You are hereReport of bike cop collision at 3rd and Congress
Report of bike cop collision at 3rd and Congress
Update: Since hearing about the incident, a lot of the other local news stations have picked up the story. KVUE actually identified the officer, and in a strange twist of irony, it turned out to be none other than OFFICER JASON MISTRIC! Many of you know Mr. Mistric from his enjoyment of arresting and ticketing the local cycling population, both on group rides and while commuting through the downtown district. He's been pretty rough on us when we're not 100% legally compliant, but if nothing else it's somewhat comforting to know that he's human too, and can be in the wrong while on a bicycle. Hope he recovers soon.
About an hour ago I received the following notice of a collision at 3rd and Congress. I know of SEVERAL brutal car on bike crashes (including one of my own) that have happened within a block or two of this intersection, but this is the first time I've heard of a bike cop getting hit:
There was an accident at 3rd and Congress. There were ambulances and cop cars everywhere. We dismounted and walked around traffic. There was a cop lying on his side with his bike about 3 ft away, he looked responsive but really hurt. It seemed like ever cop in town was there. I figured I'd let you know. I dont have any info but figured Id report what I saw. No matter how good of a rider you are, or how much power you have, there is an endless amount of stupid drivers.
Does anyone else have any more details on this collision? If so please let me know. I've had SEVERAL friends get hit in that area (as well as me getting hit 3 blocks away) with little to no cop response, and no tickets written. I wonder what'll come of this incident? No matter the outcome, I hope the guy's ok. Getting hit by a car sucks and I'm sure their uniform provides no more protection against injury than ours does.
look, you've got some that say they are not in violation and that the tickets are bogus (when you have a couple hundred folks run the red lights), and the very next post could be someone saying that we should just stop at the lights and get attention while abiding by the law...
asprin can cure a headache, but it can upset your stomach. in comparison, when you openly break laws to gain attention of motorists, police tend to arrive.
these are simple facts.
mistric's cheerleader? rah rah. i guess you're correct with that.
i'm done posting messages on this site.
see you out there guys. stay safe.
there is a difference between mistric running the red light and you running it. the difference is that state law gives him the authority to stop all, and anykind of traffic, when exercising what is called 'arrest authority', or for reasons such as safety, i.e. construction, lane closures, collisions, stalled vehicles, etc. believe it or not, he has more authority than mmmm for instance, you.
in this case, if mistric steps in front of your vehicle when you have a green light and tells you to stop (yes he can cork...), you are supposed to stop. if you do not, you are in violation. just like if your light is red, and mistric tells you to proceed through the light "at his direction", proceed. i know it's complicated, but that's how it works. he can run red lights if he needs to. in this case he was obviously chasing someone. that someone was a thief who had just gotten caught. the bad guy then fled, hitting the witness with his car. now let's see. hhmmm.
here's a little something to think about. you may not understand because you are not the type of person that would prefer to earn a paycheck, by dealing with the 5 percent of the population that most people avoid. as a cop, mistric leaves his family everyday to protect even those who hate him. 90 percent of his calls deal with misery, he is threatened with law suits several times a week, most vow to have him fired. he has been shot at, he's fallen off of roof tops, been hit by cars, spit on, ridiculed, and had his reputation destroyed several times. he survives on about 5 to 6 hours sleep and still stays in relatively good shape for mmmm 38 years old. after all that, he's still there, pedaling a bike no less.
so let's say you caught this guy breaking into someone's house or car, you try to stop him and he runs you over and takes off....mistric chases him. facts: he tried to stop him at 5th (he has that authority) and congress. the guy punches the gas, mistric moves out of the way and thinks..."this guy just hit someone else (you), and almost just hit me". mistric chases him through 3 intersections and on the 4th one gets t-boned from the right side by a lincoln...hits his head (yes, his helmet was crack in TWO) and is thrown (witnesses said he was airborne), knocked unconcious, and when he comes to has to be held down because he thinks he's still in the chase. once at the hospital he had to be ordered to take a few days off to recover. he looked like he'd been beat with a bat. now...what did "you" do yesterday, or today? how much do you want to bet you see him on a bike in about a week?
