The more we know about the senseless hit-and-run death of a Summerfield bicyclist, the uglier it gets.
We know now that the motorist involved in the incident, 48-year-old Grayson Dawson of Eden, turned herself in Monday and was charged with felony hit-and-run and death by motor vehicle.
We know she continued to drive the silver Dodge Durango that allegedly struck and killed 55-year-old David Sherman for days afterward, explaining away the hair and the spattered blood and the smashed windshield as the results of hitting a deer.
We know she stuck to that story when visited by a state trooper and a Rockingham County sheriff's deputy. "I am so sorry," she told them according to a search warrant. "I really thought I hit a deer."
Dawson is entitled to her day in court and she will get it. But it's hard to believe she mistook a man on a bicycle for a deer. And, from beginning to end, her explanation squares neither with the accounts of eyewitnesses nor law enforcement.
Those eyewitnesses say they saw the Durango make a U-turn and leave the scene after the impact, which instantly killed Sherman.
They also say the vehicle had swerved to the left of the center line when it hit Sherman head-on.
Finally, we know that Dawson was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond, which seems incredibly lenient given the nature of her alleged crime and the time she allowed to pass before coming forward. In fact, it's not clear if she would ever have come forward at all if the evidence hadn't led to her driveway and her doorstep.
Even worse, she was driving with a revoked license at the time of the incident and had other pending charges that date back two years. In other words, she should not have been on the road in the first place.
Thankfully, citizens played a critical role, as they often do, in solving this case: the eyewitnesses who described the vehicle; a country store clerk who alerted law enforcement, through her firefighter husband, about Dawson's suspicious explanation for her damaged SUV and provided the license tag number of the Durango.
Among the things we don't know is why Dawson steered the vehicle into Sherman's path. Was she distracted? Were other factors involved?
Meanwhile, the tragedy has rekindled an ongoing debate about cyclists and motorists and their often-uneasy co-existence on local roads.
Sadly, even as some motorists express their sympathy for Sherman and his family, some of them also suggest that cyclists shouldn't be allowed on roads like North Church Street. But many of these accidents have much more to do with impatient or distracted drivers than cyclists' choices of routes.
Aside from interstates and busy thoroughfares, such as Bryan Boulevard, where cycling is rightly banned, most roads are safe when drivers and cyclists follow the rule of law -- and the rules of common courtesy.
Not all of the newspaper's content appears online.
*There is a fee for downloading some older articles.