Quote Originally Posted by surgtech1956 View Post
This is so terrible.

I can't imagine how people could ever live with themselves.
Unfortunately this may sadly be true, but both are victims, to a degree.

Let me relay a story that Chris Phelan, the Ride of Silence's founder, emailed to myself and a few others last year.

Chris was at charity event in the Dallas area early in 2006, and noticed one of the "volunteers" going about his business, in very humble low key manner. Chris struck a conversation with the man, whom it turned out was doing community service work. As the conversation continued, the man sadly admitted why he was required to do this; He was the bus driver who had struck & killed Chris' good friend, endurance cyclist Larry Schwartz, the reason Chris organized that 1st Ride of Silence in Dallas in 2003.

The bus driver continued, that he had been sentenced to jail time, was now released to do 1,000's of hours of community service work, had lost his job, lost his family, was close to being financially destitute and deeply regretted what had happened, all without knowing who Chris was.

Chris felt that perhaps there is more than one victim when cyclist/motorist accident happens, that it not only impacted Larry Schwartz's family and friends, but the bus driver's as well. It was at this point that Chris was finally able to begin to forgiving process.

If Chris can forgive, so can I (we). It's not to late to organize a Ride, now in 197 locations worldwide, in 6 countries.

markpedal