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FAIRBANKS — A pickup truck driver who collided with a bicycle while sliding down an icy Fairbanks street in February no longer faces criminal charges after a civil agreement reached this week.
Under the deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a misdemeanor criminal charge against 42-year-old Jared Graydon Wheelock, who has agreed to pay cyclist Wes Wagner for repairs to Wagner’s fat-tired bike.
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Wagner pushed himself away from his bike before the crash and was not injured.
Both Wagner and Wheelock are satisfied with the agreement, but they still disagree about some of the facts over what happened after the accident.
Alaska State Troopers identified Wheelock with help from video of the Feb. 22 Summit Drive crash recorded by a camera on Wheelock’s bike. Wheelock didn’t return a phone call from troopers until just less than 24 hours after the accident, according to the charging document prosecutors filed in March.
Prosecutors charged Wheelock with breaking a state law that requires drivers to stay at the scene of crash to exchange contact information with the other party.
Wheelock’s attorney Robert Downes said Friday that his client hadn’t meant to leave the scene. The icy road carried him away from the crash, and he didn’t go back to check on the cyclist because he didn’t want to venture back up the icy road.
“He couldn’t slow down till he was able to get down to the bottom (of the hill)” Downes said. “But then he couldn’t go up.”
“My client waited there for a while. He had no cellphone so he couldn’t make a cellphone call. He went into town where he eventually called the authorities,” Downes said.
Downes also said his client didn’t throw a hat at Wagner, as the cyclist reported. The wind carried Wheelock’s hat off his head as he slid down the hill.
Wagner said Friday he was satisfied with the civil agreement to pay for the repair to his bicycle.
But he said he didn’t think the truck driver really waited for him at the bottom of the hill.
“You could see me from the Mushers Hall,” Wagner said. “If he did stop and wait for me he would have seen me take the bike, put it in the back of my car and roll slowly down the hill to the Mushers Hall.”
Contact outdoors editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors.