{"id":175697581,"date":"2010-07-27T12:53:01","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T12:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=175697581"},"modified":"2010-07-27T12:53:01","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T12:53:01","slug":"update-aggressive-hit-and-runs-unresolved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=175697581","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE: Aggressive hit-and-runs unresolved"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Annie Weisner
\nPicture yourself outside of town, driving along a midsize country road. You\u2019re going more slowly than normal, carrying a heavy load, looking for your turn, or trying to keep your kids from fighting in the backseat. Abruptly, another driver overtakes you, blaring their horn. You move over to the right to allow them to pass. They do, still laying on the horn, coming up on your left side. As they pass, they pull from the left lane into yours, intentionally grazing your car, then speeding off. As you pull over to assess the damage, you manage to get a picture of their license plate with your phone. You call the police, relieved that no one\u2019s hurt.
\nWhat would you expect to happen? With a picture of the driver\u2019s license plate and a description of the car, would you expect the aggressive driver to be held accountable? Would you expect charges to be filed in response to such an intentionally dangerous act? Would you expect the police to question the owner of the car? Or would you expect, a month later, to be told your case is hopeless?
\nNow, imagine yourself in the same scenario, but riding a bicycle. About a month ago, a group of cyclists in Champaign County found themselves in this exact situation.
\nAGGRESSION OUT OF NOWHERE
\n…
\nDornick recounts what the police told him. \u201cThe police officer drove to the [home of] the owner of the car. They saw the car parked at his house. They knocked on the door and there was no answer. They looked at the car and said there was no damage to the car, and they went home. And that was the entire investigation of the case. To my knowledge \u2014 and we followed up on this many times \u2014 no one was actually ever questioned or spoken to.\u201c
\nAnd that was it. Dornick and Higley were told there was nothing else the police could do, despite having never spoken with the owner of the vehicle. Their investigation ended with that unopened door.
\nWhen contacted for this article, Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh explained things differently. \u201cThe investigation is still being actively worked,\u201c Walsh stated in an email. \u201cSince this is an ongoing investigation, I have no further comment for right now.\u201c
\nEd. note: We attempted to rectify this apparent contradiction with Sheriff Walsh yesterday afternoon, but did not get a response by the time the article posted. We\u2019ll insert any response that we receive as it arrives.
\nThe official reason given to Higley and Dornick was the lack of an eyewitness who could identify the driver from a line-up. Due to the heavily tinted windows of the car and the aggressive speed at which it overtook the riders, none of the cyclists got a clear view of the driver. Without cooperation or a confession from the driver, it is likely that a visual ID would be necessary for a criminal case to proceed. In this case, however, the owner of the vehicle was never interviewed, leaving a multitude of questions unanswered. Was the owner driving at the time of the hit, and if not, would the owner come forward with the name of the driver? Would the driver confess, given the weight of evidence against him and the large number of eyewitnesses? Why didn\u2019t the deputies attempt to elicit a confession?
\nFIVE SURGERIES LATER, STILL NO SATISFACTION
\n…
\n\u201cSo [the sheriff\u2019s department] contacted the people, and they of course said, \u2018No, I didn\u2019t do it.\u2018 And that was the last that they did.\u201c
\nSheriff Walsh stated, once again in an email, \u201cI do not believe sufficient facts exist to criminally charge an individual concerning this incident and, barring something unusual happening, I do not think this situation will change.\u201c
\n…
\n\u201cA lot of the reason that bikes have a really bad reputation and people don\u2019t respect bikes is that people don\u2019t ride in a manner that gets bikes respect,\u201c says Dornick. As a motorist, \u201cit\u2019s hard to justify taking time out of your day, going all out of your way to make sure this cyclist is safe when he doesn\u2019t care what he\u2019s doing with you. It\u2019s definitely mutual. We need some cooperation, and hopefully we don\u2019t have to have someone get hurt before it starts happening.\u201c
\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.smilepolitely.com\/news\/hit-and-run._then_what\/<\/a>oldId.20100727125301272<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Annie Weisner Picture yourself outside of town, driving along a midsize country road. You\u2019re going more slowly than normal, carrying a heavy load, looking for your turn, or trying to keep your kids from fighting in the backseat. Abruptly, another driver overtakes you, blaring their horn. You move over to the right to allow … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “UPDATE: Aggressive hit-and-runs unresolved”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175697581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175697581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=175697581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175697581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=175697581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=175697581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=175697581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}