Strava is sued over death!

Even though this story is everywhere I thought I would post it up, it is interesting.  William Flint “Kim”, a 41 year old electrical engineer, died in a cycling accident in the summer of 2010.

William "Kim" Flint

Kim Flint lived in Oakland where he held his title “King Of Mountain” (“KOM”) by speeding down a steep stretch of road down South Park Drive in Berkley’s Tilden Park at 49.3 mph in a 30mph zone.  He was trying to regain his title “KOM” which was recently taken from him on June 15^th 2010 by another rider who beat Flint’s time by 4 seconds.   Four days after he lost his title he was back up racing down the hill to take it back.   During his descent he braked hard to avoid a car, lost control, flipped his bike which proved to be a fatal crash.

Stava, a Palo Alto company founded in April 2009, lets cyclists upload ride data gathered by GPS units onto a central website.  This is said to be an influence on Flint’s run on June 19, 2012.  Some cyclists say Flint’s death was just an accident that could have happened to anyone, others say his involvement with the online social network (Stava) was the major cause.   Riders can see how fast they traveled, how high they climbed, and how far they went.  When these times are uploaded to the website, others all over can now compete against your time and speed.  Strava has already marked South Hill Drive as a hazardous run and has removed all speed statistics for it.   However, statistics still remain for other segments on which Flint held "KOM" ranking.

Strava.com

On June 19 2012, The family of William Flint “Kim” sued the Strava website for negligence on Monday in San Francisco alleging it encouraged him to speed.  Flint reportedly had learned his time had been beaten on the Strava website.  Strava does not create these segments so they assume no responsibility for the damage they can cause.  Strava has become widely popular for road and mountain bikers all over the world and continues to grow.  Since the accident Strava has designed in a reporting system where users can flag a segment as dangerous.  After so many flags are added, the segment may be removed by Strava.

Garmin 800 GPS

Members of Strava praise the site for creating a sense of community among the Bay Area’s thousand of cyclists, despite Flint’s accident.   It is hard to say if Strava was an influence or not.  Flint seemed to have a strong will to ride regardless if he was submitting times to Strava or not.  He would even get together with other Strava members to ride segments with others of similar times.  With any ride there is going to be danger and accidents involved for cyclists.  According to information on the accident, Flint was not obeying posted speed limits and it did not help out in his unfortunate accident.  To say Strava is or was the influence is a stretch in my opinion.  Having a tool like a social media app or website does not make reckless people reckless, it gives them another convenient place to have bragging rights.  His own quote on Twitter that he wrote on June 6, before he knew his time was beaten by another Strava member: “49.3 mph, on a bike.  How I find my religion on Sunday morning” 

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