People in cars are crazy. We know this. No where on earth do people feel more emboldened than when they slink behind the wheel of their shiny metal boxes and roam the earth seeking to inflict their will on anyone and everything that gets in their way.
The latest example comes from Carlsbad, California, where just last week (October 21, 2016) a cyclist, who was riding the final miles of the 620 mile Challenged Athletes Foundation Million Dollar Ride with a paraplegic friend, was purposely mowed down by an angry driver who didn’t want to wait 90 seconds for the group to get through a narrow section of road, according to a story on 10 News San Diego.
It all started when a driver behind them (in the maroon truck shown above) began honking repeatedly. One of the cyclists, Bob “Sully” Sullivan, went back to ask the driver to give them a little time to get out of the way.
“‘We’ve gone 590 miles, give me 90 seconds, I’ll have him up and over this grade, you can be on your way,'” Sullivan said he told the man. “Completely agitated, he says to me, ‘I don’t care if it’s f-ing God up there. Get out of the f-ing road.'”
Sullivan reportedly ended the discussion at that point and returned to riding with his friends. Moments later he was hit from behind, knocked to the ground, and nearly run over by the angry man. The Carlsbad Police department was called, and as is becoming standard procedure in car vs. bike interactions, the officers did not arrest the driver. Of course, had driver had done something similar to a Police officer the driver would have been immediately shot and killed, but as it was only a cyclist, the officers let the driver continue on his way.
How can this happen? So far the Carlsbad Police department has no official response. Hopefully, Sullivan will follow up with a civil suit if nothing else. Click the link for the rest of the story.
[Update October 27, 2016, 3:11 PM]: The Carlsbad Police Department has posted a message on their facebook page explaining that they have initiated a “criminal investigation” and that the reason it has taken them so long is that on the original call “there was no mention to the officer that the collision was intentional.” What this means is that the responding officer did not include any mention that the collision was intentional in his original report. Because, you know, an angry guy dropping F-bombs and honking his horn behind a group of cyclists could be so angry that he unintentionally rammed the same cyclist that he was yelling at only moments before. Yeah, that makes sense.
[Link: San Diego 10 News]
