stamp11127

There is a video his mother Cindy uploaded explaining what happened to him on his channel.

dynodonn 

Mississippi DOT must be poor as hell, no paved shoulders, and after checking out this road on Google maps, I checked out the highway for quite some distance and did not see any speed limit signs of any sort, but the DOT had plenty of adopt a highway signs. Here at home, 55 mph would be max on a highway with cross traffic, and lots of speed limit signs to remind motorists. I suspect the motorist was doing well North of the 65 mph (nonexistent) posted speed limit when they hit the cyclist.

JoeyBike

Speed limit signs in the Deep South are a waste of money. Nobody pays attention to them, they just drive whatever speed feels "comfortable".

Illiteracy in Mississippi is 15-30% depending on the location. So...they can't read anyways.

dynodonn 

Sounds like a lack of traffic enforcement, plus what I've learned, if someone read the numbers on money, they can read the numbers on a speed limit sign

JoeyBike

It's the word "LIMIT" that we have a hard time with down here.

I heard a cop telling a cyclist he should't be on the highway because he "couldn't even do the speed limit". So if the guy enforcing the law does not know what a LIMIT is.....see my point?

dynodonn 

Sounds like an LEO education problem.......especially if there is no alternative route for a cyclist to use. California may not be a cyclist haven, but looking at this Mississippi highway, reminds me of my locale of 50 years ago.

rydabent

Again does anyone know if the driver was charged, and with what?

stamp11127

His mother has posted an updated video on his channel that was live streamed at the time. Apparently the investigation is over and has been handed to the DA. She was told it will take them about 6 months before she knows anything. We will have to wait and see but I feel that the "good ol boy justice" will prevail. "That contraption had no business being near a road...."
The information she provided is mind boggling that there were no arrests at the time.

JohnX

It is a real shame, but as we know, the driver’s intent means a lot in a criminal case. And there are so few drivers that really intend to hit a bicycler. There are some lower standards like gross negligence, but those are tough too. It is just a tough situation. I feel for every brave bicycle rider that gives his life for the cause. This witness seemed to place blame on another driver that swerved.

And with the vastly improved economy I have noticed more cars out, more driving. Sad to say, I have about quit my food delivery on a bicycle hobby due to increasing traffic and three separate altercations, one of which turned physical. My city sucks for bicycle riding. The only answer is mandatory bicycle lanes with seriously large bumps to warn drifting cars. But i am always told “too expensive”

edit: i did find his mother’s video and she obviously believes something different happened from what the witness stated.

dynodonn 

**** me!....... Sounds like the time one of our local cyclists was killed by a motorist drifting completely off the roadway due to being distracted, but our local incident eventually ended up having the motorist serving a year in jail.

According to mom, the driver was texting, traveling 80 to 85 mph, struck the cyclist while he was riding in the grass, left the scene of the collision only to have the motor vehicle quit running, a mile further down the road, due to the damage from the collision , tried to fix vehicle to get away, arriving police officer knows motorist and his family, officer call motorist's mom to have her pick him up, no DUI check, no arrests.

JohnX

Yep, that's what she says. Went back to find a little more info and found this picture from an article the next day that says these are the driver's skid marks in the grass. So her story looks a lot more convincing. Unless there was some reason why the car skidded off the road after it tried to stop. But yeah, I would have to say this picture looks pretty damning of the driver and I would question what the hell the witness was talking about. There is also some video in the below article where it appears the law enforcement acknowldges what she is saying.
https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/...sh/2081912002/

No way I would ride on that road if I could help it, hearing those cars whizz by and my impression is yes, he was in the grass for that reason, grinding it out.

JoeyBike

And that looks like big rumble strips along the fog line as well. Photo above is a reminder why I gave up touring.

Something not adding up about those "skid marks". I mean, when did they happen? Before, during, or after the collision? Did the motorist try to swerve off the road to miss the cyclist at the last second but didn't quite clear the bike. Maybe some part of the story I missed. The whole thing smells fishy. What are the odds that a motorist would go off of THAT road exactly where the ONE GUY cycling happened to be? Like a gazillion to one!!

dynodonn 

Not a gazillion to one at all, in fact one motorist did the same thing to one of our local cyclists. The motorist even acknowledge to the court that he saw the cyclist well before he struck the cyclist, and for some unknown reason, let his motor vehicle drift off the roadway, striking the cyclist, who was riding 11 feet right of the fog line. The motorist not only struck the cyclist, but he did so with the vehicle's LEFT headlight area.

What got the motorist to spend a year in jail, was his insistence to the court on why the cyclist had the right to be riding on the freeway in the first place, even though the cyclist had the legal right to do so.

dynodonn 

From my motorsports experience, they look more like acceleration marks, rather than skid marks, when the motorist was leaving the scene of the collision. According to the cyclist's mom, the LEO found the motorist and his disabled vehicle a mile further down the road.

JoeyBike

Don't they call ^this "object fixation" or something like that? I know when I used to do mountain biking I was taught to NEVER look at the rock I wanted to avoid but always look at the line I WANT to take. Does this apply to cars? I know it can be a problem with bikes and motorcycles, skates and skateboards.

I agree.

======================

P.S.: The guy's mom wanting to finish the bike trip for her son is just bizarre to me, especially with zero experience and a host of physical ailments that she rattled off in the video. I have to think that grief and shock have taken over her better judgement.

dynodonn 

I hope that she gets more help in her goal to finish her son's quest, in having more people to give her aid and equipment, and instead of trying to do the final leg all in one shot, do it in several stages over a longer period of time.

JohnX

Could be, like maybe the impact occurred to the left and behind the picture taker much closer to the road and then after running off the road, gunned it to get back on the road. Which doesn't sound normal either. Who guns it after hitting somebody. I guess a 19 year old might. I don't think I would have. Somewhere I read that either a traveling partner or someone who was monitoring him online has GPS that shows Dobson off the road when the impact occurred, though I am not sure I would trust GPS to be that exact. I guess there is a lawsuit now, depending on the amount of insurance, and reconstructionists, the whole nine yards. Seems like there would have been a witness that passed him that would come forward and say he saw him off the road if that was the case. Maybe that's not even an issue at this point.

Listening to the witness again, I am going to go out on a limb and say that the car in front of the colliding car may have suddenly swerved in a surprising way, maybe because of James or not, maybe an elderly driver surprised, which caused the colliding car to veer right onto the shoulder, perhaps even the grass, to go around him, right where James was; even if he was off the road. A confluence of events; where it is not one bad thing that causes terrible accidents, but two unexpected things happening at once-the car swerving; the evasive swing to the right, and then James happening to be there. Doesn't explain why he left the scene, if he actually did, but 19 year olds do stupid things sometimes.

dynodonn 

If people think that they can get away, they will try, 19 years old or not. A lot of hit and runs in my area, but the drivers are eventually caught, due to some really good local crime scene forensics, especially when a death is involved.

10 Wheels

He was Not Charge for any thing.

Milton Keynes

I thought this was about that Focus on the Family guy.

rydabent

The family needs to file a civil suit against the driver.

In so many cases like this the killer isnt charged in criminal court. There has been at least two cases like this in and around Lincoln in the last few years. The families won big in civil court.