The Bicycle Bus has been undergoing some infrastructure changes as of late, but what happened today really takes the cake.
There is a major intersection before our school, and the City decided to put up traffic lights and do away with the old 4 way stop. It is multiple lanes of traffic, and one of the busiest places in the canyon. The City has done away with OUR crosswalk, posting a "NO CROSSING" sign and has instead placed crosswalks on the remaining three sides. We must cross all three to get to school now, which is a great time-waster and has added considerable time onto our commute. My two sons and I had successfully navigated two of the crosswalks, and we were standing on the sidewalk with our bikes, waiting for the 3rd and final WALK light. There were two other children waiting with us. I was chatting with someone, when suddenly there was an SUV, coming from behind me, heading for me and my 11 year old boy. The SUV drove up onto the sidewalk, missing me and my son by less than 12 inches and CONTINUED TO DRIVE ON THE SIDEWALK, taking out two orange cones, which became lodged under his chassis. He showed no reaction -never even swerved - and continued to drive up the hill. Two cars behind was a woman with her 3 kids. She had witnessed the whole thing, and yelled that she was calling 911 and that she had his license plate. She followed him up the hill. He pulled into the guard-gated ritzy community and she lost sight of him. She was parked near the end of our commute, waiting for police, so I sent my boys home (just a couple blocks away) and stayed to talk to her. Turns out, the driver had been driving on the sidewalk at the shopping center a mile away and managed to hit her car. He left the scene and would not stop even though she tried to wave him down. He drove erratically up the hill with her following him, and then she watched him nearly hit us on the sidewalk, which made her decide to dial 911. A policeman met us, and told us this is the 5th (FIFTH!!!) erratic driving report they have on this man. The officer left to confront the guy at his home address, and said we may hear from him. An hour later, my iPhone rang with a blocked number calling, and it was the officer, who now wanted a written statement and to interview my two sons. We gladly complied and asked what happened when he arrived at the residence. The man refused to answer the door, and the two traffic cones were no longer under the SUV. The vehicle had numerous dents and scrapes. The officer said all the other calls ended the same - the man wouldn't answer the door when police arrived. The officer said he is not the type to let this go, and that he will confront the man again tomorrow. He said if he can establish that the man was the driver, he will be arrested for damaging the other woman's car, fleeing the scene of an accident, and endangerment of a child - a felony. He has left me his email address and instructed me to find the kids that were with us and get them in contact with him, which I will gladly do tomorrow. I can barely believe this happened. I always think I'm safe on the sidewalk. I never even saw that SUV until it nearly took out my left leg. I didn't even have time to feel afraid. I didn't see how close it got to my son, but he says it was closer to hitting him than me. I do know that I prayed for protection, as is my custom, on the morning bike commute, and I am grateful that my prayer was answered and that the Bicycle Bus lives to ride another day! Thank you, Jesus! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
