Driver sought in car-bike collision

Two cyclists forced off the road

RALEIGH -- State Highway Patrol officials say they are still looking for a person or persons who ran bicycle riders off the road with a car late last month.

Katie McKeithan said she and cycling partner Eric Danzey were riding single-file on Old U.S. 1 near Pea Ridge Road when the two were passed by a Ford Explorer. A second car, thought to be a gray Chrysler 300, slowed when it began to pass the cyclists.

"They got beside and shifted into me," she said.

McKeithan said she remembered rolling onto the ground after the collision, but everything that happened afterward was a blurred memory.

Danzey said the passenger in the car then flung the door of the vehicle open as if trying to hit him. He heard a woman's voice coming from the car, telling the driver to go, and the car disappeared from sight. He said he then told McKeithan about what happened.

"That was when I realized this was an intentional act of violence," McKeithan said.

McKeithan and Danzey gave investigators information on the vehicle. A driver who followed the car also got part of a license plate number.

There have been other bicycle incidents on Triangle roads lately.

On April 23, Nancy Antoine Leidy, 60, was killed when she was hit by the truck of an N.C. State University student while heading for a trail on her bicycle near the college campus. The truck's driver, Brian Anthony Reid, 21, was charged with misdemeanor death by motor vehicle, failure to control speed, and driving while intoxicated.

On May 4, Wendy Savage was hit by an elderly driver while riding down Carpenter Pond Road in Durham County. She spent several weeks in a hospital and is still recovering from her injuries. The driver, Gladys Phipps George, 83, of Durham was cited for failure to control speed.

Trooper J.E. Brewer, a Highway Patrol spokesman, would say only that McKeithan's case is still being investigated. Investigators have requested information from the Division of Motor Vehicles about a Chrysler 300 with a license plate that begins "XYT."

McKeithan said she's hoping that a suspect can be identified and charges filed soon.

"We're hoping he's gone bragging to his friends and one of them turns his tail in," she said.