This is taken from I cycling news letter I receive from Florida.


1. On August 6, 2007, Larry Gaunt was helping his 14-year-old granddaughter Siera Gaunt prepare for her first MS150. Riding the roads of Missouri near Kansas City, Mr. Gaunt and his granddaughter were struck and killed by 49 year-old driver William Johnson in his blue 1985 Chevrolet pickup despite the fact that (1) conditions were dry and clear; (2) Johnson had seen the cyclists from at least 1000 feet away; (3) Johnson failed to move over into an empty left-hand lane (this was a medianed, four-lane highway) because "it wasn't his driving style;" Williams claimed that the cyclists moved into his lane from the shoulder right before he caught up with them (yeah, I always do that when I hear a car behind me). Prosecutors charged Johnson with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Yesterday, July 17, 2008, a Missouri jury acquitted him. See the full report here -> http://mobikefed.org/2008/07/not-guilty-verdict-in-gaunt-double.php

I've been musing about Darrell Cunningham's incident and whether the driver got anything more than a ticket for running a red light - we'll see - and reading about the Missouri tragedy and the aftermath made me wonder how the jury considered the Missouri case: I'm inclined to believe that the average person (1) doesn't think that we should be on the roads; (2) thinks that if we get on the roads, we assume the risk and deserve what we get; (3) thinks, "Hey, that could've been me driving."