DA decides no road rage in Cunningham case, but plenty of cyclist rage in Colorado Springs

Road rage is all the rage these days. Last Friday, the Boulder District Attorney revealed that no charges will be filed against Shepherd Wolfe, the driver who was involved in a July 4 accident that injured Australian triathlete Richie Cunningham. Initially, reports had said that Wolf had passed several cyclists,...

By Patricia Calhoun

July 16, 2013

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Road rage is all the rage these days. Last Friday, the Boulder District Attorney revealed that no charges will be filed against Shepherd Wolfe, the driver who was involved in a July 4 accident that injured Australian triathlete Richie Cunningham. Initially, reports had said that Wolf had passed several cyclists, then come to a sudden stop at the bottom of a hill, causing Cunningham to brake hard and flip over his handlebars. Cunningham and three other cyclists felt the incident was the result of road rage, but Wolfe denied that, insisting he gave proper warning that he was passing the cyclists. And the Boulder County DA's office could find no probable cause that he'd commited a crime.

But there's plenty of rage to go around.

Yesterday, we posted a video that Mark Ewell had taken on Saturday, when he encountered a "cyclist pack" blocking traffic on Marksheffel Road outside of Colorado Springs, then posted on Facebook.

That video has been taken off Facebook -- and so it's disappeared from our original post -- and Ewell has posted an apology, but the comments keep coming. Some people think we should have turned Ewell over to authorities. Others think the cyclists should be spanked.

And then there's this from Anthony B Garcia:

The driver is kind of a dick, but the riders seem to be just a bunch of elitist assholes! They are breaking the law! His dickhead-crossing-a-solid-line trick was not too smart.

Can cyclists and drivers ever get along? Or will road rage cases continue to rage? And do you think we should have called the cops on the driver who made the video?

For more memorable takes, visit our Comment of the Day archive.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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