A 16-year-old pickup driver hit multiple cyclists on Saturday morning near Waller, Texas, a city just west of Houston. The teenager struck six cyclists in all, and two of them were airlifted to local hospitals to treat shoulder, neck and back injuries; one cyclist suffered head trauma, according to KTRK. Police questioned the teenager afterwards, but didn’t arrest or otherwise detain him.
The teenager was driving a Ford F-Series Super Duty pickup, and had been harassing the cyclists earlier by “rolling coal,”or blowing a noxious cloud of black exhaust from your truck tailpipe.
Cyclists have been the target of coal-rollers, as KPRC reports, and this incident is exactly what can happen in the aftermath of these stunts.
The cyclists were part of a large group of athletes training for an upcoming Ironman Texas competition. They were already 75 miles or so into their training ride that morning, when the Super Duty pickup approached them and started to “roll coal,” according to Chase Ferrell, another rider among the group.
After the truck’s first pass, Ferrell said he sped up to take a picture of the driver or the truck’s plate when he saw the incident first-hand. He shared the following account with reporters from KPRC:
I thought someone was dead. I heard a lot of crunching. I heard brakes. Tires screeching. People screaming.
The reason he couldn’t stop is because he was accelerating to blow more diesel fuel on these cyclists. He ended up hitting 3 people before his brakes even started.
Ferrell also said the pickup had come dangerously close to him earlier in the ride, in its attempt to blow smoke at the group.
The cyclists who were run over are now recovering, per KPRC, but some are awaiting surgery in the aftermath of the event. A Gofundme page has been set up for the six cyclists. Waller County authorities have not shared any comment about the teen driver or about any consequences he may (or may not) face.
