May 28, 2014–Alabama–By Jen Benepe
An Alabama man was arrested after video of him harassing cyclists surfaced on the Internet.
The driver, Keith Maddox, of Piedmont, Alabama was charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor. He has since been released on bond.
In the video which appears to be mounted on his dashboard or held in his hand while driving, Maddox can be heard in a long diatribe about how cyclists are in his way when he needs to get to work quickly.
In the first portion of the video, driving around dusk he approaches a cyclist with a red back light on a narrow two lane road.
“See this car up here trying to make it to work,” he says about the car in front of him. “Me trying to make it to work,” he continues. “Can’t nobody make it work, because you got this little piece of crap, fool crap,” he yells, referring to the cyclist on the road. “Oh Lord, Good Lord, have mercy Lord,” he continues, “I’m going to hurt one of them one of these days, I can’t help it, I’m gonna’ do it.”
In another section of video taken during the daytime, there are two cyclists up ahead. Maddox starts ranting again about them being on the road. As he approaches he says, “Watch this,” as he attempts to cut them off or run them off the road, or buzz them (it’s not clear because we can’t see the cyclists behind him.) “That scare you boys?” he says with satisfaction in his voice. “Get your pedaling butts off the road,” he screams–“GOD! I hate bicycles!”
After his videos went viral, Maddox issued a public apology on his Facebook page. He said he would never intentionally hurt anyone, and he urged others to share the road with cyclists.
