LCSO Investigating Assault on Washington & Old Dominion Trail

[AFHokie]

Re-posting from Loudoun CO Sheriff’s Office:

Loudoun County, VA- The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) is investigating an assault on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail (W&OD) where a cyclist was seriously injured by another passing cyclist.

The victim, an adult male, was riding his bike west on the W&OD Trail near Ashburn Village Boulevard around 2:15 p.m. Sunday and was attempting to pass two bicyclists. He was reputedly riding on the center line when a cyclist coming from the opposite direction reached his arm out intentionally and hit the victim’s bike helmet. The victim fell to the ground and was seriously injured. He was taken to the Lansdowne Campus of Inova Loudoun Hospital and later transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital where he is listed in stable condition.

The suspect rode off in the opposite direction heading east towards Ashburn Village Boulevard. The suspect was wearing a white/light green shirt, helmet and sunglasses. His bike was described as being similar to a time trial bike or a triathlon bike. The bars on the bike were “aero bars” and his helmet was an “aero” helmet covered with a sun shade which covered half his face. The suspect was wearing a white/light green Castelli jersey and was approximately 6’ tall.

Anyone with any information regarding this case is asked to contact Detective M. Grimsley of the LCSO at 703-777-1021.

Topic

[ImaCynic]

@trailrunner 178337 wrote:

http://wjla.com/news/local/police-track-trail-attack-suspect-through-fitness-app

They found him through Strava.

I find the other story shown below this one in the link far more intriguing

[lawgrad12]

@mstone 178551 wrote:

I question the idea that hit & run only applies on roadways. (So, if a car runs off the road and then hits someone, it can’t be hit and run? I think the statute very specifically doesn’t say that.) I question the idea that it only applies to automobiles. (I don’t see that in the statute, either. There’s some language about license & registration that doesn’t apply to bikes, but I assume that you can be charged with hit & run even if you’re an unlicensed driver of an unregistered car.) It may very well be that the fact that the dual treatment of bikes under the code makes hit & run not apply in this case, that was even my initial thought, but not necessarily for the reasons stated above. (Or it might–precedents hold more weight than guesses.) My curiosity is mostly because police departments have a terrible record for knowing how to apply the law to bikes (to be fair, the officers tend to get zero bike-related training) and I wonder if, regardless of the merits of this case, there are other cases where hit & run would be appropriate but they won’t even consider it.

The issue under Virginia law, is not that a hit and run can only occur on a highway, but that bicycles are only vehicles when operated on a highway. See Va. Code Ann. 46.2-100 (defining “vehicle” to exclude devices “moved by human power,” but explaining that for purposes of Chapter 8, which includes the prohibition on hit and runs, a bicycle, among other things, is a vehicle “while operated on the highway”). Section 46.2-100 further defines “highway” as “the entire width between the boundary lines of every way or place open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel in the Commonwealth, including the streets and alleys.” See id. Since the multi-use pathways aren’t open to the use of the public for vehicular travel, it’s unlikely they’d be considered highways… As an aside, the actual charging decisions will be made by the Commonwealth’s Attorney, not the Sheriff’s Office.

[Author]

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