OK, folks settle in. Here comes a story.
I am 50 years old. When I was about 20, I was riding with the team of road cyclicts I raced with, and we were deliberately struck by a woman on a long straight road. Police estimate she got her car up to abput 120 mph before she ran right into the back of our group. One of my friends was killed. The other was in a coma for 3 months and had his legh amputated below the knee. He went on to win world chamnpionships and olympic medals at the as a handicapped athlete. The other cyclists in the group had broken arms, ribs, legs, and so on. I was the only person of the eight not struck. I was trained as an EMT and did my best to help. The driver fled the scene, abandoned her car, and hid. Later, she turned herself in to police. She was crazy. She said she wanted to kill more people. She was found not guilty for reasons on insanity. I beleive she may still be in a mentally ill prison.
Guess what? Despite prior vehicle assaults, she was insurred. She had a 300,000 dollar AAA insurance policy. 100,000 went to the family of the deceased. 100,000 went to the boy who lost his leg. The other 100,000 was split between the remaining 6. As the cyclist who was injured the least I received 10,000. I went to Italy and lived for three months bicycle racing. I learned some Italian, had an Italian girflfriend, and so on. But that event completely derailed my life and f*cked me up. Things were never the same again.
Around the same time, I had an aquatintence who was shot in the arm by the occupant of a pick up truck while riding. The same cyclist wal also run over and dragged by a drunk driver, who got out, looked under the truck, and then reversed, draging him again. He has scars like a burn victim all over his body.
Two female bike racers I knew were stuck and killed by vehicles.
Many others I knew were badly injured, hospitalized for weeks, and so on.
I have been yelled at, cursed at, squeezed, pushed and nudged by cars too many times to remember. Once, a driver passed, then slowed down, sweared at me through thre window, spit at me, rolled the window up and kept spitting, so that the saliva ran down the glass, then swerved to push me into parked cars, then, when I rode up on his window, swerved the other way, pushing me into oncoming traffic. At first, I just memorized his license plate,and vowed to report him. Then something switched inside, and I said to myself, "F*ck it--I'm gonnal kill thast guy." I chased him down, found him stopped at a red light in the city center, kicked in his drivers window, and went after him. Unbenownst to me, there was a plainclothes police officer in an unmarked car behind me! Whoops! I got charged with assault and battery. The bike racing community came together, and a well know local criminal attorney, who usually defended drug dealers, murdererers, and so on, took my case pro bono. He was famous for being a fast talking, aggresive, type A personality, and a tenacious former bike racer, who used to say things like, "One of these days, I'm gonna nail a f*cking car driver to the wall!" When we first spoke, I said, "There were no witnesses to the original incident, just a policeman's incriminating testimony. What are we gonna do?" He replied, "You got a great case!" I asked, "What are you going to say?" He replied, "I'm gonna go in there and tell them to f*ck off." On court day, I stood next ti him and repeated ebverything he told me to say, as the judges, prosecutor, and lawyer went through their procedures. He told them that 1) I had been part of the accident described above, which they all knew about, because it had been all over the news, and 2) that he was prepared to try the case himself if necessary. The case was dismissed. No charges on my record, which I good, because I later became, and have remained, a high school teacher, which would not have been possible with that charge on my record. It's fun to joke about lawyers, but when there's nothing like a good lawyer when you need one.
Basically, the sight of cyclists drives some people into a rage of hatred, jealousy, superiority, inferiority...I don't know. But it's a real effect that least to many lost lives.
I don't ride a road bike anymore. I consider it much, much, much too dangerous. I prefer to stick to mellow singletrack on my mountain bike.
My former bike racer self would be ashamed of what I have become, a 50 year old father with hair leges, riding around the forest in shorts and sneakers, but that's life, I guess.
I'm glad they charged this driver with murder and sentenced him to 26 years. Good outcome.