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Houston teen harasses cyclists and then runs them over. Charged with 6 Felony Counts (1 Viewer)

urbanhack

urbanhack

Fight The Power!
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/waller-bicyclists-hit-truck-teen-driver-ironman-16490862.php
 

The 16-year-old driver appeared to have been trying to "roll coal" on a group of eight cyclists training for the Ironman Triathlon, according to fellow cyclist Chase Ferrell. Ferrell was a few paces behind the group when the driver blew thick, black smoke on him as he pedaled along Old Highway 290 on Saturday morning. Moments later, the driver caught up to the larger group up ahead and tried doing the same thing. 

Only, the second time was different. The driver, instead of blowing smoke on the group, accelerated and slammed into six of the eight cyclists, Ferrell and police say.

In all, four of the six cyclists who were hit were hospitalized. Two of those had to be airlifted because of the severity of their injuries. Photos shared by Ferrell show a scene from a movie: Heavy damage to the front end of the pickup from its impact with the cyclists. Mangled bicycles strewn about the grassy right of way adjacent to the road.

Within minutes, Ferrell said, the teen's parents showed up. When the police arrived, he was questioned but ultimately released from the scene without charges.
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Cjw_55106 said:
It should go without saying that it’s highly likely none of us were there. I would assume the cops actually got both sides of the story and took whatever actions they felt necessary. Of course, charges could also be brought up later
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What would justify bikers training for a triathlon to be run over by a truck?  

 
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I gave up road cycling after my last fall when I thought I broke my wrist (which actually wasn't on the road, fwiw).  I'm literally scared to ride my bike on the road nowadays.

 
For a truck to be able to roll coal they need to be illegally modified.

His parents are the type of people that have no regards for either the law or the environment.

I wish cops would go after these illegally modified trucks more frequently. I do not see them too often, but when i do it makes the road stink even when they are not rolling coal.

 
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Man, his parents insurance is gonna go nuts!

Remember this is what having insurance is for.......He'll lose his license, get charged with wreckless driving with bodily harm, if that exists......assault maybe?  He could see juvie time for sure I would think, and should.

 
Manster said:
Man, his parents insurance is gonna go nuts!

Remember this is what having insurance is for.......He'll lose his license, get charged with wreckless driving with bodily harm, if that exists......assault maybe?  He could see juvie time for sure I would think, and should.
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Edit:. My Reading comprehension 

 
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culdeus said:
In your mind give a scenario where the cyclists would be at fault. 
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My guess is....and this doesn't justify what he did or say the cyclists were at fault....that they were doing that group cycling thing where there are two or three next to one another instead of in a single row. He was probably upset they were taking up the road. 

:shrug:

 
yak651 said:
Would be interesting to find out who the kids parents are; i.e. are they wealthy members of the community or somehow connected to the police department.  Hope that's not the case but sure smells like it from first pass...
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They're the kind of parents that buy a 16-year-old a $50,000 pickup truck to tool around in. I think it's obvious. 

 
eoMMan said:
My guess is....and this doesn't justify what he did or say the cyclists were at fault....that they were doing that group cycling thing where there are two or three next to one another instead of in a single row. He was probably upset they were taking up the road. 

:shrug:
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In our state, that is legal. Bike is considered a vehicle

 
culdeus said:
In your mind give a scenario where the cyclists would be at fault. 
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I didn’t imply anyone was at fault , or wasnt 

If it turns out that the cyclists did nothing and the truck driver was at fault, and no charges are filed…..then we can get riled up

If the police said there will not be charges filed, I missed it

 
eoMMan said:
culdeus said:
In your mind give a scenario where the cyclists would be at fault. 
Click to expand...
My guess is....and this doesn't justify what he did or say the cyclists were at fault....that they were doing that group cycling thing where there are two or three next to one another instead of in a single row. He was probably upset they were taking up the road. 

