Conflicts on the Road are Often Caused by the Road

An Alabama man who posted videos of himself complaining about bicyclists has been arrested and charged with reckless endangerment.

In the videos, Keith Maddox describes what it’s like sharing the road with bicyclists as he drives to work.

Watch a compilation of the videos that Maddox posted below.

“See what I was talking about?” he says in a video posted on May 21, 2014. “Look there! Look right there. I ought to run him in the ditch. Ride your little bicycle!” he yells as he passes the bicyclist.

“You piece of crap! I oughta run him in the ditch is what I shoulda done! I shoulda put him in the ditch.”

In another video, he passes a bicyclist and says, “Lord have mercy, I’m gonna hurt one of them one of these days. Can’t help myself, I’m gonna do it.”

“Isn’t that nice?” he asks in a video from May 20, 2014. “Me, I’m trying to make it to work. Watch this,” he says, revving his engine as he passes the bicyclists.

“That scare you boys?” he yells.

The videos were discovered by cycling enthusiast groups online, who alerted the Calhoun County Sheriff’s office to Maddox’s threats. They arrested him and charged him with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor charge, and released him on $3,000 bond.

Maddox asked for forgiveness on his Facebook page with a note — since taken down — in which he apologized “to all people that I have offended over those absolute stupid videos that I posted …anybody who knows me knows that I would never ever intensionally [sic] hurt anyone…those were in very bad taste and I especially want to apologize to the northeast Alabama bicycle association…I am truly sorry for Anyone I may have offended….and please everyone share the road and be very aware of bicycle riders everywhere... and again I am truly sorry for my extremely bad judgement [sic]…please except my apology thanks.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/23/truck-driving-alabama-man-arr...

                                                Keith Maddox- Bicyclophobe

Mr. Maddox definitely has some sort of unresolved issues with bicyclists, and his physique and comments indicate that he doesn't get out on the roads very often on two wheels.  I would feel a bit unnerved by having him behind me on my bicycle on the narrow, winding roads of Alabama, but I find the reaction by the officials a bit heavy-handed. 

Reckless Endangerment (Alabama),is when one recklessly engages in conduct which creates a substantial risk of serious physical injury to another person.  Alabama's roads are the types of roads in the three videos compiled, with no shoulders, thin lanes, and double-yellow lines often making it difficult and unsafe to pass those traveling 20 mph on these 55 mph roads.  Alabama would be well served in developing shoulders for more of their hilly winding roads to alleviate the dangerous conditions the state has allowed to perpetuate over the years. 

The State is thus ill-served by charging Keith Maddox for a class A misdemeanor over what he is effectively saying, not for what he is doing.  It's more of an attack on his freedom of speech than his driving.  Because he is doing what most every other motorist in Alabama would be doing: passing bicyclists in "No passing zones" and cursing the cyclists for the state's own shortcomings for providing safe travel for all.  Give him a ticket for using his hand-held phone for recording his passing bicyclists in a dangerous manner. 

Have the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office go earnestly after the local road commission with as much vigor as they have came after Mr. Maddox.

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A most appropriate punishment would be to have Keith Maddox don the spandex and ride a bicycle to work for a few months.  Perhaps then he could understand the other side of the issue.

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