Number 10 Benny Davis
In 2020, 57-year-old Benny Davis was riding his bike through a Fort Walton Beach neighborhood,
in Florida. Suddenly, a man in a Ford pickup truck pulled beside him. Without warning,
he aimed a crossbow and shot an arrow into Davis’ head. The cyclist was rushed to a local hospital
with severe head injuries. According to subsequent reports, Davis was released from the facility
after his condition was stabilized. The police identified the car and named the suspected
attacker as 42-year-old Matthew Ross Peters. They then spotted the vehicle outside a Sea Breeze Inn.
Officers established a perimeter and surveillance showed Peters exiting his room,
armed with the crossbow. He was arrested, without further incident. His motives for shooting the
cyclist remain unknown but he might’ve been acting under the influence of methamphetamine,
which was also found in his possession. Number 9 Paul Toyne
In 2020, a man riding his bike in Greetwell Quarry, England, narrowly avoided death after
his neck got impaled on a stick. 32-year-old Paul Toyne was out on his daily exercise
routine when he tumbled over a 10-foot cliff. As he fell sideways, a branch that was about as
thick as an index finger got lodged in his neck. A friend called the emergency services and Toyne
was airlifted to Hull Royal Infirmary. Doctors successfully removed the stick which, fortunately,
had missed the major arteries in the man’s neck. Toyne was set to make a full recovery after
receiving stitches to mend the gaping wound. Number 8 SJ Brooks
In May of 2018, SJ Brooks and his friend, Isaac Sederbaum were mountain biking on a remote trail
outside of Seattle, Washington. The pair, both in their early 30s, were attacked by a mountain lion,
also known as a cougar. At first they’d managed to scare the animal away by making noises and
hitting it with the wheels of their bicycles. The cougar ran off but then circled back and pounced.
It brought Sederbaum to the ground and clamped its jaws on his head. Brooks tried to run away but,
by doing so, triggered the cougar’s chase instinct. It relinquished the hold on Sederbaum
and went after Brooks instead. Sederbaum, who had sustained deep wounds from the cougar’s claws,
rode his bike for 2 miles, trying to get a signal on his phone and call for help. He managed
to reach the emergency services. Sederbaum was taken to Harborview Medical Centre with injuries
that were deemed serious but not life-threatening. The authorities returned to the site of the attack
and found the cougar standing over Brooks, whom it had fatally mauled. The beast had actually dragged
the victim back to the wood line. It evaded the encounter with the authorities but was ultimately
tracked down with dogs and killed. The cougar was a male weighing around 100 pounds, which is 40 to
80 pounds underweight. While hunger is believed to have been the main reason behind the attack,
its brain was also examined for diseases, such as rabies, which would’ve made it more aggressive.
Number 7 Peter McCombie
In early July of 2020, an elderly man was fatally struck by a cyclist,
on London’s Bow Road. 23-year-old Ermir Loka reportedly jumped the red light. While going
an estimated 15 mph, he plowed into 73-year-old Peter McCombie, who was on a pedestrian crossing.
According to witnesses, he’d told the pensioner “Look what you’ve done” as he picked up his bike.
Loka fled the scene as McCombie lay bleeding and unconscious on the road. He was hospitalized with
a fractured skull and passed away from severe brain injuries eight days later.
Near the end of July, Loka turned himself in to the authorities. The man, originally from Albania,
was charged with manslaughter. He told the authorities that he’d fled the scene in a panic
both because of what had happened and due to his immigration status, which wasn’t finalized yet.
