Whoa — Canadian politician charged in road-rage death of bicycle courier
Are cars dangerous drugs?
TBL reader Michael M just sent me this, and it is a doozy.
Canadian Politician Charged in Death (New York Times).
The arrest of Mr. Bryant stemmed from a collision between a bicycle and an automobile in Toronto’s most prestigious shopping district late Monday evening. The episode started off as minor but swiftly escalated, leading to the death of Darcy Allan Sheppard, 33, who was identified as a bicycle courier.
After the collision, Mr. Sheppard apparently grabbed the driver’s side door and held on. Within moments, the police received reports of a Saab convertible racing past the fashionable shops of Bloor Street with a man clinging to its side. Two construction workers doing repairs along the road told CTV, a Canadian television network, that the car accelerated, its tires squealing, before veering into oncoming traffic on the left side of the street.
The workers said that the motorist repeatedly mounted the sidewalk and drove near lampposts in what seemed to be an attempt to brush off the man hanging onto the side.
One of the workers said the driver was “yelling pretty loud and he sounded very, very angry.” The other worker said, “He meant to knock him off.”
It is unfathomable to me what can happen to some people’s minds when they get behind a wheel. It’s as if they have taken some kind of awful drug — they literally start to do things that would shame a meth-addict. (I’m also thinking here of the fireman who shot a bicyclist for riding with a child in a bike seat).
–Erik Ryberg
September 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
Delighted to learn from this dispatch that there still bona fide bicycle couriers out there…
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
Read the book “Traffic” and educate yourself. We know why, and they don’t care.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CDtHWk8BDc
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
From the linked story:
“But it was as the province’s top law enforcement official that he produced the greatest controversy and acclaim of his 10-year political career.
Among his targets were street-racing motorists. In 2007 he gave the police the power to seize and destroy cars modified for racing even if no charges were lodged against their owners.”
Irony aside, you know how the most virulent anti-tobacco activists are the *former* smokers (same with other substances / recovering addicts), how the folks that are the most anti-gun tend to be the ones with anger issues who at least on a subconscious level wouldn’t trust *themselves* with control of a deadly weapon, how it’s the cheating spouse that is the most jealous and suspicious, etc. etc? A reality of human nature is that people will always look for a scapegoat – human or inanimate – on which to dump blame for their pet failings so as not to have to face them in themselves.
It’s interesting in that light that this guy would target the object (cars) for the behavior of street racers.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Oops, wrong link!
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Of course he says he’s “not guilty”. Amazing.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:45 pm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/world/americas/03briefs-Bryant.html?_r=1