Roadsters have been delivered to paying customers so far, after a half decade of development and at least four production delays? A handful, so far.

How many Tesla Motors products have suffered accidents already? Well, let’s see, there was that one involving the car of a “Founder,” and then there was that other one that no one’s supposed to know about, and… Pictures or it didn’t happen, right?

Pictures! Now really, is an advanced air bag waiver appropriate for the typical driver of the Tesla Roadster? Is it true this particular car crashed something like ten minutes after delivery? Is it true that Tesla is trying to make the Roadster faster than the somewhat similar gasoline-powered Lotus Elise? Is it true that you could get a Lotus Elise for something like $30K and then have something like almost $100k left over to buy massive carbon offsets? Is it true that you can actually get a Lotus sports car with a manual transmission? So many questions.

Shouldn’t Tesla work on something practical like increasing the Roadster’s abysmal range instead of trying so hard to make it accelerate faster?

Here’s a Tesla in San Francisco that managed not to crash, on a least one day, anyway:

Noblesse oblige is nothing to kill yourself over.

First,  let’s all agree that denial, (also called abnegation), is:

 ”is a defense mechanism‘ postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept…”

Can a radio station be in denial? Well, how about the coverage KCBS AM 740  is giving to yesterday’s crash landing of a traffic-reporting Cessna 172. KCBS reports this incident thusly: “Plane Lands near I-80 Ramp” with an account about how “freeway traffic was not affected by the landing”.

Firstly, KCBS used this in the webpage URL: “Plane-Blocks-I-80-Off-Ramp” - so this was spurious information? Or maybe the plane blocked the off-ramp, but not the freeway? Secondly, other media sources correctly called this incident a “crash-landing,” as that’s what it was. Thirdly, KCBS reported last month’s other crash landing of a Cessna 172 in the bay area as a “crash landing.”

The dash of a Cessna 172 that didn’t crash land in the bay area last month, from the incredible Telstar Logistics Flickrstream

There’s lots of ways to report a story. KCBS certainly chose a drama-free approach. As must be obvious by now, you can put a Cessna 172 (that has a landing weight pretty close to a tiny 2-seat Smart Car) down in a very small piece of real estate, but yesterday’s crash landing could easily have been fatal.

So, better check yo self before you wreck yo self (again). Just saying,

Today’s headlines include news of the crash landing of a Flying Vikings, Inc. Cessna 172 in Oakland, California.

The San Jose Mercury News earlier reported that N61736 ”had a gas leak,” but now is going with ”mechanical problems” as the cause of this incident. KCBS, which labels this single engine plane the KCBS Radio Traffic Plane, is reporting the pilot claimed the oil pressure guage plummetted just before the engine conked out. This aircraft, built in 1974, suffered “substantial damage” during an incident in 1981.  

The following language, written before today’s accident, appears on the Flying Vikings website:

Since Flying Vikings also has a contract with local news gathering organizations, students are offered opportunities to build time that no other school can. Fly 3 to 6 hours a day and get paid.

A visual aid to help imagine yourself staring at a motionless propeller low over the Bay Area. Click to expand:

The dash of a Cessna 172 and a view of Candlestick Park, from the incredible Telstar Logistics Flickrstream

Here’s a photo of a different Flying Vikings aircraft, a Piper that suffered a fatal accident in 2006. Readers may find this link, relating to the Piper crash, of interest, however, it might lead you to unproven speculation about the cause of that tragedy.

The Federal Aviation Administration and Cal OSHA should be able to determine the cause of this forced landing fairly easily.

A relatively happy ending to a scary situation.

Some fixed gear bike riders have it tough because they don’t have brakes on their bikes. So when they have to stop on the bottom of an incline they need to skid their rear tires. This leaves a loooong skid mark on the pavement, as you can see. 

Take a look at this awesome video here to get the idea. Some rydahs run into trouble though - like Tony here, who was “surprised” to encounter a bus, at a bus stop, on a bus route, in Manhattan.

Let’s be careful out there:

“The EMT said if it wasn’t for my dreads, I would have had a massive concussion“

We’ll close with Morrissey’s thoughts on the matter:

“No brakes, I don’t mind.”

Here’s what happened with these four small front-wheel-drive cars parked on the Streets of San Francisco:

A fast-moving vehicle hit the Corolla, which hit the Honda, which hit the Ford, which hit the other Toyota.

Stuff happens. Click to expand:

Click to enlarge.

Well, they’re here - new countdown timer ped signals on Irving and Judah on 9th Avenue. Actually turning them on is the next critical step, but all the heavy lifting has been done. Hurray!