Motorist Pulls Knife on Cyclists in St. John's County

[second_pancake]

This is from the North Florida Bicycle Club's webpage:

An incident occurred at the World Gold Village ride on 1/6/08.  I am going to state the facts as I know them. 

We had passed the Riverdale Park and were about 32 miles into the ride, about 4 miles south of Buddy Boys on Rte 13.  The pace line was about 20 strong going at a relatively constant 20-22 mph.  I was in the back of the pack and when I looked up I saw a man in the middle of the road on the double yellow time with what appeared to be a wrench or something in his hand.  There was jeep parked off the road in the opposite direction from ours.  As I rode up, I heard a heated exchange and what I thought was a wrench turned out to be a rusted hammer.  The words got more heated, all the cyclists had stopped and the man started to reach into his back pocket.  Suspecting the worst, the man was wrestled down to the ground by a cyclist to prevent him from producing any more weapons.  Another cyclist reached down and relived the man of his hammer.  The two men on the ground were separated, the cyclist who took him down was removed from the immediate vicinity of the man.  At this point, the man did reach into his pocket and pulled out a knife with a 3-4 inch blade.  The situation was de-escalated and I found out that the man was upset from previous encounters with bicyclists riding route 13 2-3 wide, blocking the road, riding like they owned the road and he simply was not going to take it anymore.  As he had driven past us, someone had apparently gotten too close to him (this may have been someone who had pulled off the front after pulling the pace line or someone who was avoiding a cyclist in front of them).  He had driven past, turned around, parked his jeep, obtained a hammer and was going to do something about the menace of bicyclists.  The man proceeded to threaten the bicyclist who had taken him down with further violence.  In the meanwhile, two calls were made to the St. John’s Sheriff’s office to inform them of the incident.  We left the scene of the incident and the Sheriff’s deputies met up with the cyclists who made the calls.  Their side of the incident was obtained and they were informed that the license plate information did not match the vehicle.  Further, a road block had been set up, the man had been pulled out of his vehicle by deputies with their guns drawn and the knife was found on him.  However, the man was released since the cyclist involved in the incident did not want to press charges.  The man was also not ticketed for driving within 3 feet of a bicyclist because a policeman did not see it happen.  As it turned out, no one was hurt and all got back safely

I had several friends on this ride.  My husband and I ride tandem out on this road often and he rides it alone on training rides as well as on group rides.  As a cyclist, I'm confronted with crazy drivers more often than I care to remember.  Some of them like to honk and claim that I'm not supposed to be on the road, others will throw things (pennies seem to be the favored choice), and even others will overtake me to make a right hand turn directly in front of me nearly broadsiding me or forcing me to hit my brakes to keep from slamming into the side of their vehicle.  But never have I ever heard of anything like this happening before now.  It scares me to death to think that some drivers feel so entitled to the road that they're willing to cause bodily harm to fellow human beings.  Most of the anger and frustration is caused by ignorance.

One Saturday morning, on a group ride through Ortega, a man in a white bronco moved into the left lane of the two lane St. John's Ave., at the intersection of St. John's and Herschel.  There were about 10 of us cyclists, all riding in a single pace line in the far right lane.  The bronco flew past us and immediatly cut right, directly in front of the lead rider causing him to brake hard.  The riders behind him, myself included, had to shoot left to avoid a collision.  Immediatly after the bronco swerved right, he moved back over into the left lane and made a left-hand turn into a conveinient store.  It was apparant to us that this man swerved purposefully to scare us in some manner. 

Me, my husband, and 2 friends of ours pulled out of the group and followed the man into parking lot of the conveinent store.  When he exited his vehicle we asked (and we did ask, not yell or accuse) why he did what he did.  He threw his arms in the air and began yelling that we "had no right" to be on the road.  Things escalated when we started quoting law and he made threats to us so we called the police and gave them the man's tag number.  Later, we were told that he was ticketed (based on the witness accounts) for "improper lane change." 

I don't know if I'm more upset at the lack of enforcement of the law in these two cases, the motorists, or the cyclist in the most recent incident.  The fact that we are not protected in the way a motorist is when threats are made with another vehicle, is appalling.  The idea that some motorists think it's ok to threaten cyclists, yell, throw things, or otherwise harrass them, is completely unacceptable.  But, as a cyclist, when these things happen, as serious as this most recent incident was, it is your OBLIGATION to press charges!  If you do not stand up for your right, the laws will never be enforced and it will only cause more incidents like this to occur. 

