St Louis area cyclist threatened, hit, and run off the road by Sunset Hills Mayor

The St Louis cycling community is in an uproar after a motorist shouted at and threatened a cyclist, ran into and injured the cyclist, and then drove off. 

Cyclist Randy Murdick (KMOX News)

The driver turned out to be Mayor of Sunset Hills, Missouri.

• We are working with the local cycling community urge the Mayor and Sunset Hills to do the right thing and improve conditions in the city for cycling.  Click here to sign our petition to the Mayor and Sunset Hills.

Randy Murdick, a competitive triathlete, shared his version of events on Facebook:

Coming down old Gravois road (big hill) a red Mercedes convert alb with the top down comes up next to me screaming get off my roads, get off my roads. After what seemed like ten seconds of this he whips his car to the right hitting me on the left side of my body knocking the bike out from under me. My left arm hooked the back of the passenger door and he gunned it flinging me off onto the road. This all happened around 20mph. After I got up the car behind him that thankfully did not run me over asked if I was ok, I said would you please chase him and get his plate number. What I didn't know was a truck coming the other direction saw the entire thing and did a u-turn and chased him down. . . . 

THE MAYOR of Sunset hills told me to get off HIS roads then ran me over. The friggen mayor!

When the story hit the St Louis media, the Mayor told quite a different story:  

Furrer disputes Murdick’s version. He said he was driving his red 1991 Mercedes 300SL convertible with the top down when the cyclist ran a stop sign and whipped around a corner. He said he yelled at the cyclist that he needed to stop at the sign, and the cyclist started shouting at him, using profanities.

“He caught me off guard, frankly,” Furrer said. “Because I would have expected him to stop. He came around the corner at a pretty good clip on some fancy bike. Frankly, it’s my mistake, I shouldn’t have engaged him and I tell everybody I know, never engage them.”

Furrer said Murdick grabbed onto his car during the incident, which Murdick denies. Furrer said he didn’t accelerate or swerve, but saw Murdick tumble from his bike. Furrer said he kept going, but turned around at the first opportunity to go back to check on him.

Murdick said that not only did he stop at the stop sign on Old Gravois Road, but did so long enough to unclip his shoes from the bike’s pedals. Murdick also said he would have never grabbed the mayor’s car, adding that it would have made no sense to pit a 17-pound bike against a 3,000-pound vehicle.

Furrer’s disputes Murdick’s claims but stopped short of calling him a liar.

BikeLifeSTL interviewed a witness to the incident who shed light on the situation:

I just did a 5 minute interview with one of the witnesses. He corroborates EVERYTHING Randy Murdick said. Also, the witnesses 28 year old son was also in the truck so there are THREE witnesses. In sum, the driver of the truck said he saw the Mayor turn the wheel to the right into the cyclist. He absolutely believes it was intentional and deliberate. He chased the mayor down the road and yelled at him and blinked his lights to get him to pull over. He could not believe the mayor got away without a ticket.

BikeLifeSTL added:

There are two good eye witnesses who saw the events and may be able to confirm the Mayor appeared to swerve with intent to hit Randy. Both witnesses also saw the Mayor accelerate after the accident and attempt to leave the scene from what we understand. Randy's very expensive racing bicycle was destroyed and he has injuries to his leg.

One bit of good news: Sunset Hills has transferred the investigation of the incident to St. Louis County police.  After the very questionable way Sunset Hills police handled the original incident, and the potential and actual conflicts of interest involved for the city, this is a very positive move.

What next?

Area cyclists are calling for major steps by Sunset Hills to address this serious situation--particuliarly with the Sunset Hills Triathlon just around the corner.

Most drivers do not behave in the way that the cyclist and witnesses to this incident have described the driver behaving.  Most drivers are courteous and value safety above all, even if irritated by a specific action of another person on the road. What makes this incident stand out, is that the if the driver's behavior is as described by the cyclist and the witnesses, it stands out as a severe departure from ordinary, polite, safe driver behavior that every cyclist in Missouri sees a dozen times a day.  Polite and safe driving is normal in Missouri; dangerous driving stands out as unusual.

We suggest:

• The Mayor should stop making excuses, apologise for his actions, make restitution to the degree possible, and accept the legal consequences of his actions. None of us know exactly what the Mayor did, but the Mayor does and at least four witnesses do. The Mayor should tell the unvarnished truth, whatever it is, and accept the consequences, whatever they are.
   

• The City of Sunset Hills should take this situation very seriously, and use it as an opportunity to improve safety and civility for both cyclists and motorists:

  • Take the Mayor's dangerous actions seriously and apply serious sanctions as warranted after a serious investigation
     

  • Start work now to improve safety for cyclists in the city:

    • Immediately form a Bicycle/Pedestrian Friendly Community committee with the goal of making serious and thoroughgoing changes to the city's bicycle and pedestrian policies, laws, and infrastructure, and with a deadline of completing the city's Action Plan applying for official Bicycle Friendly Community status one year from now
    •  
    • Pass a community-wide anti-harassment law applying to bicyclists and pedestrians
       
    • Institute an annual Police Department review of procedure and current law pertaining to cyclist and pedestrians
       
    • Institute bicycle patrol training, offered by the St. Louis County Police Department, for all Sunset Hills Police Department officers and train all current officers within one year
       
  • Donate all proceeds from the upcoming Sunset Hills Triathlon to support bicycle advocacy

Click here to sign our petition to the Mayor and Sunset Hills urging them to act now and take the above steps.