Rick C Johnson

I was in that second group that was stopped and heard the lecture. All I
will say at the moment is to correct the record on this one issue: The
Sheriff did not accuse a Hutch's rider of causing the accident. He
stated the Hutch's Bicycles was responsible because they sponsored the
ride.

Rick
Hutch's Bend

Julie Wose / Thane Jennings wrote:

>Today was the annual Double Dawg Tandem ride to Smith Rock and back from
>Bend sponsored by Hutch's of Bend. The ride was relatively uneventful
>until the way back. Approximately 15 of us were pulled over in Redmond for
>rolling a stop sign. One in our group came to a full stop but this went
>unoticed by the sheriff deputy. The sheriff used his siren and then
>pulled in front of the group and slammed on his brakes. Traffic was
>completely blocked in one direction. The deputy proceeded to scream and
>yell and lecture us, not on running the stop sign but on causing an
>accident that had happened earlier in the day. He also called for back-up
>because we were such an unruly bunch. It was his contention that someone
>on the ride pulled in front of a car causing him to swerve and hit someone
>else head-on. As far as I can tell no one in our group caused or even saw
>an accident. A number of the folks on the ride who were behind our group
>had stopped for several flats and they came across the aftermath of the
>auto accident. One of the folks who stopped for the flats is an EMT who
>works for Lifeflight, he rendered first aid to the victims of the auto
>accident. This is in direct contradiction to the Sargent who lectured us
>about causing the accident, he claimed that no cyclist had stopped, this
>is untrue, a whole group had stopped to render assistance. Every cyclist
>who happened to ride by our group was stopped by the county sheriffs and
>warned that they were watching cyclists in Deschutes County and that
>Hutch's Bicycles was going to be sued because it was one of the riders on
>their sponsored ride that had caused the accident. We were told that the
>sheriff was fed up with the bad behaviour of cyclists and that the sheriff
>would not tolerate it in the future and that we were to pass this
>information on to our fellow cyclists.
>
>I plan on writing a letter to the Deschutes County Sheriff and demanding
>an explanation. I don't like the way the Deputy Dozer personnally
>threatened everyone in our group, his behaviour was completely
>unproffessional. No one in our group caused an accident yet we were
>blamed by someone who clearly hates cyclists. I would appreciate hearing
>from anyone else who was on the ride who can provide their version of the
>days events and I would encourage other cyclists who were pulled over to
>write to the Deschutes County Sheriffs office and set the story straight,
>we did not cause this auto accident!
>
>Thane Jennings
>
>
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