A G.J. bicyclist recounted on social media an incident he experienced by an enraged driver on the Redlands on the evening of Saturday, June 28. The cyclist reported it to the GJPD, but since the GJPD was unable to do anything about it, he wants to warn the public to protect others from this person.
The cyclist wrote:
I had an upsetting encounter today, Saturday, June 28.Around 6:30 pm, when biking up Broadway, right past the intersection with Monument Rd, as I was passing the entrance from Broadway to Safeway, a driver in a truck waiting to go into Safeway from the opposite direction yelled at me, “Get off the f***ing road, use the sidewalk…” and some other obscenities.
As soon as I passed the Safeway driveway, I hopped on the sidewalk and went into the Safeway parking lot since I had planned on getting some stuff there. The truck driver saw me turning in, too, and made his way past the actual shopping center into the service entrances behind, obviously now trying to avoid being seen by me. But I could see all of it since I was just on a bike.In the parking lot, I ran into a friend of mine and told him what had just happened. We chatted about some other stuff for a while. As I pulled away from my friend, luck would have it, I saw the truck of the cursing driver in front of Redlands Liquors. I think he thought he had out-waited me behind the stores and had come back to the main parking lot to do his intended shopping at the liquor store.I stopped on my bike by the store and wanted to take a photo of the back of his truck. Right then he walked out of the store and started yelling obscenities at me:“You motherf-er, get off our streets!”“You have no right to be on our f-ing streets!”…and so on. I got a bit closer (I was across the street) and said, “Hey, you know that I do have a right to be on the same streets, right?” but this triggered an even more aggressive posture from the man, and he got really close to me. More obscenities—“You were f!#@*ing impeding f*#!ing traffic!!” and more.He was in a foaming-at-the-mouth kind of rage—flushed face, pure anger. I was scared.I then took out my phone, and he yelled at me, “You take that phone out, motherf#@!er, and I will f*cking shoot you!” I moved closer to the store entrance and called 911. He got in his truck and drove off.What kind of deranged lunatic rages against another road user on a sleepy Saturday afternoon, with empty roads, when we weren’t even going in the same direction?During the encounter I wish I’d had the wits to actually video it, but it all played out relatively quickly and I was nervous. I decided to file a police report and press charges, even though it makes me even more nervous, but I want that man to be on record in case he berates or worse – harms someone on the road.
In 25 years of biking on Grand Junction streets, I’ve only had a few encounters when drivers acted aggressively toward me while I was biking, but overall people are friendly and courteous drivers. That’s why, even more so, the driver of the Tacoma truck pictured here needs to be known and held accountable for his threatening road rage. He wore a CMU logo embroidered baseball hat.
The enraged driver also warned him to “watch out” because he “may be clipped when seen on the streets again.”
After posting photos of the driver on social media, three people contacted the bicyclist and identified the driver. The driver lives in the same neighborhood as the bicyclist and all of the people who contacted the bicyclist alleged the driver was a “raging alcoholic,” leading the cyclist to fear cycling in his own neighborhood.
The driver reported the incident to the Grand Junction Police Department, but said,
“The police simply called him later—they never went to see him in person or check whether he was intoxicated, which I am certain he was. He told the officer that [I] ‘cut him off,’ which is a lie, since I was two lanes away, biking in the opposite direction. They also spoke to the liquor store clerk, who said there were no security cameras out front. So, because it’s my word against his, he won’t be charged.
While I understand how that happens, I also find it very frustrating. There were ways to gather evidence—like going to his house and observing him directly—but it wasn’t done. It’s water under the bridge now. I get that for GJPD this is small potatoes, and that’s why unhinged people like him may never be held accountable.”
The bicyclist offered the following observations and recommendations after this unsettling incident:
“…[F]or an unhinged person like [this] to remain a known danger in the community without consequences, it takes many enablers. The bars … that keep serving him when he’s clearly driving to and from, the liquor stores selling him alcohol when he’s obviously drunk, and so on.
So that’s it—watch out for your own safety. And if you ever need law enforcement’s help, make sure you have all your evidence ready, ideally video—something I failed to do when I froze, and when [the driver] threatened to shoot me if I pulled out my phone to record the encounter.I’m sharing …these details in hopes that knowing others [who] are aware of his behavior might keep him from hurting or killing someone on the road. While my case went nowhere, if he does this to someone else, my report will at least be evidence of a pattern.In the meantime, I’ve bought a bike camera system. And if you ever experience road rage while biking, please file a police report, even if you don’t have evidence in hand.”
