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news
Crime Scene Tape (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Brandon Anderson:Flickr)Teen driver who targeted cyclists charged with six counts of attempted murder
A teenager in South Carolina has been charged with six counts of attempted murder for targeting cyclists, including trying to run them off the road with his car.
Police say the apparent motive was that he blamed bike riders for a car crash in which two of his friends died, reports WYFF News.
However an investigation into that incident said cyclists weren’t to blame, and that the pair – Josey Cox, aged 17, and Michael Arrowood, 19 – died because the latter lost control of the car he was driving and hit a tree.
Despite that finding, the unnamed 16-year-old continued to hold cyclists responsible for his friends’ deaths, aiming fireworks at people on bikes and trying to run them off the road.
Members of Greenville Spinners Bicycle Club began to post warnings on Facebook about a specific motorist apparently targeting riders, leading to a county sheriffs’ office investigator who is a member of the club commencing inquiries.
The alleged assaults, which began last December, are said to have been both verbal and physical in nature including riders being spat at, having fireworks aimed at them, and being driven at, with 11 separate victims identified.
Because of his age, the teenager’s name cannot be released, but he has been charged with six counts of attempted murder, as well as other offences including assault & battery and taunting cyclists.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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I understand what you're saying, but I think when you get north of £10k, for the average amateur road.cc reader who maybe in the market for a so...
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They haven't been seen for ages- did they get banned?
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They prefer their alternative facts to real ones. They believe something, therefore it must be true.
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For double that you can' get a Pedro's vise whip Ii. Or half, the reportedly excellent decathlon thingy. And Sigma has the Silca for only £150.
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I'm no detective, but the "NOAHFAST" decal vertically stickered on the headtube is a little bit of a clue.
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I remember my driving test examiner, straight after congratulating me for having passed the test said, "Don't be a twat and have that as your best...
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Did they think it was a drive thru?
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As a teacher's husband, I'm allowed to watch up to 50km out (unless it's a big mountain stage when I can only watch up to the start of the first HC...
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10 comments
I have had a couple of incidents of drivers (or their passengers) deliberately shouting at me for fun as they go past, presumably to see if they can give me a fright. A couple of times I've been startled enough to wobble - I could easily come down. It seems there is very little legal protection against this type of behaviour; I asked Rhia Weston at CTC if she knew whether this was an offence and she replied as follows:
"I asked a question similar to yours at a policing conference recently to a representative from Stop Hate UK. She said that this sort of behaviour would be considered a hate crime by Stop Hate UK, but may not be interpreted as such by all police forces. So, it's a bit of a post code lottery as to how your local police force will respond to this type of crime.
The statutory definition of hate crime is 'when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group. Examples of such groups include, but are not limited to: racial group, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity or gender identity'. Hate crime can also cover crimes targeted at social groups that are considered 'alternative sub-cultures', you may have heard that Greater Manchester police recently announced that they regard crimes targeted at 'Emos' as hate crimes. Cycling can be considered an 'alternative sub-culture', therefore, crimes like the one you were a victim of could be interpreted as hate crimes and prosecuted as such, although I think this would take some convincing of the police."
"investigator who is a member of the club"
The cops over there would also have done nothing to apprehend this nutter, just like the UK.
The only difference is that there is a cop in the local road club.
In the UK do you think we'd be able to spot someone targeting cyclists with the general background level of terrible driving anyway? I suppose the fireworks are a bit of a novelty but probably less effective than a white van driver who isn't aware he has wing mirrors.
Jim Gasman is right. In the UK this sort of behaviour would have got him a slot on Top-Gear.
At least he's being charged with attempted murder. From my reading of the many articles on Road CC involving UK cyclists being "interfered with" by UK drivers, at worst he'd have been told off for being "a bit of a naughty boy" under the British justice system!
The difference is "intent". It always is. This guy wasn't just careless, or negligent or even reckless about people's lives. He was actively seeking out cyclists and conducting revenge attacks on them.
Whatever the outcome of the attacks that's a whole different crime from most of the DD and CD and even fatal incidents that are usually covered on here.
I note that the crew members arrested over the migrant ship-sinking horror have been charged with 'reckless homicide'.
I don't know what that charge means exactly but I don't see that there's any God-given reason why there should be a huge all-or-nothing distinction between 'deliberately risking killing someone' or 'deliberately choosing to develop a habit of carelessness that predictably ends up killing someone'.
In the end, carelessness and recklessness can itself be a choice.
Plus there have been cases of drivers deliberately swerving into cyclists to 'threaten' them and not getting long sentences.
But in any case I reckon the difference in this case is more to do with the US being vastly more draconian and hard-line in general when it comes to locking people up. Sentences for almost everything are much longer there (and apparently you can be killed for having a broken tail light). I don't personally think its a good model to copy in general, I think its better to think about what's necessary to stop producing maniacs in the first place, or what's needed to stop them doing harm.
@crikey is that a bicycle or a high horse you're riding there?
Road.cc does clickbait....
I'm not impressed.
Death penalty in South Carolina? Let's hope so.