Boulder DA does not file charges against driver in July 4 accident.
No charges will be filed against the driver in a July 4 accident that injured pro triathlete Richie Cunningham, according to Boulder law enforcement officials. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office announced yesterday that the Boulder County District Attorney ruled that an investigation showed the driver stopped to avoid another car and not because of road rage.
Cunningham said that the driver – revealed by Sheriff’s investigator as Shepherd Wolfe – was not trying to avoid another car but was acting out of deliberate rage and cut sharply in front, forcing him to crash.
"There was a red SUV in front of him, but it was way off in the distance," said Cunningham. "The investigator told me that [Wolfe] said 'I braked hard for the red SUV.' But that statement did not match what four eyewitnesses said happened."
Cunningham told the Boulder Daily Camera: "The driver was just using that as an excuse, as his way out of getting charged."
Investigators said that Cunningham and fellow professional triathletes – Ben Hoffman, Joe Gambles and Patrick Evoe – were riding north on 83rd Street on July 4 at 9 AM. As the riders approached a downhill turn, a truck driven by Wolfe, age 46, of Ft. Collins, passed the cyclists while honking. Cunningham and his three fellow cyclists said the driver passed dangerously close and then swerved in front, causing Cunningham to brake and flip over the handlebars.
Cunningham suffered injuries to his shoulder, arm and back which will likely prohibit him from competing for 6 to 8 weeks.
According to a media release by the Boulder Sheriff's office, Wolfe told investigators he honked to let the cyclists know he was passing them, then braked hard to avoid hitting a car in front of him as he came down the hill.
Cunningham said that Boulder Sheriff's Detective Don Dillard, who was investigating the incident, told him that a local fireman who stopped at the scene said that Wolfe was forced to stop to avoid hitting the car.
"I told the Detective that those stories didn’t match the facts," said Cunningham. "The Detective told me 'It gives the driver a little bit of credibility that his story might be true.' I said, 'How does it? The red SUV was off in the distance.' The Detective said he took the investigation to the District Attorney’s office and presented it to 4 or 5 DAs, who told him that there was not enough hard evidence that [Wolfe] did it deliberately."
Cunningham said that the thing that disturbs him most is that cyclists do not in practice receive the same rights and protection of law as motorists. "Cyclists are vehicles on the road and are expected to abide by all road rules," he said. "But when it comes to actual rights on the road, cyclists do not have near what a motor vehicle has for protection."
Cunningham, who is an Australian citizen, said he is considering filing a lawsuit: "I am not American by culture and the last thing I want to do is run out and sue somebody. But because the legal system didn’t do me right, it's the only avenue I've got. If I don’t pursue this, the Boulder Sheriffs have had a warning from this guy. It is not a matter of if but a matter of when he will do this again. If he takes an incident like this to this extreme, the next time there could easily be a death."
