I have to admit that I have never in my driving career found myself in the situation where an angry cyclist jumped on the hood of my car with the intention of causing me harm. I would like to think that if I ever found myself in such an improbable situation, that I would have the right to get away. I always yield to pedestrians and am as courteous as I possibly can be, but if a driver is in a car with his wife on their anniversary and an enraged cyclist jumps on his hood, I don't suspect that courtesy is the natural reaction.
Michael Bryant's life is already devastated by this whole incident, even after the charges have been dropped. I listened to Charles Adler outline this incident last night on his radio show (6pm pacific on CKNW Newstalk 980), and the entire ordeal was entirely surreal. I'm sure if the police had all the details at the beginning, he would never have been charged. But now that they know the full story, the charges have been dropped. I suppose that it needs to be put to a poll question, considering this precedence. If a crazed cyclist or pedestrian jumps on the hood of your car, displaying intent to cause you physical harm, should you have the right to drive away? Or must you exit the vehicle and run away?
Not in agreement Iceman;
ReplyDeleteThe crazed cyclist jumping the car was preceded by some very questionable actions on Mr. Bryants part...
Here is the summary read by the crown attorney in court on Tuesday:
Michael Bryant and his wife Susan Abramovitch are driving west, near Bloor and Yonge Street, when they notice a man throwing objects onto the road. Bryant also notices a misplaced traffic cone impeding westbound traffic, so he leaves his car and moves the cone to the side. Bryant sees a car ahead is stopped because a cyclist is doing figure eights in front of it. It looks like the same man who was throwing debris on the road. The man is later identified as Darcy Allan Shephard.
Bryant continues to drive along Bloor St., and stops at the pedestrian crossing between Bay St. and Avenue Rd. On the other side of the intersection, two middle lanes are closed for construction vehicles. Westbound traffic is diverted to the north side of Bloor, eastbound traffic on the south.
As Bryant drives, Sheppard cycles past his car on the driver’s side, and cuts in front, stopping his bike in front of the Saab.
Bryant hits the brakes. His vehicle stalls. Bryant tries to start his car, but it stalls again, lurching forward.. Sheppard is enraged because the Saab comes very close, and might have hit the rear wheel of his bike. Bryant panics as Sheppard yells at him. Bryant wants to get away.
Bryant tries to start the car again. He’s concentrating on the Saab’s sensitive clutch, and his head is down. He succeeds at restarting the engine and the Saab accelerates into Sheppard, who lands on the hood. Bryant hits the brakes when he sees Sheppard. Sheppard falls off the hood. (2.5 seconds elapses between the car starting and stopping. It travels two car lengths before Bryant stops.)
Sheppard stands up within two seconds, not seriously injured. Bryant reverses and drives forward, trying to get around the bike. But Sheppard won’t let him get away. He throws his backpack at the car. It hits the hood or the front window and bounces onto the street. As the car drives away, Sheppard jumps on it.
With Sheppard hanging off the driver’s side, Bryant veers left, into the lane reserved for oncoming eastbound traffic, near Avenue Road. Bryant and his wife believe Sheppard is trying to get into the car to attack Bryant. Bryant doesn’t stop, worried it will lead to further attack. Bryant is scared and panics. Sheppard strikes him in the forehead. Witnesses say Bryant was swerving and driving onto the sidewalk to dislodge Sheppard, but forensic evidence shows the car didn’t rub or mount the curb. (Average speed of the car is 34 kph, it never leaves first gear)
A fire hydrant in front of Sephora catches Sheppard on the left side of his torso. He falls off the car, and his head hits the curb or the road. The impact eventually kills him. Bryant turns onto Avenue Rd. and stops at the Park Hyatt to call 911. He says he was attacked by someone who tried to climb into his car.
It takes less than 30 seconds from the time Sheppard blocked Bryant’s car with his bike to the time Sheppard fell off the hood after hitting the fire hydrant. The distance spanned in that time was 100 metres.
OKAY, SO... Bryant's saying he doesn't even know how to start his own car without it "lurching" forward... not once, but twice!! Sensitive clutch - gimme a break. If you don't know how to properly start your car, perhaps you shouldn't be on the road. These dropped charges are BS. He bumped, and then rammed the bike because he was pissed at this jerk.
I'm no great defender of Sheppard either, sounds like he was being a drunk, obnoxious a*#hole, but Bryant should at the very least have had to face dangerous driving charges. If it were me behind the wheel, or most of the rest of us peons, we'd be headed to court to face all those charges.
Two sets of rules.
By those accounts, Sheppard put himself at risk.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard to story I thought it was a hit and run.