Amy Howard, Jane McConnell & Susan Graves hurt in SUV-vs.-bikes crash: Inquiry continues

Video below.

It's been a dangerous summer for bicyclists in the Boulder area. Eugene Howrey, 73, was killed after being hit by a truck in June -- and yesterday, Amy Howard, Jane McConnell and Susan Graves were all injured (Howard critically) after an encounter with an SUV. But a spokeswoman for the Colorado State Patrol confirms that no citations have been handed out thus far.

"As we were investigating on-scene, we determined that we had some conflicting statements and eyewitnesses," Trooper Heather Cobler says. "We are reinterviewing witnesses to determine if a citation needs to be issued."

According to the Boulder Daily Camera, friends Howard, 56, McConnell, 47 and Graves, 39, were pedaling along US 36, also known in that section as North Foothills Highway, near Nebo Road north of Boulder's city limits. Then, 52-year-old Albert Gehorsam, behind the wheel of a Ford Escape SUV, swerved across the lane and onto the shoulder of the road, striking the trio.

Did Gehorsam do so because another vehicle slowed down to make a right turn onto private property and he was trying to get around it? Maybe, a trooper told the Camera at the scene. But that doesn't necessarily mean he broke the law. No one has suggested that the bicyclists were blocking the roadway; they stuck to the shoulder, as they should have. But Cobler says some of those quizzed saw wrongdoing on the part of the driver, while others considered it merely a tragic accident. Hence, the reinterviewing process, which should take place soon, depending upon witness availability.

Authorities expressed the same hope in the case of Howrey. Yet even though the driver of the truck that killed him, Christopher Loven, has been linked to two past bicycle rage incidents, no charges have been reported over the accident at this writing.

Look below to see a 9News video about the latest crash.

More from our Colorado Crimes archive: "Bike rage attacks in Deer Creek Canyon? The search for possible bicycle haters in Jeffco."