As a Pizza Hut employee began bicycling home from work on Monday, July 22, she collided with a car that allegedly did not make a complete stop at the stop light at Mildred Road and East Main Street.
When officer Tyler Smith arrived on the scene about 4 p.m., he said a woman was lying near a bike in the intersection of South Mildred Road and Main Street. Passersby were holding her head, telling Smith that they “thought she had hit her head pretty hard.”
Officers tried to speak with the woman, identified as Cinead Salt, before EMS took her to the hospital but were given little information.
The driver, who was identified as Shandine John, had parked her car in the Durango Organics parking lot after the incident occurred. She told Smith that “she was so sorry and did not see the biker.”
John told Smith she was driving north on South Mildred. When she stopped at the red light to turn right onto East Main Street, the bike collided with her vehicle. She was looking left when the collision occurred, according to John.
A witness to the accident, Thomas Peck, corroborated John’s story, saying that the bike hit the vehicle, and the rider in front of the car.
A small dent and a streak thought to be made from the handlebars was found on John’s 2018 Ford Edge, the bike’s handlebars were twisted off center, and the front wheel was bent and would no longer spin.
Salt later told police in the hospital that she was biking home after her shift at Pizza Hut at the time of the collision. According to Salt, the car briefly stopped but started going while she was biking through the intersection. While she had no major injuries, she told officers that her right arm and left knee hurt. Smith said he could see evidence of road rash on her knee.
John had a suspended Colorado driver’s license, providing officers with an Arizona ID card instead. She was initially charged with driving a motor vehicle with a suspended license and failing to provide proof of vehicle insurance.
After receiving the surveillance footage from Durango Organics on Tuesday, July 23, officers saw that the vehicle driven by John did not stop completely at the stop light, and was turning before Salt finished crossing the road in front of the vehicle.
Smith said he would request that careless driving be added to John’s list of charges.
