The US motorist who achieved internet notoriety earlier this week after a clip of him allegedly deliberately driving into a group of cyclists, hitting one and leaving him with a fractured spine before fleeing the scene, has been arrested.
However, 72-year-old Jerry Wayne Ross, from Cherokee County, Georgia, has denied responsibility, blaming the cyclists for the crash and claiming they were riding “in the middle of the road”.
As we reported on the live blog on Monday, the shocking incident was captured by a cyclist’s bike camera, with the resultant video – captioned “This is what we as bike riders have to deal with” – amassing almost eight million views on Instagram alone.
View this post on Instagram
In the clip, the motorist can be seen preparing to overtake the group of cyclists, riding two-abreast at the time, while blaring his horn repeatedly. He then veers towards the group, hitting one rider at the back, who remains upright, before colliding with another, who crashes to the ground.
The cyclists, members of the North Georgia Cycling Association, were riding on the rural Sugar Pike Road in Canton, Cherokee County, during their weekly Thursday night group ride when 72-year-old Ross approached from behind.
According to Richard Collins, the rider who crashed, the motorist blasted his horn for two minutes as he followed the group in his SUV.
“Just excessive. Didn’t let off the horn,” Collins told Fox5 Atlanta. “The sound got closer and then the cyclist behind me got struck in the left arm by the side mirror. I turned to my left to see it, at that moment, that vehicle was on my left leg.”
Collins, who was treated by paramedics at the scene, sustained road rash on his shoulder, elbow, and knee in the crash. However, when he was examined by an orthopaedist, he was found to have sustained a fracture to his lower spine.
After fleeing the scene, Ross was found hiding at a neighbour’s house, after officials from the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spotted damage to his SUV.
The 72-year-old was arrested and is set to face six charges, including two counts of aggravated assault, aggressive driving, hit-and-run, and failing to maintain distance.
He told officers that he had encountered the group of cyclists but denied responsibility for the collision, instead blaming the cyclists and claiming that they were riding “in the middle of the road”.
Speaking after the motorist’s arrest, Collins told Fox: “I just hope this experience will raise awareness to the rules of the road for cyclists, and how drivers should allow for the three feet distance in safe passing.”
17 thoughts on “Hit-and-run motorist who drove into cyclists while blaring horn blames group for riding “in the middle of the road””
blatently using his Vehicle as a weapon which he even admits to. Attempted murder.
Just look at him. Sociopathic American driver. These drivers need to be banned for life. But then, American gun culture….
Might be easy to blame the American but just look at any Facebook comments in the anglosphere (I can’t speak for Europeans) and it is depressingly consistent.
Juste regarde des commentaires des reseaux sociaux n’importe òu dans l’anglosphere.
Will that do? I believe in Europe French it’s the lingua franca.
RE: American gun culture. No doubt there are exceptions (i don’t know the “hunting accident” stats) but I suspect most people are more careful when using firearms than driving, especially around others.
I think it’s much more obvious that weapons have destructive power (including to yourself). For the motoring situation, yes, children may be given stark warnings around staying away from motor vehicles (and can see adults’ concern). But I’d say that driver training is most focused on getting the learner to relax in what are for most people stressful situations (moving at high speeds, vehicles approaching rapidly…)
Another problem with motor vehicles is that when people are in conflict with others on the road they don’t need to draw and load / unsafe their motor vehicle. It’s already “locked and loaded” when the engine is on and in gear.
Perhaps they should all have cigarette-style safety warnings on their binnacles?
Wait until he finds out how much time he’s looking at, even on a guilty plea. He He won’t be smiling then. It’s an election year, so the District Attorney who prosecutes him and the Judge who sentences him will want to show how tough they are on criminals. add to that the fact that he’s in the south, where the courts aren’t soft anyway and he’s probably looking at lengthy consecutive sentences. “Y’all going down for all day boy!!!”
What at least some of us are thinking is the opposite: jurors and the judge could well be sympathetic to the driver and would also like to run down cyclists who get in their way
Being at a very, very loose end I looked it up out of curiosity, Cherokee County elects its DA on the Presidential cycle, so they won’t be up for election until 2028, and the next vote for judges is May 19th so doubtless before the swine’s trial. You’re right that the south has some pretty stern courts but I wonder if it also has judges and juries who think cyclists are unpatriotic liberals who deserve what they get for impeding good l’boys driving their pickups?
The average sentence for getting drunk and killing a cyclist in the USA is 4 years. I doubt he will even get a custodial sentence. Probation, fine, points. The civil lawsuit will wipe that smile off his face, though.
“The average sentence for getting drunk and killing a cyclist in the USA is 4 years.”
If so, that’s already sounding like an improvement on the UK! (Caveat – haven’t checked current actual sentence outcomes – assuming it came to court and they were convicted…)
And currently here “4 years” might mean more like “out in 2”.
I don’t know how good the US is on “monitoring compliance with eg. driving bans” but that’s also an area of weakness in the UK.
I agree with CoaB that I can’t be bothered with the research required to dispute, or otherwise, statistics about sentencing of drunk drivers killing cyclists in the USA. I then decided to consider what I REALLY think would happen to the driver if the crime occurred in the UK and there was a video like this, as opposed to ‘the police would try and get the driver off and the court would commend them for it’. I logically worked out that if ‘reversed’ it would look the same on UK roads, although I then cheated and watched it on a mirror. I think he would go to prison here, but I can’t work out his actual time inside with all the ‘he’s sincerely remorseful and has never driven into a group of cyclists on this stretch of road before, look he’s got dementia and was provoked beyond control and is saying Wibble, Wibble, he looks after his wife’ etc. etc.
The “two counts of aggravated assault” is the kicker here – the Georgia Code says the sentence is between 1 and 20 years in chokey for each count (https://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/title-16/chapter-5/article-2/section-16-5-21/).
What bothers me about driving behavior is that when they pass and leave space by partially going in the other lane such that there is no room for an oncoming car anyway … why not just move that bit further way from the riders? You are already claiming the other lane, so just use more of it.
Ah, but there’s always a car coming the other way! (obviously it’s impossible to wait; by law you have to overtake cyclists particularly if they’re going slower than the motor vehicle speed target).
So drivers have to minimise the time they’re over the white line. It’s not just for fear of harm to their passengers, their motor or even themselves. It’s the altruistic imperative to avoid holding others up.
So drivers have to minimise the time they’re over the white line
Not if they’re NOT over the white line they don’t!
ttps://upride.cc/incident/kn21axh_lancspolice_closepass/
Lancashire Police’s wheels stayed in the left lane, although the offside mirror may not have done
What bothers me about driving behaviour is that when they pass and leave space by partially going in the other lane…
Odd, because what bothers me is when they pass and remain completely in my lane
ttps://upride.cc/incident/se19hwu_mini_closepass/
This is PN61 PYG today, doing the same thing
This is the UpRide of the above from yesterday, and includes the worse preceding attack from the Toilet-Toting lorry, which is considerably wider but can’t be said to have remained in the left lane throughout