Dirk Friel and his riding partner were riding as far to the right as possible. Riding in line on the tiny 10 inch bit of paved shoulder. But that wasn’t good enough for this nut job. He followed them for five minutes blaring his horn. He could have easily gone by them. But no. He holds up other cars, making them go around him. And according the comments on the video, this guy has allegedly harrased other cyclists too. It would have freaked me out to have a crazy person like this in a 4000 vehicle stalking me and honking the horn continuously. Not sure I would have been as calm and cool as these guys were. What’s difference if someone is pointing a gun at you, or a 4000 pound SUV that easily turn you into road kill? An inexperienced cyclist, might have panicked and fallen into the path and SUV! Police have been contacted and I hope they do something with this butt munch! Bikes have a legal right to be on the road. I have seen some people posts that cyclists should ride on the side walks. But in many places THAT is illegal.
The Colorado Police have been notified and they were going to contact the driver of the SUV. I read a post on another site saying the driver lived in Erie, Colorado. His name has not been released. Probably because he would have hundreds of cyclists harassing him at his house.
Follow up: 75-year-old? James Ernst of Erie, Colo. is charged with two counts of harassment, one count of impeding the flow of traffic, and one count of improper use of a horn or warning device.
Driver was out of line but not as out of line as people searching out the license plate and placing the vehicle owner’s information on blast. Blurry plate on the video and no positive identification of the driver….. wrong
Comment by Jon — September 21, 2012 @ 6:18 am
Actually, there is a VERY clear shot of the license plate at 1:20 into the video. The guy’s name has been released in the news along with the charges. I have seen his address posted online, but I didn’t post it here. It can easily be found with Google.
The driver was WAY out of line. I wish the charges had been stiffer. Apparently now, he is hiding in house.
Comment by Rob — September 21, 2012 @ 6:26 am
Plus you state that “He followed them for five minutes blaring his horn”, while the video is only one minute and fifty nine seconds long…. once again you are wrong. You also state “And according the comments on the video, this guy has allegedly harrased other cyclists too”. Nowhere on the video you have posted is there any mention that this guy has harassed anyone. FAIL.
Comment by Jon — September 21, 2012 @ 6:26 am
It’s in the text and comments that accompany the video on YouTube. It’s also mentioned in many news articles that are posted online. The video is only two minutes because they started recording after they realized the butt munch was going to stay there honking. And then as mentioned in the video the phone was running out of memory.
Comment by Rob — September 21, 2012 @ 6:37 am