:shrug:
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yeah.. it's not a "cyclists at fault" thing, it's a "prove the driver did something other than unintentionally and accidentally hitting the cyclists" thing. that's the part that will let this kid walk- along with his mommy and daddy's money for a good lawyer.

but yeah- that's a serious lineup of tri-bikes... each one of those things is 2-5k +/-, so 15-20k . Between covering the cost of the bicycles and the many injuries, insurance is going to be rough.

Ramsay Hunt Experience said:
Looking forward to "the full story."  Maybe a Gaboon viper crawled up his pants leg.
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seems the most likely story.

 
eoMMan said:
My guess is....and this doesn't justify what he did or say the cyclists were at fault....that they were doing that group cycling thing where there are two or three next to one another instead of in a single row. He was probably upset they were taking up the road. 

:shrug:
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Even in Texas, this is 100% legal.  

 
I mean the whole "My pet ferret got loose" theory doesn't hold up great considering he went back for a second pass to coal roll them.  That is in general what people will try to claim for such a thing.  

 
Yep.  Had a similar experience in Houston with a pompous Doctor driving an Audi (almost as bad as BMW 3 series drivers) upset I passed him at the light (he was slow) so he zoomed around me and the force made my bike almost go into him and I wrecked and pushed off his car to break the fall.  I was also carrying grocery bags in the other hand.  Decided to finally involve the cops, called them, medical came and didn't do anything, cops just interviewed the Dr., never got my statement and let him go.   All I said when I realized they were just doing the minimum is if there's a 3 feet rule (cars can't get closer than 3 feet) and 6 feet for Covid, how could I touch his car if he wasn't breaking the law?  Nothing but crickets from the four officers and I asked why they let him go.  Still nothing.  So I told them all the F off and to go murder some young innocent blacks instead.

 
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Major said:
Yep.  Had a similar experience in Houston with a pompous Doctor driving an Audi (almost as bad as BMW 3 series drivers) upset I passed him at the light (he was slow) so he zoomed around me and the force made my bike almost go into him and I wrecked and pushed off his car to break the fall.  I was also carrying grocery bags in the other hand.  Decided to finally involve the cops, called them, medical came and didn't do anything, cops just interviewed the Dr., never got my statement and let him go.   All I said when I realized they were just doing the minimum is if there's a 3 feet rule (cars can't get closer than 3 feet) and 6 feet for Covid, how could I touch his car if he wasn't breaking the law?  Nothing but crickets from the four officers and I asked why they let him go.  Still nothing.  So I told them all the F off and to go murder some young innocent blacks instead.
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How’d that go ?

 
The fact that they didn't write him a traffic ticket at the scene makes it much more likely that he could potentially face charges, not less. Him being released from the scene without a charge is exactly how this works. 

As has been alluded to several times, a truck v. bike criminal charge is extremely tough to prove. The article certainly makes it seem like there are more facts that make it look more criminal than your average "I didn't see him" accident. But the police did the smart thing by taking statements and handing it off to their investigators and then prosecutors.

 
El Floppo said:
but yeah- that's a serious lineup of tri-bikes... each one of those things is 2-5k +/-, so 15-20k . Between covering the cost of the bicycles and the many injuries, insurance is going to be rough.
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:no:

Not even close.  The first three bikes are top of the line Felt, Cervelo, and Argon 18.  Just the wheels on the first bike are 2.5k.  The Zipp wheels on the Argon 18 are almost 3k.  Each of those bikes is between 8-10k, if not more.  Serious machines.  I assume the rest are close, so 8 broken bicycles here are probably ~60k.  

Withholding judgement on the charges - I'm going to assume those are coming.  While drivers get away with killing cyclists all the time, my assumption here is this is a bit too egregious to let go completely.

 
Rirruto said:
As has been alluded to several times, a truck v. bike criminal charge is extremely tough to prove. The article certainly makes it seem like there are more facts that make it look more criminal than your average "I didn't see him" accident. But the police did the smart thing by taking statements and handing it off to their investigators and then prosecutors.
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Lots of witnesses and the chances that some of those riders are sporting cameras is pretty high.  

