My Lame Analysis

This is the probably the last post I'll write on the Mandeville Canyon Road Rage Trial. Thompson has been found guilty of serious criminal offenses and now faces what will probably be a costly civil trial. The legal stuff will probably drag on for years, and it will be boring for spectators and a stress-o-rama for everyone that's actually involved.

This incident has provided a lot to think about on training rides lately.

I don't think this event has significance for cyclists as a group, nor does it have significance for drivers as a group. There's no war between cyclists and drivers over the roads. Thompson is an aberration. There is an order of magnitude difference between the pathetic loser who shouts insults at you from the safety of her Hummer and a psycho that hunts cyclists with the trunk of his car.

One thing I take away from this incident is that cars have the weird power to bring out the beast in people. Thompson's Infinity Sedan transformed a 60 year old dude into a would-be murderer. I have no sympathy for his actions, but I can understand his anger; during my driving career, a few traffic incidents have pissed me off beyond all reason.

Anyone can lose their temper and do something stupid. Rage is a reflex. The wise thing to do is come up with a strategy to deal with your anger and the person who caused it instead of pretending it doesn't exist.

Over a long life, most people learn to tame the beast, but in his 60 years, Thompson didn't. Cyclists pissed him off so much that he tried several times to hurt them with his car. When he finally succeeded, and a guy's head was through his car window, he still didn't wake up--he complained that an injured cyclist's bike was in the road! When the prosecutor brought charges against him, he refused to admit any guilt. When he went to trial, he made up a crazy story about the incident to try to get away with it. My guess is he'll still be mad when he's writing all the zeros on the check to pay the cyclists after they sue him, and he'll be mad when he's picking up garbage at the side of the road and cyclists breeze past.

No doubt, there will continue to be confrontations between drivers and cyclists. The question this trial raises is, how should you react when it happens?

Road Rage Trial Closing Arguments

VeloNews has the latest.

The defense tried to portray the collision as an accident. The prosecution tried to remind jurors that a car can be a deadly weapon by acting out the incident with a baseball bat instead of a car:

First, she goes to a Trader Joe’s. Goes to the aisle where they have granola she wants. Someone is in the way, preventing her from getting her granola, so she swings a bat at the person, but doesn't hit him. With that, Stone held up a baseball bat, swinging in an abrupt arc.

Weeks go by. She returns to the Trader Joe’s and again there’s someone in the way, someone preventing her from getting her granola. This time she swings the bat at them and they duck just out of the way.

A few more weeks go by and she’s back at Trader Joe’s. Someone, she said, “is in my aisle, blocking me from my granola. So I blast his nose with my bat.”

“But of course, I get arrested.”

Then, donning a white doctor’s coat, she said, “But I shroud myself in this because I want to deflect what I did.”

So that's the heart of it. If a driver gets annoyed at a perceived delay caused by a cyclist, then uses the car as a weapon to get revenge, that's a crime. I think the Doc could have got away with it if he had simply said he got mad and slammed on the brakes, but didn't think it would cause an injury. That's probably more or less what happened. Instead, he made up what sounds like pure fiction to avoid all culpability and to paint himself as a saint. I'm hoping the jury sees through that.

The verdict should come back next week.

Road Rage Doctor Testimony

From the LA Times:

He [Doctor Road Rage] said he stopped to take a photograph for members of his homeowners association in the hopes they could contact cyclist groups to warn about riding dangerously.

"We've been dealing with this ongoing problem for years and it's impossible to do anything without being able to identify anyone," he told the court.

If that's the best version of events he can come up with, I think he's screwed.

The cyclists were traveling about 30 mph at the time of the collision--the speed limit of the road. The doctor could easily snap a picture from behind the cyclists to achieve his claimed objectives. If the doctor planned to snap a picture from the side of the road, he would have to drive several hundred feet ahead of them, get out of his car, and prepare the camera. Instead, he apparently pulled ahead of them, and slammed on the brakes.

If you combine his crazy story of altruism run amok with the testimony of the officer at the scene, his taped 911 call, the data from the cyclists bike computers, and the testimony of prior attacks, I think even the most jaded cyclist hater on the jury would convict him. I guess we'll find out soon.

Update:

Doctor Cross Examined from VeloNews.

More Road Rage Doctor Stuff from VN

Here's the VeloNews link covering the wrap up of the prosecution's case. The defense should present its case this week, and the trial will probably be done.

