leapfrog
02-03-2003, 07:01 PM
'Road rage' cause of bicycle crashes
By DAVID CLOUSTON
The Salina Journal
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A Brookville woman was convicted by jurors in Saline County District Court on Wednesday of committing what a prosecutor described as "a fit of road rage" for aiming her car at two bicyclists, causing them to crash.
The most serious crime for which Patty Palmer, 30, was convicted -- aggravated assault -- carries a presumption of probation from a sentence of 11 to 34 months. She is scheduled to be sentenced March 31.
Palmer was found guilty of using her car as a deadly weapon to threaten the two riders, Jon Carr and Dan Martin, both of Kansas City, Kan. The college students were riding east on Kansas Highway 140 between Bavaria and Ted Augustine Furniture Warehouse, just west of Salina.
The pair were riding with others June 12 in the Biking Across Kansas bicycle tour on their way to Salina.
Palmer became angry, she testified, because the two riders were riding nearly abreast of each other and taking up nearly the entire right-hand lane.
State law permits cyclists to ride two abreast in the right-hand lane of a two-lane highway.
According to testimony during the two-day trial, Palmer drove up behind the riders and passed them twice, each time yelling obscenities and exchanging gestures. The second time she passed she claimed she pulled ahead and stopped to confront them.
Palmer said one of them, Carr, ran into her rear bumper. Carr said his front tire was clipped as Palmer swerved back into the right-hand lane. He went down on the pavement as Martin and his bicycle were forced into the ditch.
"You're saying your car had nothing to do with his (Martin's) bicycle ending up in the ditch?" Assistant Saline County Attorney Stacy Cunning asked Palmer during her cross-examination.
"If he was paying attention, it wouldn't have," Palmer replied.
Both riders had scrapes but no serious injuries. Carr's bike helmet was cracked, and the crash ripped the sole from his biking shoe.
Palmer left the scene of the crash and drove down the road to a point she could use her cell phone to call authorities. On the tape of the 911 call, which was played for jurors, she angrily explained what had happened.
"What you heard was a woman with an attitude saying she was not going to be accused of driving drunk or be accused of leaving the scene of an accident," Cunning said, during her closing statement.
Yet each of the independent witnesses who testified, Cunning said, described Palmer as "aiming at these boys."
One witness who testified during the trial, Deann Curbow, a Saline County resident who was in a car behind Palmer's vehicle, said it appeared Palmer deliberately swerved her car at the bicyclists. After the crash, Curbow said, she watched Palmer berate the pair.
"She said they were big babies, that it was just blood," Curbow said. "She was just screaming and cussing."
* Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 823-6464, Ext. 131, or by e-mail at sjdclouston @saljournal.com.
scott
leapfrog bike zine
By DAVID CLOUSTON
The Salina Journal
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Brookville woman was convicted by jurors in Saline County District Court on Wednesday of committing what a prosecutor described as "a fit of road rage" for aiming her car at two bicyclists, causing them to crash.
The most serious crime for which Patty Palmer, 30, was convicted -- aggravated assault -- carries a presumption of probation from a sentence of 11 to 34 months. She is scheduled to be sentenced March 31.
Palmer was found guilty of using her car as a deadly weapon to threaten the two riders, Jon Carr and Dan Martin, both of Kansas City, Kan. The college students were riding east on Kansas Highway 140 between Bavaria and Ted Augustine Furniture Warehouse, just west of Salina.
The pair were riding with others June 12 in the Biking Across Kansas bicycle tour on their way to Salina.
Palmer became angry, she testified, because the two riders were riding nearly abreast of each other and taking up nearly the entire right-hand lane.
State law permits cyclists to ride two abreast in the right-hand lane of a two-lane highway.
According to testimony during the two-day trial, Palmer drove up behind the riders and passed them twice, each time yelling obscenities and exchanging gestures. The second time she passed she claimed she pulled ahead and stopped to confront them.
Palmer said one of them, Carr, ran into her rear bumper. Carr said his front tire was clipped as Palmer swerved back into the right-hand lane. He went down on the pavement as Martin and his bicycle were forced into the ditch.
"You're saying your car had nothing to do with his (Martin's) bicycle ending up in the ditch?" Assistant Saline County Attorney Stacy Cunning asked Palmer during her cross-examination.
"If he was paying attention, it wouldn't have," Palmer replied.
Both riders had scrapes but no serious injuries. Carr's bike helmet was cracked, and the crash ripped the sole from his biking shoe.
Palmer left the scene of the crash and drove down the road to a point she could use her cell phone to call authorities. On the tape of the 911 call, which was played for jurors, she angrily explained what had happened.
"What you heard was a woman with an attitude saying she was not going to be accused of driving drunk or be accused of leaving the scene of an accident," Cunning said, during her closing statement.
Yet each of the independent witnesses who testified, Cunning said, described Palmer as "aiming at these boys."
One witness who testified during the trial, Deann Curbow, a Saline County resident who was in a car behind Palmer's vehicle, said it appeared Palmer deliberately swerved her car at the bicyclists. After the crash, Curbow said, she watched Palmer berate the pair.
"She said they were big babies, that it was just blood," Curbow said. "She was just screaming and cussing."
* Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 823-6464, Ext. 131, or by e-mail at sjdclouston @saljournal.com.
scott
leapfrog bike zine