Criminal Law, Tacks on the Road, and the Tour d’France

I wasn’t thinking about criminal law or reckless endangerment when I was watching Stage 14 of the Tour d’France until, at the top of the cyclists’ second mountain, one of the spectators threw sharp carpet tacks on the road and flatted 30 cyclists’ tires. Unbelievably dangerous and only by the grace of God not deadly. Robert Kiserlovski from Team Astana went off the road and broke his collarbone. The Tour d’ France at times has up to 198 riders together in a group and when one bike goes down it more often than not takes another bike down with it. As these riders coming down the mountain are going between 40 and 50 m.p.h. it’s easy to understand how easily someone could have died from doing something as stupid as throwing carpet tacks into the middle of a bike race. I don’t know French law but Maryland criminal law defines reckless endangerment as engaging in “conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another; . .” What happened at the Tour was clearly criminal and here’s hoping they put whoever did it in the dungeon of one of those scenic castles that the cyclists have been riding past.

 

 

About Tim Leahy

Timothy P. Leahy, a partner at the firm, practices law in Maryland and the District of Columbia and is a member of the American, Maryland, D.C, and Prince George’s County Bar associations. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Baltimore Law School in May 2000, earned his M.B.A. in 1993 at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, and his B.S. in Transportation & Logistics at Maryland in 1990. Timothy brings over 10 years experience in business to his practice of the law and focuses on litigation and general practice matters. A former home improvement contractor and army reservist, he volunteers with Christmas in April and has coached for the Bowie Boys & Girls Club. He is a Board member of his homeowners association, pro bono counsel for Bowie CLAW, and a volunteer Mediator for the District Court of Maryland. Timothy moved to Bowie in 1982 and lives there with his wife of 24 years and two sons.
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