Randy Dreiling
I would contact the county commissioners
Find out which ones are pro outdoor rec first and have them lean on the sheriff and be sure to point out some riders helped at the wreck.
As an elected official(In Oakridge) of a tourism/ outdoor rec town we as elected officials take this stuff seriously.
I remember one year a good old boy was screwing around with racers during the Oakridge FTF and the police went and found him and cited him, because they didn't want bike riders to feel unwelcome in Oakridge or to feel like the police didn't respect them.
Then again who knows how they feel over there.
Take care
Randy Dreiling
----- Original Message ----
From: Rick C Johnson
To: Julie Wose / Thane Jennings
Cc: obra@list.obra.org
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:50:49 PM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Deschutes County Sheriff Hates Bikes!
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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