 
Sand said:
:no:

Not even close.  The first three bikes are top of the line Felt, Cervelo, and Argon 18.  Just the wheels on the first bike are 2.5k.  The Zipp wheels on the Argon 18 are almost 3k.  Each of those bikes is between 8-10k, if not more.  Serious machines.  I assume the rest are close, so 8 broken bicycles here are probably ~60k.  

Withholding judgement on the charges - I'm going to assume those are coming.  While drivers get away with killing cyclists all the time, my assumption here is this is a bit too egregious to let go completely.
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I guess it's time to sell off my Quintana Roo Tiphoon with zipp 404s and full Dura Ace.

 
Rirruto said:
The fact that they didn't write him a traffic ticket at the scene makes it much more likely that he could potentially face charges, not less. Him being released from the scene without a charge is exactly how this works. 

As has been alluded to several times, a truck v. bike criminal charge is extremely tough to prove. The article certainly makes it seem like there are more facts that make it look more criminal than your average "I didn't see him" accident. But the police did the smart thing by taking statements and handing it off to their investigators and then prosecutors.
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But…..NO CHARGES WERE FILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
BassNBrew said:
Yeah...the cars won too many times for my tastes.  There are three types of cyclists around here...injured by a car, dead, or biding their time.
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One of my old neighbors got killed a half mile from the neighborhood, years ago. No charges were filed. I assume the lady was on her phone, but I think she said she fell asleep because he was on the other side of the road and she ran into some brick structure, maybe a mailbox. A child of the volunteer firemen found him while they were checking her out.

That was a tragedy, but Ill be honest, I hate bikers around here. So many ride by themselves and so many of the roads are single lane, 45MPH, sort of windy and no shoulder at all. I’ve often come up behind them suddenly and you either slam on the breaks if you can’t pass safely because they are going 25-30+ MPH slower or do a quick pass. I know, share the road and all, but sometimes this is during rush hour times and just not close to safe and most of them aren’t training for a big event so they go way slower. I’ve taught two of my boys to drive so far and I have to remind them all the time about bikers because it’s so sudden with no bike lane and sometimes very little notice.

Personally, if I had a family, I would never bike around the Charlotte suburbs. It really is a question of when and how bad.

This teenager isn’t in the same league but I can sympathize with drivers who do get in accidents with bikes. It may seem crazy to have no charges but around here, unless the biker is wearing LED lights, I’d go with no fault most every time. It’s dangerous and I can’t stand it.

 
stbugs said:
One of my old neighbors got killed a half mile from the neighborhood, years ago. No charges were filed. I assume the lady was on her phone, but I think she said she fell asleep because he was on the other side of the road and she ran into some brick structure, maybe a mailbox. A child of the volunteer firemen found him while they were checking her out.

That was a tragedy, but Ill be honest, I hate bikers around here. So many ride by themselves and so many of the roads are single lane, 45MPH, sort of windy and no shoulder at all. I’ve often come up behind them suddenly and you either slam on the breaks if you can’t pass safely because they are going 25-30+ MPH slower or do a quick pass. I know, share the road and all, but sometimes this is during rush hour times and just not close to safe and most of them aren’t training for a big event so they go way slower. I’ve taught two of my boys to drive so far and I have to remind them all the time about bikers because it’s so sudden with no bike lane and sometimes very little notice.

Personally, if I had a family, I would never bike around the Charlotte suburbs. It really is a question of when and how bad.

This teenager isn’t in the same league but I can sympathize with drivers who do get in accidents with bikes. It may seem crazy to have no charges but around here, unless the biker is wearing LED lights, I’d go with no fault most every time. It’s dangerous and I can’t stand it.
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I agree, we should be able to run things over that annoy us. 

 
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