First, the good news: My friend is essentially okay, aside from some bumps and bruises. His bike took some damage, but likely not catastrophic: From what we could tell, both derailleurs on his bike and the bar tape were damaged; there may be other damage we couldn't identify immediately, such as the handlebars themselves.
We were riding on this road with two lanes, no shoulder, and there's a light at the bottom of a hill, with a right turn lane. The light was green, so our group was cruising at a pretty high pace - probably 25 or 30 mph - in the right lane (not the turn lane, the through lane) and some driver needed to turn right, but couldn't wait a few seconds. So, they went into the LEFT lane, then turned right in front of our group, hit one of our riders, and kept going.
("Must get in front...oh I have to turn here..." Shitty driving habits in general, I'll bet.)
A few other cars stopped, and someone called the police, who took a report and got an ambulance to check out the victim. Hopefully they'll do some investigation and find the guilty party. The cross street leads into a neighborhood with no other exits, so there's a good chance the perpetrator lives there. Also there is a camera at that light, and one person thought to note the exact time it happened, in case the camera does continuously record.
I hope they find the driver. They deserve to pay for all damages and a huge fine.
Our friend commented that his bike was likely worth more than the minivan that hit him, which is almost certainly true, given it was an older model van and his bike is a high end Pinarello. He also noted that none of us stopped his bike computer, which was good for a laugh.
The ride leader's husband was able to come and pick up her, the victim, and another rider that wasn't comfortable continuing after the crash (we were only about halfway through the planned route). The rest of us pedaled on, albeit a bit more subdued for a while.
It never will be until cities adopt bike/pedestrian only roads...because no amount of awareness fixes a stupid or angry car driver. I have had a few instances of car drivers purosely attempt to block my travel.
One was on a one way street and truck did not like that he may have to switch lanes to pass safely, he was yelling at me to use the side walk. When I told him I had the same road rights, he turned his truck into the curb ahead of me so my path was blocked and I had to curb hop to avoid getting squished.
Second one was a stop sign that backed up traffic, i stay toward curb and all cars pass me until they get to stop sign, as a cyclist I can still keep travelling and pass those that passed me. There would always be some jealous idiot swing their door open hoping it would stop me. Again, I would hop curb to avoid their door.
That mentality of "I have more rights" as a driver, will never go away unless every vehicle had to be a bike for a while. A good punishement for bad drivers would be force them to bike for a few weeks to see what it is like on the receiving end.