The driver involved in a Lefthand Canyon crash last August that left former professional cyclist Dale Stetina with life-threatening injuries has been cited by the Colorado State Patrol for his role in the accident.
Ryan Dowd, 40, of Longmont, was issued a summons for careless driving resulting in bodily injury — a Class 1 traffic offense — according to the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office. He is scheduled to appear in court for an arraignment Jan. 8.
Dowd did not return calls for comment Wednesday.
According to the State Patrol, Dowd was driving a 1999 Jeep SUV west up the canyon Aug. 31 when he pulled across the center line and onto a shoulder on the opposite side of the road. Dowd then attempted to pull back into the westbound lane just as Stetina and a group of cyclists headed east on the roadway came around a slight bend, officials said.
All of the cyclists were able to avoid the vehicle but Stetina, who lost control in the process of maneuvering, causing him to fall from his bike, according to the State Patrol.
Stetina was airlifted to Boulder Community Hospital in critical condition and placed in a medically induced coma in the days after the accident.
He was upgraded to serious condition Sept. 3, and later in the month he was moved to Craig Hospital in Englewood to begin rehabilitation.
Stetina’s brother, Wayne, said his family was hoping he would be released by Thanksgiving, but they are now looking at an early December discharge from the hospital.
“He’s been making progress, but it’s been pretty tough,” Wayne Stetina said. “He’s beat everybody’s expectations of how well he’d recover as far as doctors go, but he still has so far to go to get back to normal.”
Wayne Stetina said his brother still has some trouble walking and also has memory and vision problems. But he said Stetina has been positive throughout his rehab and still hopes to ride within the next year.
“He’s looking forward to getting out of the hospital, and if he can’t ride a recumbent tricycle, then maybe riding on the backseat of a tandem bike with me or his friends,” Wayne Stetina said.
As for Dowd being ticketed, Wayne Stetina said he thought investigators came to the right conclusion.
“I’m happy that they reached a correct and reasonable decision on the ticket they gave him,” he said. “I’m just happy police did a really thorough job, since there was some conflicting testimony, and came to what we consider is an accurate conclusion of what happened.”
Stetina is a former professional cyclist and two-time winner of Colorado’s Coors Classic. He is a member of the Bicycle Hall of Fame and won more than 200 domestic and international bike races during a career that spanned from 1965 to 1983.
He was a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team and twice won the biggest stage race in the U.S. — the Red Zinger Classic in 1979 and the then-renamed Coors Classic in 1983, according to the Velo News website.
Stetina’s son, Peter, is a professional cyclist on the Boulder-based Garmin-Sharp Pro Cycling Team.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Mitchell Byars at 303-473-1329 or byarsm@dailycamera.com.