I’m the person on the bike in this post.
What stood out to me in this incident are a few things:
1. Unlike so many people on bikes who have been bullied or hurt by raging drivers, I was actually able to identify the driver. He tried pretty hard to hide—when he realized I was headed into the same shopping center, he drove past the stores and pulled onto the service road behind, where no driver has any reason to be, to avoid being seen. I only happened to see him because I ran into a friend in the parking lot and we ended up talking for a long time. The driver must have waited somewhere nearby, and when he thought I was finally gone, he came back to the liquor store. This just shows the situation so many cyclists are in when they get threatened or harassed: we’re much slower, and it’s easy for a driver to disappear.
2. The police presented their “challenge” in pursuing charges—as if their ability to investigate was no better than mine. And I’m not a cop, and I have no experience with law enforcement. It’s ridiculous that they put the perpetrator and the victim on the same footing and acted like this was just a “he said, he said.” I had photos proving he was there. Witnesses, including liquor store clerks who sold him alcohol, saw him yelling. The police called me a couple of hours after the incident, and I think they called him too, but they never went to see him in person right after I reported it. If they had, they probably would have found some evidence. If this had been just some unhinged driver yelling, maybe I’d be more understanding of them not wanting to follow up. But I called 911 because he threatened to kill me, twice. Once he said he’d shoot me if I took out my phone to record video, and another time he warned that I “might get clipped” if I was ever seen again on a bike on “his” streets. The police’s lukewarm response painted a picture of a bit of indifference unless the cyclist can hand over airtight, prosecutable evidence—like a perfect video with audio.
3. In conversations since, some people have argued that it’s only a tiny minority of drivers who are dangerous or bullying cyclists. Of course, it’s a minority—if most drivers behaved like this, very few of us would still be alive. But just because they’re a minority doesn’t mean the problem isn’t serious.
4. My story of being threatened and bullied by a raging driver wasn’t really all that remarkable. What was remarkable were the dozens of other stories people shared in the comments on Facebook—stories of being harassed, threatened, physically hurt, or run off the road. Together, those accounts paint a clear picture: the City’s response to keeping people on bikes safe is inadequate, and there isn’t much encouragement for proactive enforcement.
It also made me think about the recent turmoil around the 4th and 5th Street projects, where the new mayor and the City Council failed to use that opportunity to educate the public on why protected bike lanes are so important—and good for the whole community, including drivers. Instead, the Mayor of Grand Junction used the argument that “the majority” didn’t want it, and that his job is just to represent the majority. That isn’t how it works. If it were, there never would have been a single accessibility ramp built anywhere. Just like we don’t install locks on our doors because we think most people are thieves, we don’t create protected lanes because most drivers are unhinged or distracted. We create protections because it only takes a tiny minority to do a lot of harm.
A similar incident happened to a very well known cyclist in the valley about a month ago. It was a different driver. The cyclist had his life threatened by an unhinged driver. The cyclist was riding with a buddy who witnessed the incident. They caught up to the unhinged driver and took pictures of his truck and plate number. It was a white GM Escalade with plate number DXL E15 and a Green and white sticker on the window that stated “NATIVE.” The cyclist made a police report. The police contacted the man, but it was a “he said versus he said” ordeal. The bottom line is, cyclists have got to start wearing cameras. I think there are fairly inexpensive cameras that can be found on Amazon that can be attached to the seat post and worn on the front of the rider, or on helmet, or on jersey or handlebar.
We have a silver Tacoma with a hood scoop too. There are a lot of them. Note the perp has a semisesquintenial license plate.
Thank you for publicizing this incident.
I’ve ridden extensively around both Mesa County and the Front Range. I must say that our local drivers are usually much more courteous to cyclists, but it only takes one idiot to injure or kill a rider.
To this cyclist: kudos for getting pics, and don’t fret too much about the lack of video. It’s hard to do everything “just right” in the heat of the moment, and you took important steps to stay safe.
Thanks for helping spread this information.
why on earth wouldn’t/couldnt GJPD do anything about it???????
Lee, that was my first thought. Also, did the GJPD ask the store clerk to see inside footage to see if he was staggering and slurring his words????
The GJPD apparently said it came down to being a “he said, he said” incident, making it difficult to prove in court. Thus, the necessity of video recording such incidents.
The cops won’t do their jobs, which is nothing new. There are “he said, he said” cases frequently. That’s what investigation is for, and what juries are for.