[reednavy]

Well, I just got a brand new bike for Xmas, and wanted to try and get some people together for a ride, since I haven't ridin in years, since my first one was stolen 2 years ago. I guess I'll need to pack a pistol in my bag, sheez. I was hopin JAX was a supportive city of cyclists, apparently not. I will state this, anyone that rides with me, and this happens, you better have 2 muscled men to stop me, I am not afraid to whoop-arse and go to jail, well, Navy wouldn;t be too happy, oh well. Any takers?

[second_pancake]

I'm with you, ReedNavy.  I may appear to be a soft little girl on the outside, but don't EVER come between me and bike!  I carry pepperspray with me (dogs can get crazy too).  It's pretty effective in the summertime when most motorists have their windows up and their air conditioning on

Jax is not "supportive" so much as accomodating.  There's a BIG difference.  Go out to the Pacific Northwest if you want supportive.  They really respect their cycling communities out there, especially in Oregon.  Jax will put in a bike lane in an attempt to appease cyclists, but then they won't maintain it, fixing potholes in the road directly next to the bike lane, but allowing the potholes in the bike lane and weeds to overtake it.  They also have some great laws in place (and this is on the state level so I can't completely fault or credit the city), such as motorists having to keep a 3 ft distance when passing a cyclist, and that a cyclist can overtake a lane if the road conditions are such that it makes it unsafe for the cyclist to ride to the far right of the lane.  But these laws don't mean anything if they're not enforced.  When doing bridge repeats over the Acosta bridge downtown, the cars aren't as much a problem as our very own city buses that have been known to tailgate and run cyclists right off the road.  I even had a friend who was stopped by a policeman who told him that he couldn't ride the road unless there was a bike lane.  He apparantly had no idea about the very laws he was hired to enforce.

Don't be discouraged though.  If you're looking for a supportive network, Jax has that in their cycling community.  We all know each other regardless of the level of riding ability and we support and educate one another.  So while you can't count on the city or motorists to understand, keep you safe or support your decision to ride, you can always count on a select few of us...which is apparant by the story, eh?  See, you're not the only one afraid to "whoop arse" my friend   I just wish I knew why the cyclist didn't want to press charges.  That really urks me.

[second_pancake]

Ok, I changed the subject header on this to try and initiate more readers.  Apparantly, people with gold teeth trying to eat some fish-n-chips take precedence over a group of potentially slain cyclists

[gatorback]

I remember a cop was riding his bike down San Jose when a motorist passed by the "cyclist" and swerved to scare him almost hitting him.  The cop got so pissed off he started to pedal down the motorist and finally caught up to the car at the next red light.  The cop jumps off his bike, pulls the man out of the car, throws him on the ground beats the crap out of him, then puts on the cuffs and with his cell phone called his buddy officer on duty.  The motor cyclist needless to say got into huge trouble I think it was felony attempted murder.  Bad ju ju, but a victory for cyclist the world over none the less.

[second_pancake]

Dude.  That's the way it should be!  My husband tried that once...chasing a guy down.  He too caught the guy, but unfortunately he didn't have "back-up" or a badge, so after chewing the guy out, the only thing he could do was hope the motorist didn't retaliate and just run him over.  I don't recommend that course of action, btw.

I wish there were more officers out there willing to enforce the cyclists rights.  It shouldn't take a cop on a bike as victim for people to take notice.  Honestly, I think that was the only reason the charge of "attempted murder" would've ever come up.  If that was you or me out there, the motorist would've gone home with a ticket for careless driving at worst.

[gatorback]

dude, get the plate number of the car, get the support of other people around.  if you got a witness then you have not only recourse, but you could have the bastard in jail for 2 - 6 years.  No need to have a cop around, just get the info and call it it.

[second_pancake]

Easier said than done when you ride alone, but I know what you're saying and I agree that's the best route.  I don't always remember that though when I'm riding along minding my own business and check checked by a side-view mirror.  Bottom line - I think there really needs to be more emphasis on driving aware.  Meaning, in the time it takes for a person to look at the dial on their radio, they could've swerved off the road and hit someone. 

When I took my driving test here in FL, there were only 4 questions that had anything to do with cycling and they were from a cyclists point of view....which hand signal to use, where can I ride, etc.  There was nothing for the driver about cyclists...how to look out for them, how and when to pass, how you should never honk.  It should be mandatory before you get your license, you have to know about the other vehicles on the road with you, the human-powered vehicles.

[gatorback]

I agree.  Things will only get worse if it's not taken care of.  Austin is still looking for a driver that hit and run a cycist yesterday.