If possible, could the eyewitnesses double check my notes below for accuracy and let me know if I made any mistakes in recording the incident? I can send photos of my raw notes upon request. My transcription of those notes into text form is below:
The following is a composite account from approximately 6 eyewitnesses to the Critical Mass incident at Aloha Street in Seattle in July of 2008.
The group had turned from 15th right onto (eastbound) Aloha and were on a slight downslope after a hill climb so the group was thinning out with about one cyclist per two car-lengths and with a small group of riders yet to pass including someone pulling a child in a trailer.
At this point, Aloha is approximately 3 lanes wide with two lanes devoted to parking and it is not wide enough for two cars to pass without one car pulling into a parking space. The first interaction site, site A, was approximately 50 yards off of 15th. Cars were parked on both sides of the street. The car in question was parked on the right hand side of the street, mid-block, it and started to pull forward in the same direction as the cyclists. This car is initially facing eastbound. Upon seeing the attempt to pull out into the group, three cyclists pull up to block the car and ask the driver to “wait 30 seconds” for the rest of the cyclists to pass. The driver side window is half open and the driver yells at the blockers. Eventually about 6 cyclists are blocking the car and about half of these blockers are taunting the driver, the other half are trying to calm things down. Through this point no cyclist has touched the car. One cyclist comments that had there been any safe exit route for the car, she would have suggested it, but given the conditions the only safe action was for the car driver to wait. This blocking situation lasts about two minutes before the car starts to move again.
The car pulls forward and knocks one cyclist to the ground. The body of the car passes over this cyclist, but other than a chip in the paint and a bruise she appears uninjured. The car tire did not run over her.
The car driver backs up over the sidewalk and up a grassy slope and does a 3-point turn of about 120 degrees. The car is now aimed slightly back towards 15th. The blocking cyclists reposition themselves in front, to the front driver side and to the front passenger side of the car. The driver is visibly agitated, fuming. The passenger is disengaged. The driver says “Fuck This” as the engine roars and the car lurches forward through two people. Witnesses from 50 yards away hear screams. Cyclists yell “What the fuck are you doing, you just ran people over”. The person dragged under the car is dragged approximately 6 feet before the car tire runs over his leg. One person is either hit and flung to the hood or jumps on the hood and rides with the car the 50 yards with his feet on the hood and his hands holding onto the roof rack. The car appeared to be accelerating as fast as possible towards site B. In this time, the person on the hood bashed the front window with his leg and arm.
Accounts conflict about why the car stopped at Aloha and 15th. The car ended up stopping right over the crosswalk where the tail end of the ride was approaching. The tail end of the ride was composed of approximately 10 riders. Several of the blocking cyclists from Site A sprinted to Site B. One of these cyclists immediately used a pocketknife to slash 3 of the car tires in order to prevent the driver from getting away and then went to pull the driver away from the wheel only to discover that the driver was already out of the car. The driver was saying “I’m so sorry, oh God I’m so sorry”. In the time that it took him to take three stops to put himself between the driver and the steering wheel, a cyclist (who has not been arrested) sprinted up from the rear of the car and hit the driver in the back of the head with a U-lock. A couple cyclists believe they can identify the attacker but don’t know who it is. At the time that he was hit, about 8 cyclists were surrounded him and then they yelled at the guy who hit him (that the u-lock guy shouldn’t have done that).
Until after the police arrive, the passenger stays seated in the car and remains disengaged from the conflict. After the driver is hit, he staggers to the passenger side of the car, apologizes to the passenger, and rummages through the glove box for insurance papers. Then he wanders up part of the way back up Aloha where the police eventually find him on the sidewalk on the left hand side of the street.
The total time that the car was blocked before the driver drove into the cyclists was approximately 2 minutes.
The total time from the start until the police arrived was approximately 10 minutes.
The driver had his window 1/2 open the entire time. Part of the time he was gesturing with his hand through the open window, part of the time he was yelling.
Nobody in this group saw the driver exit the car, it happened quickly and nobody is sure if he exited on his own or if he was pulled from the car.
Mid-response, the police had a shift change. The officers who responded to Site A left, the officers who responded to Site B stayed, and a new supervising officer came on the scene and made his determination after only talking to the officers at Site B. There were lots of witnesses at Site B and at least 6 pedestrians and local residents that witnessed what happened at Site A. When cyclists talk to the new officer in charge and hear that he only has one half of the story, they disagree and he responds “That isn’t how it is getting written up” and he responds rudely to the cyclists. Two cyclists were arrested, held, and released without being charged at this time. The car driver has not been arrested or charged. One of the cyclists that was arrested was not told what he was being arrested for until he reached the precinct office.
Meanwhile one of the officers from Site A gave the girl who had been run over, the first cyclist to have been hit, a courtesy ride to her home where he then took a full statement. She refused paramedic treatment and appears to have only suffered bruises and chipped paint on her bike from being struck by the car. The police have names and contacts of about 6 pedestrians from Site A.
Other notes:
1. The passenger was not pregnant.
2. The car was not totally surrounded, and only had 6 cyclists blocking it.
3. There was only one knife and it was a pocketknife.
4. The cyclists were, so far, only arrested and released on $150 (each) non-refundable bail. The cyclist wielding the u-lock that hit the driver has not been arrested.
5. The car is a stick shift.
6. From these witnesses, it isn’t clear who broke the rear window.
From the viewpoint of Site A: An aggressive driver road raged through a group of people.
From the viewpoint of Site B: A bunch of cyclists attacked a car and the driver.
(End of notes. Start of my analysis after reading all of this again.)
Another note and possible discrepancy in the drivers story: Since the car is a stick shift, and he had the presence of mind to do a 3 point turn over a sidewalk and into a hill while yelling at the cyclists, even if he only intended to rev the engine to scare people, how could he have not had his foot on the clutch? In order to rev the engine, the engine has to be running. If the engine is running and the car isn’t moving, he has to have his foot on the clutch. If he had turned the car off and didn’t have his foot on the clutch when turning the key (most stick shifts made in the last 15 years require your foot on the clutch before allowing the key to turn) then the car would only lurch forward and die, it wouldn’t get the speed required to start the car. With that car, if it is a stick shift, I can’t see any way for the lurch into the group to be accidental.
If you need my scene / position sketches cleaned up let me know and I’ll clean them up, photo them, and send them to you.
Thanks,
Michael Snyder
