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Legal action: None. If there is no physical contact with the vehicle and the cyclist has no license-plate number to report, he has little recourse.
Assaulted
Michelle Davis
Age: 30
Stats: A cyclist since college, Davis dislikes driving and commutes by bike from her home in the Northeast neighborhood to work at City Hall in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
Assault: Davis had already taken some tough knocks on the night of June 27, 2006. Trying her moxie at mountain biking on the Blue River Parkway Trails, she'd tumbled a few times and was eager to head home. About two blocks from her house, she spotted a group of kids congregated around a pile of debris on the curb. As she wheeled by, they took aim. "One happened to have a computer keyboard in his hands and clubbed me upside the head with it," she says. The blow was hard enough to dent her helmet, but Davis kept riding. That is, until another assailant tackled her. At that point, she figured they were intending to mug what they assumed was a helpless cyclist. "I jumped up, infuriated, and cussed them all out," she says. "They were so surprised their intended target was fighting back, they scattered. I grabbed the keyboard and waved it around at them a bit, until they thoroughly dispersed."
Injuries: A roughed-up elbow and a minced knee.
Legal action: None. Davis called the Kansas City Police Department, and officers took a report at the scene, but Davis says they weren't able to track down her assailants. She did keep the key piece of evidence, though — the keyboard. She says she's planning to pry off the letters B-O-L-G-N-A for an art project.
Injured
Lorne Carroll
Age: 31
Stats: Carroll competes in a couple of mountain-bike races every year, but for the most part, he's a bike commuter. For the past three years, he has ridden from his home near West 39th Street to his job at the Kansas City Health Department at 24th Street and Troost.
Crash: Carroll was returning to work after riding home for his lunch break on July 17. Just before one o'clock, he was pedaling down Linwood in the left lane, preparing to turn north onto Harrison. With no oncoming traffic, he stuck out his left arm, signaling his intent to turn. He heard brakes squealing behind him. A second later, the front bumper of a maroon Mercury Grand Marquis collided with his rear wheel, flinging him into the air. "The bike swung out in front of me, and I landed on my feet, running," he says. Traffic at the intersection stopped as Carroll retrieved his damaged Schwinn Le-Tour and the driver, Robert Allee, rushed up to him. "His first response was, 'Man, are you OK?' And his second sentence was, 'You shouldn't have been riding in that lane,'" Carroll says. "I didn't respond to that at all. I just asked him for a pen to start writing down his information." After a friendly stranger offered him a spare tire, Carroll was able to ride the rest of the way to work.
Medical bill: $350. A doctor prescribed muscle relaxers for a neck strain, back pain and a tweaked tendon in his knee. Carroll is still negotiating with Hawkeye Insurance Company, Allee's policy provider, to cover his medical expenses and the cost of missed work hours.
Legal action: Based on state law, Carroll knew he had the right to be in the left lane to make a turn like any other vehicle. According to the police report, Allee had a clear line of sight, and the collision was caused by the driver's "failure to yield" and "inattention." Even so, Carroll says, the cops seemed to take the crash lightly. "The police officer basically asked me if I wanted him to write a ticket or not, and I said, 'Well, yeah, I would think so.'" A subpoena was issued, and Allee showed up in court on October 1. He pleaded guilty and paid a $138 fine.
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