Six cyclists were injured when a 16-year-old pickup driver decided to play a prank on the cyclists and “roll coal” on them. Three of them were taken to hospital for serious injuries, with at least one of them being treated for head trauma; the other three also had injuries, but were treated at the crime scene. The melee occurred on a Saturday morning, about a few miles west of Waller, Texas.
Chase Ferrell was about 75 miles into a Saturday morning bike ride when a pickup truck swerved into his lane, closing in on him and other cyclists training for the upcoming Ironman Texas triathlon. Now just feet away, the teenage driver gunned it, spewing them with black exhaust, he said.
Then, according to Ferrell, the teenager drove ahead to the lead group of cyclists. He again accelerated, the cyclist added, to “roll coal” — a practice in which drivers of diesel pickups intentionally engulf pedestrians, cyclists or other motorists in black smoke. This time, the teenager got too close. He hit six of the eight riders in the group.
“I heard a lot of crunching. I heard brakes. Tires screeching,” Ferrell told KRIV. “I thought someone was dead.”
Although the cyclists all suffered injuries, the teen has faced no consequence, much less a criminal charge, to the dismay of Ferrell. Authorities in Waller County, including the Waller County Sheriff’s Office, are still investigating.
Ferrell, however, is finding that difficult. “It’s just disheartening and hard to see whenever our friends are being life-flighted [to the hospital] out there, and the perpetrator, the kid, gets to be able to go home and sleep in his own bed,” he told KTRK. “To have no injuries, to have no consequences. Seemingly, I’m sure he feels really bad, but that’s not justice. That’s not going to cut it.”
“I don’t understand if it was me who had struck someone else, I would be in jail. I don’t understand how it’s come to this point where there are no consequences this far,” Ferrell said.
The 16-year-old teen does have a lawyer, named Rick DeToto. DeToto believed that the boy, who had “college aspirations”, was simply an “inexperienced driver” and that he did not do anything illegal if the police failed to detain him. DeToto claimed that after the teen struck the cyclists, he called 911 and cooperated with authorities.
This is not the first time Waller County experienced tensions between motorists and cyclists. Victor Tome is facing life in prison after a fatal incident where Tome ran over two cyclists with his pickup.