have you ever just walked up to him and asked for his take on all this. what about a ride out? honestly, he treats everyone the same, until...your actions come into play.
karma? karma, you dipshit? karma is if he pushed you into traffic and you get hit, then he gets hit just the same. in this case, he's tried to save your ass several times and unfortunately takes a hard hit for doing something light years ahead of your pussy ass. the irony? ...is that he's probably still not going to think twice when it comes to keeping some brute from pushing you off of your piece of shit bike.
he went to work knowing that all of this could happen. he still went to work.
mistric absolutely rocks.
So let's see ... eight articles/sets of comments here have mentioned Mistric. You've commented in seven articles total, four of the ones that mentioned Mistric.
You know how much he sleeps.
What is your relationship with Mistric? Friend? Coworker? Mistric himself? Earlier you'd said you'd talked to him, but wow, that must have been quite a conversation. Judging from your other posts, you would seem to be a coworker (or Mistric himself, though I hope that's not the case -- that would be rather ... deceptive.)
Yes, he's got a rough job. We get it. He got hurt doing it, which sucks. He knew the risks, yet he went to work anyways.
But people have also claimed that he's made up bogus charges (or at least made a big mistake and ticketed somebody for something they didn't do), which is remarkably uncool if true (of course, no way to know either way.) He's threatened to arrest cyclists for simply running red lights (and he said that right to the camera, so it's not hearsay) -- not particularly cool either.
Neither he nor his cheerleading section should be surprised when everybody doesn't sing his name from the rooftops. Sure, I imagine he deserves lots of `atta-boys' for the job he does -- but it only takes one `oops' to erase lots of `atta-boys'.
And here's a hint -- you can reply to specific comments -- you don't have to respond to the article itself. And be careful about using the word `you' -- if it's not clear who it refers to, it can cause considerable confusion. And your post was quite confusing -- you replied directly to the article, but it seemed that you were responding to somebody other than Jason.
How the APD chooses to pursue this prosecution sets what will be an interesting precedent for car-on-bicycle hit and runs in Austin.
EDIT:
I read the story wrong -- the story does not say anything about the car that Mistric collided with; the hit-and-run was the car the officer was pursuing when he then struck another car, any damage the second car sustained I guess will be chalked up to 'in-the-line-of-duty' collateral damage, if it indeed did have the right of way.
From one of the stories --
Officer Jason Mistric was chasing a car on his bicycle when he collided with another car which police say had the right of way.
If I understand this correctly, Mistric collided with a car that he was not chasing, and this other car had the right of way -- which means that the accident was Mistric's fault. (Their bikes don't have sirens and emergency lights, so I imagine he can't really blow through traffic like a motorcycle or squad car can.)
-- regardless of all that --
how will this be investigated compared with a squad car/police motor vehicle striking a otherwise uninvolved vehicle? did the officer deviate from procedure in his pursuit? does the fact that he is the only apparent victim in the bike/car collision mitigate the fact that the automobile had right of way? i guess what is itching for me is that police often use questionably legal methods against civilians, and this officer in particular has a repeated history of allegedly gaming the system in his favor so if he broke procedure he should face the consequences.
Sweet poetry; doug, your idea is grand, I'm in for $5.
After all, it sounds like he was hurt while doing the right thing.
Sounds like he's not actually hurt badly enough to be in the hospital, so no flowers. Oh well. Hopefully there won't be a next time.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it'll take for the bike haters to post a comment on that KVUE link?
I swear I just heard on the news that it was office Jason Mistric that was hit on his bike... yup, just fact checked myself and it was him. Ironic? Karma Police?
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/101609kvue-Bike-COP-Injured-WH.2238...
... the article even says that the car that Mistric hit had the right of way.
So, the anti-bike bias is stronger than the pro-cop bias!
Either way, hopefully he's OK. He may have been a jerk to a lot of cyclists, but if he was going after some driver that had just hit a pedestrian and took off -- he was fighting the good fight.
Perhaps we should send him some flowers in the name of Critical Mass.