In contrast to what's happening in Maryland
Via Slow TwitchToday on a ride in Tucson Arizona my Jamis-Hagens Berman pro cycling team was intentionally assaulted by a man in a car. He came by our our group screaming obscenities like "Fucking cyclists get of the road" etc. He then came to the front of the group, got extremely close and THEN rammed the front left rider causing him and Tyler Wren to crash (the rider who made contact with the car is Todd Herriott of Sports Performance in Seattle). The driver then sped off from the scene, not even putting on his brake lights for a second. Luckily neither Todd or Tyler were seriously injured but they did get banged up, got some road rash, and Todd destroyed the saddle on his brand new Jamis Xenith SL.
Our director, Sebastian Alexandre, was up the road and after a quick phone call was able to intercept the car and our photographer, John Segesta, was able to get a photo of the car's plates. I called 911 and the Tucson Police arrived about 15-20 minutes later. The police took statements from every rider, got descriptions of the man, and sent detectives to his house. At the mans house detectives found the car had been washed just after the accident but still had a prominent scratch on the passenger side door. The man admitted to yelling at our group but not to hitting Todd, even accidentally.
In short, the guy is spending today in jail and is being charged by the Tucson City Prosecutor with class 3 felony Aggravated Assault (the same as if he had used a bat or gun). Apparently Tucson did not like the idea of their reputation for being a great cycling town tarnished when they saw the report of this incident on Cyclingnews.com. The gentleman in the car is looking at up to 15 years in prison and a serious criminal record.
Hopefully he will not be able to plead down his charges and this will be a serious wake up call to drivers that pull this shit. He must have been insane thinking that he could hit someone in front of 15+ witnesses and get away with it.
<a href="http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Dirt_bag_picked_the_wrong_cyclists_P4440220/">http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Dirt_bag_picked_the_wrong_cyclists_P4440220/</a>;
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