Peculiar, MO — A rather shocking video was uploaded to YouTube this week by a cyclist wearing a helmet camera who filmed a distracted police officer ram him head on as he waited at a stop sign. Officer Wallace with the Peculiar police department was looking down at his phone while turning left and never saw Joe Fas sitting there on his bicycle.
As Fas sat at the stop sign, waiting to turn, his helmet camera showed him looking right and then looking left. All of the sudden, officer Wallace, driving his police SUV, marked unit 396, turns left—into the wrong lane—and slams into Fas who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Fas screamed as officer Wallace looked down at his phone, clearly not paying attention to where he was going.
“You mother….motherf**ker, you were looking at your phone, officer,” says Fas as he gets to his feet.
Wallace opens his door and immediately gives the excuse that he was “f**king looking at a text from another officer,” as if this makes plowing over an innocent bicyclist acceptable.
“396,” Fas says, recording to officer’s unit number. He then looks down at his Scott bike which appears to be twisted and broken.
“Why were you texting?” Fas asks the officer as he approaches him.
“I wasn’t texting, I was looking at my phone,” replies Wallace.
“Either way,” Fas retorts.
Wallace then does something police officers rarely do — he admitted he was in the wrong.
“I know, it was my bad,” said Wallace.
“Why were you doing that in a turn?” asked Fas.
“I wasn’t paying attention,” Wallace replies.
The two then assess Fas’ injuries and note the damage to the bicycle, saying, “the frame is cracked.”
Fas then explained that Wallace made the decision to call in the Missouri state police to investigate as there would’ve been a conflict of interest if he filed his own report.
According to Fas, troopers Green and Fuce showed up and filed the report and he refused the trip to the ER because he said he wasn’t that hurt. However, Fas says that the next day he was in much more pain.
As far as what happened to officer Wallace, Fas explained that he did not know. He did say that Wallace was given a breathalyzer by the state police as well as a urinalysis to see if he was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.
Whether or not Wallace received a traffic citation of any kind is a mystery as Fas was not informed of the outcome.
In the state of Missouri, according to state law, “Text messaging and using a hand-held mobile device while operating a motor vehicle” is prohibited except as otherwise noted.
One of those exceptions is for “authorized emergency vehicles.”
The Free Thought Project reached out the the Peculiar Police Department to inquire about the punishment, if any, that officer Wallace received or will receive. However, we have yet to hear back from them.
Officer Wallace certainly handled this incident better than the last story TFTP covered in which officers were seen plowing into a cyclist.
Heins Rodriguez, 26, was minding his own business as he rode his bicycle down 43rd Avenue in August of 2015, when an unmarked police cruiser came out of nowhere causing him to go flying off of his bike.
#8. To: misterwhite, A KA Stone, GrandIsland, Deckard, Everybody (#6)
Gatlin: The cyclist will be lucky if he doesn’t get a ticket. Deckard: WTF?
Say, anyone – I am an old man with very terrible eyesight, cornea transplant and all that other stuff, so I need help here.
Please watch the video again and confirm that the cyclist did indeed make NO attempt to stop at that STOP sign and did in fact RUN that STOP sign.
Then please try tell me how many feet (yards) the cyclist was past those white marks designating the STOP POINT into the intersection before he got into the way of that nice police officer’s vehicle that was making a left turn….by being too far out into the intersection. The intersection does start past those white marks designating the STOP point.
Good grief - your cop-fetish knows no bounds, does it.
The cyclist was STATIONARY when he was hit head on by a texting cop, who by the way made an IMPROPER left turn which put him in the left lane where the cyclist was standing, not moving, looking both ways.
The texting cop does not even turn into the correct lane!
and….AND….and runs into a cyclist STOPPED in the INTERSECTION.
Once you have mnde a complete stop, you are permitted to move past the white line. This gives the motorist (or cyclist in this case) a better view of on-coming traffic.
Once he had made a complete stop, it was legal for him to proceed past the white line.
You're trying to blame the cyclist for the cop's screw-up.
#25. To: Deckard, misterwhite, A K A Stone, GrandIsland, nolu chan (#23)(Edited)
We're done here cop-sucker.
Oh., NO….we’re not done here yet.
At 9:35 this morning, it was reported that Sgt. Collin Stosberg, of the Missouri Highway Patrol, confirmed that while the investigation is still underway….the cyclist was pulled up “past the stop sign” and contributed to the accident.
I tried to tell you so….but you just wouldn’t listen.
I said REPEATEDLY that the cyclist was past the stop sign [and white marking designating the stop point] and he was out in the Intersection.
[Gatlin #8] Please watch the video again and confirm that the cyclist did indeed make NO attempt to stop at that STOP sign and did in fact RUN that STOP sign.
[Deckard #9] The badged "hero" was texting when he hit the cyclist.
[Deckard #11] The texting cop does not even turn into the correct lane!
[Gatlin #15] The cyclist is stationary in the INTERSECTION….
[Deckard #17] Once you have mnde a complete stop, you are permitted to move past the white line.
[Gatlin #19] He NEVER made a COMPLETE stop. NEVER….NEVER….NEVER.
[Deckard #21] AND BTW - the white line was severely faded and barely visible, I even missed it earlier.
[Gatlin #22] You are DEAD WRONG. He NEVER made a COMPLETE stop. He coasted right on past that STOP sign and stopped in the INTERSECTION.
The cyclist did not stop at the stop sign with the white line across the road adjacent to the stop sign. He did roll through and stop after the sign and line, and was stopped for a significant time before the cop hit him. Any contribution to the accident is minimal.
Read about Missouri’s red light and stop sign laws and the consequences of a violation.
[Excerpt]
Making the Stop
At a red light (solid or flashing) or stop sign, motorists must make a complete stop at a clearly marked stop line or before entering the crosswalk on the near side of the intersection. And if there is no stop line or crosswalk, the driver needs to stop before entering the intersection.
After stopping at the line, I know of nothing which permits rolling up further before actually proceeding through the intersection.
There is no evidence that the cop was texting. Phone records could establish if he were texting. The cop admitted that he was looking at his phone, was not paying attention, and it was his bad.
The cop was responsible for the accident.
The town should pay for the damages to the bicycle.
Subpoena the texting records from the phone company or wireless server.
The cop admitted to being responsible for the accident.
The cop should pay for the damages to the bicycle; not the town. The cop should be sued in their personal capacity and get their own lawyer and not one appointed by the town paid by the taxpayers.
