Highland Park Cyclist Urges Caution After Being Run Down on Ave. 50

Highland Park resident Winona Wacker said she was riding her bicycle along Ave. 50 last Friday when she had a dangerous encounter with a motorist in a white convertible.

Wacker, said she was run down and knocked off her bicycle by the driver of a white convertible Volvo C70, and she told Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch that she believes the motorist struck her on purpose.

According to Wacker, she was riding her bicycle near the intersection of Ave. 50 and Buchanan St. when the driver began honking and yelling at her to get out of the road.

Wacker said she responded to the motorist, who she described as a white male who looked to be in his fifties, by telling him that she was allowed to use the whole lane for her safety.

That response only angered the driver more, Wacker said.

“He laid on his horn, then yelled back at me  ‘you wanna test your weight against mine?’” Wacker said.  “ [He] continued blowing his horn, hit the gas and then sped up to run me down.”

Wacker said a Good Samaritan stopped to attend to her by the side of the road, and then sped along to retrieve the motorist's license plate number.

Stephen Box, a local cycling advocate and former candidate for city council district 4, contacted the Los Angeles Police Department last week on Wacker’s behalf.

In an e-mail to Sgt. David Krumer, Box urged LAPD to take action on the issue.

“I write to ask you to reach out to Winona and to follow up on this motorist. She waited a couple of hours, filed a police report and was left with hospital visits, road rash, bruises and mobility issues,” he wrote.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch spoke to one member LAPD’s Northeast Division who was not aware of the incident and who suggested that it was likely being handled by central traffic division.

A representative for LAPD’s central traffic division said that, according to the incident's file number, it was considered a “general assault,” and therefore fell under the jurisdiction of Northeast’s detectives.

Wacker said she has yet to hear back from LAPD after filing her police report, but understood that the department was likely busy handling other calls.

In the meantime, however, she urged cyclists to beware of the motorist in the white convertible.

“I’m not sure if [the police report] will lead to anything, but I would like to get the word out to cyclists in the area to beware of this vehicle, and to take extra precautions when riding on one lane roads without a bike lane,” she said.