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Citizens use security video and social media to search for hit-and-run driver

Kenyon Barnes was hit by a car while riding his bike in Charlottesville. Security video suggests the incident was deliberate.
RadioIQ
Kenyon Barnes was hit by a car while riding his bike in Charlottesville. Security video suggests the incident was deliberate.

One week ago, at around 3 p.m. 37-year-old Kenyon Barnes was riding his electric bike on High Street in Charlottesville, when a man in a silver Subaru Impreza Sport drove past.

“The guy was running down the road, and he decides to rev his engine to run up to a stoplight," Barnes recalls. "There are three cars stopped at the stop light, so I start mocking him and laughing at him for – what’s your rush? You’re running a rat race that you didn’t start and are not going to win.”

As Barnes approached from behind, the Subaru suddenly swerved into the bike’s path. Crossing guard Kevin Cox looked up in time to see the collision.

“It was a very malicious, cunning thing," he concludes. "The driver waited until there was no chance for the cyclist to get out of the way, and then he did it right at the last instant, so the cyclist was forced into the side of the vehicle, where he smashed the side view mirror. The cyclist was rocketed into the hedge and then back onto the sidewalk.”

Barnes got up and shouted at the driver. His elbow was badly bruised, but he got back on the bike and rode away. Cox was stunned and confused. He asked a local merchant, Dwight Corle, to take a look at footage from two security cameras.

Kevin Cox and Dwight Corle
RadioIQ
Crossing guard Kevin Cox (L) and Dwight Corle, owner of Charlottesville Glass and Mirror, have shared security video to help find the driver who hit a cyclist across from the store.

“I went into my office immediately, and when I pulled up the video I just couldn’t believe what I saw," Corle says. "When you zoom in on the fellow driving the car, he looked over in his review mirror and swerved up on the sidewalk to hit the bicyclist. Thankfully he timed it well, because otherwise he could have easily killed him.”

Corle was used to seeing crashes on his side of High Street as drivers use parking lots in an attempt to bypass cars stopped at the light.

“The first twenty years of my tenure here at Charlottesville Glass we used to have curbs. They’ve paved over the top of them. They’ve let them erode away, and we need High Street maintained. I personally have almost been hit many times in my own parking lot as well as my wife and my employees. A customer of mine walked out of the showroom, and five minutes later was struck and killed by two vehicles. I watched that man die, and I wrote letters to the city right away.”

That was four years ago, and he says the city has done nothing. Mayor Lloyd Snook blames understaffing at city hall. Even if Charlottesville were to contract with a private company he argues project managers would be needed to oversee improvements, but with so much federal money flowing into communities from Washington for infrastructure, project managers are hard to find. He claims the city competes with the university and Albemarle County for candidates.

Meanwhile, police were saying they couldn’t do much without a complaint from the victim, and Barnes was hesitant to report the incident.

“Because I have several times, and very little is ever done,” he explains.

Still video of the crash was circulating online, and people like Steve Johnson, a community activist working for affordable housing and safer streets, were complaining.

“You have somebody there who has demonstrated their willingness to directly use their vehicle in a way that could have caused significant harm to somebody. The driver did not stop, and it looks like right now if there is no police action then there are no consequences.”

Then crossing guard Kevin Cox actually tracked the victim down.

“I was sitting in my house in the evening watching television, and I suddenly thought, ‘I can find him!’ so I jumped up, walked out of the house and 20 minutes later I found him sitting on Market Street, waiting for a bus.”

He urged Barnes to file charges, and six days after he was hit, Barnes went to the police. Officers said they had been investigating and had a suspect in the case.

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief