"Bicycling magazine called it "the road rage incident heard 'round the cycling world."
A driver in Los Angeles was recently convicted of using his car as a weapon against two cyclists. And the case is focusing attention on the often uneasy relationship between motorists and bicyclists who have to share the road.
It happened last year on the Fourth of July, on a steep, narrow road in L.A.'s Mandeville Canyon. Cyclists Christian Stoehr and Ron Peterson were riding side by side when a doctor who lived in the neighborhood came up from behind in a sedan.
"There was an exchange of words," Stoehr recalls. "He then accelerated within five feet in front of us, pulled over and slammed on the brakes."
Stoehr says there was no time for them to stop. He was thrown over the car and landed across the road. But Peterson didn't have time to swerve.
"And he went right in through the back window of the car," says Stoehr, adding that Peterson crashed headfirst. "I think they found his teeth in the back seat."
The impact severed Peterson's nose and separated Stoehr's shoulder. Christopher Thomas Thompson, the driver of the car and a former emergency room doctor, was arrested and put on trial. The jury found him guilty of six felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon: his car. Thompson now faces 10 years in prison.
"For someone to do this to you on purpose, it's unfathomable," says Peterson, a cycling coach for the University of California, Los Angeles. He says he still can't feel his nose, he now wears false teeth, and he will forever have scars.
"I'm happy that justice was served," Peterson told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict. "I think all of our hope is that this brings to light just how vulnerable cyclists are out there."
During the trial, other cyclists told the jury of previous incidents with the driver. And a police officer testified that Thompson said he deliberately slammed on the brakes to "teach the cyclists a lesson."
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, traffic crashes killed 716 cyclists last year and injured 52,000 people riding bikes, trikes and unicycles. That includes recent fatalities from Brookline, Mass., to Portland, Ore. But unlike the Los Angeles case, Mooney says drivers who kill or injure cyclists are rarely convicted.
"It's easy for a driver to say, 'Oh, I didn't see you. You're small, you're traveling slowly in the roadway. It was an accident,' " says Mooney. "It takes an enormous amount of evidence to get a conviction of a reckless driver, or in this case, a driver with an intent to hurt somebody with a vehicle."
Mooney says crashes often happen when drivers are distracted by cell phones, texts and other hazards. And she warns bike riders not to aggravate or escalate tensions on the road."
This shit needs to be stopped, how many of us need to get hurt, or god forbid killed. There needs to be more actions taken against these motorist, NO MORE FUCKIN SLAPS ON THE HAND, THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT FUCKIN 15 AND SKIPPING CLASS THEY ARE KILLING OUR FELLOW RIDERS. STAND AS ONE!!!!
rub_my_crank12.2.09 - 3:55 pm
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Ridazz Roulette!