Here's a highlight:

Watson, in the March incident, and Stoehr, in the July 4 incident, each used GPS devices on their bikes. Accident reconstruction specialist Gerald Bretting said the devices showed Stoehr was going 28.1 mph and Watson was going 29.2 mph just prior to Thompson passing them in their respective incidents.

The speed of the bikes in the July incident will probably be an important point for the jury to consider. Since the cyclists were probably going around 30 mph, the speed-limit on the road, the Doctor had to accelerate to pass them, then slam on the brakes, so he was the one looking for trouble, not the cyclists.

So far, the evidence against the doctor seems pretty compelling. He admitted he was out to "teach a lesson" to the cyclists to the officer who arrived at the scene, then is on tape apparently trying to hide his guilt during the 911 call. The other attacks he allegedly made on cyclists show that he had intent to injure or menace the cyclists with his car. If this was Law & Order, the jury would come back with a verdict of Guilty. But, who knows what the real world jury will do.

Updates:

More info on bike speed and rights to use the lane from the Biking in LA blog.

Road Cyclists from The Douchebag's Perspective

Just like O.J., the Road Rage Doctor has his supporters. From USA Today:

In the aftermath and as their numbers have increased, bikers have become emboldened to take over the road. That is, instead of riding to the right or on the shoulder, some are now riding in the center of the lane. Two incidents underscore how the they are putting themselves in danger

Although the premise of the article is ridiculous, and I doubt many people share the author's view, I think it outlines the 1% asshole driver's ideas about cyclists.

The author Chris Woodyard appears to believe that all cyclists know each other and are acting in concert to take the road away from "drivers". That notion is based on the premise that cyclists are a group that's completely apart from the rest of society, rather than tax-paying citizens and sometime drivers.

I'd guess one of the more effective things that cyclists can do to counter this brand of idiocy is to take any available opportunity to point out that we work, pay taxes, and drive just like anyone.

RR Dr. Defense Cross Examination Article

The defense cross-examined the cyclists. Here's the Velonews article.

It looks like the defense is trying to portray the incident as an accident. The doctor slammed on his brakes directly in front of the cyclists "who were looking for trouble", and since bikes are "inherently unstable" they crashed. That is, the doctor had no intent of injuring the cyclists.

In cross-examining the witness, Swarth suggested that “bicycles are inherently unstable,” a point Peterson vigorously disputed. Most of the cross-examination focused on Thompson’s proximity to Peterson and the known statement, “Ride single file.”

So it will probably come down to the question, is a car a weapon? From a cyclist's point-of-view, it is. But from an average driver's point of view, it's a tool that's easy to wield, and so probably perceived as harmless.

The next bit of news will be the cross examination of the police officer who arrived at the scene that Dr. Thompson confessed to.

Investigating officer Robert Rodriguez testified that when he arrived at the accident, Thompson told him, “I live up the road. There were bikes in front of me, three across the road. They flipped me off. I stopped in front of them. I wanted to teach them a lesson. I’m tired of them.”

Updates (as google barfs them up into my feed reader):

• From LA Streets Blog

Road Rager Update

LA Times Story on the trial: Link

Thompson has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Peter Swarth, has characterized the incident as an "unfortunate accident."

There are a couple strikes against the doctor:

In last year's preliminary hearing, a police officer testified that Thompson, who complained that cyclists frequently travel down the residential Brentwood street, said he had stopped his car in front of the cyclists to "teach them a lesson."

Also, apparently the doctor had attempted the same type of attack against another pair of cyclists. I don't know if that will be included in the trial or not.

It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. Unfortunately, I'm guessing the average American would probably have more sympathy with the doctor than the cyclists. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Lots of detail: here
Velonews Update: here

Another strike against Doctor Brakenstein:

After one cyclist slammed into the rear of his car and vaulted over it into oncoming traffic, and another crashed through his rear window, Dr. Christopher Thomas Thomps on called 911 and told the operator, “They’ll tell you they are seriously injured, but they’re not.”

In fact, one of the cyclists required 90 stitches to reattach his nose. I think that's pretty serious.

The Road Rage Doctor

I've been following this story for a while. There weren't any new developments for quite a while, but it finally is going to trial. Here's a link to the October 12, 2009 velonews story: Link

A California emergency-room physician faces trial this week on multiple felony charges stemming from a 2008 road-rage case that left two cyclists seriously injured.

Dr. Christopher T. Thompson allegedly braked suddenly in front of Ron Peterson and Christian Stoehr after he and Peterson exchanged words as they descended Mandeville Canyon Road on July 4, 2008.

The trial should be taking place this week.