Number 6 Shawn Bradley Shawn Bradley, a former player in the NBA, became
paralyzed in early 2021 following a bike collision in Utah. Bradley is one of the tallest athletes to
have ever competed in the organization. At 7 feet and 6 inches, he towered over
Michael Jordan by more than a foot. Following his retirement from professional basketball, in 2005,
Bradley became an avid cyclist. It helped him keep his weight down and, on several occasions,
he went on rides of 100 or more miles. In 2011, he told a media outlet that cycling was like
a mental game and that, after riding his bike in the morning, he wanted to eat healthy the
rest of the day. On January the 20th of 2021, the 48-year-old was struck from behind by a motorist
while riding his bike near his home, in St. George. Bradley fell on a parked car and sustained
a traumatic spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. He underwent neck
fusion surgery and months of rehabilitation at a local hospital. According to a statement by the
Dallas Mavericks, his former team, Bradley planned to use the accident to advocate for bike safety.
Number 5 Swooping Magpie Accident In September of 2019, an elderly
Australian cyclist suffered a fatal crash while trying to fend off a swooping magpie.
The unnamed 76-year-old was riding through a park in Wollongong, New South Wales, when the
bird attacked. As he was trying to escape it, the man veered off the path and into a park fence.
Paramedics attended to him at the scene but he was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
While such fatalities are quite rare, there have been other reports of magpies swooping
down on pedestrians and cyclists at the park. The birds are particularly aggressive during
mating season and will swoop down on perceived threats to their territory.
Number 4 Daphné Toumbanakis In July of 2020, a cyclist on a cross-country trip
was fatally struck by a pick-up truck in Maple Ridge, Canada. 24-year-old Daphné Toumbanakis
had previously ridden through Poland, Greece, Turkey and many other European countries. She’d
recently returned to Canada after spending a year studying in Colombia. Toumbanakis felt that she
hadn’t seen enough of her home country and decided to ride her bike from Vancouver to Montreal, where
her parents and sister lived. The trip would’ve seen her travel over 3,100 miles in 50 days.
Toumbanakis was at the beginning of the trip when she was struck by a Ford pickup. She succumbed to
her injuries at the scene. The driver, an unnamed 37-year-old man, reportedly cooperated with
the police. The authorities have stated that drugs or alcohol hadn’t been involved in the
accident but did ask witnesses to step forward to provide further details for their investigation.
Number 3 Alessandro Zanardi In the 1990s, Alessandro Zanardi was
a CART world champion who also drove Formula One. His career was on the rise until a CART accident,
at the 2001 American Memorial, resulted in the amputation of both his legs. Zanardi wouldn’t be
deterred by the injury and returned to racing in 2003. Not only that, but he also became a
prolific competitor in handcycling, which is a form of Paralympic cycling. Zanardi won gold and
silver medals both in the 2012 London Paralympics and in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
In the summer of 2020, however, Zanardi suffered a devastating accident that left
him battling for his life. While taking part in a competition in Italy, his home country,
Zanardi lost control of his handbike while going downhill. He veered into an oncoming truck and
was struck, sustaining severe facial and cranial trauma. Zanardi was airlifted to a hospital in
Siena and later transferred to Padua, so that he could be treated closer to his home. For months
he remained in serious condition and underwent multiple facial reconstruction surgeries.
According to the latest report, from January of 2021, Zanardi was able to speak again.
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Number 2 Brad Treat
In 2016, 38-year-old mountain biker Brad Treat was killed by a grizzly bear on a trail outside
Glacier National Park, in Montana. He was in the Halfmoon Lakes area when he
stumbled upon the bear, while accompanied by a second rider, whose name wasn’t released.
It’s believed that Treats accidentally collided with the bear, at high speed, after rounding
a blind curve on the trail. He flew over the handlebars either onto or over the massive beast.
He shattered both wrists while attempting to break the fall with his hands. Treat’s riding partner,
who was about 20 yards ahead of him, turned around to see the “very big, brownish-black” bear
standing over him. Neither rider had weapons, bear spray or their cellphones. Lacking the proper
resources to intervene, the second rider went to get help while the grizzly was focused on Treat.
When responders arrived at the scene, they found that Treat had been mauled to death. His helmet
had also been bitten to pieces. Bear experts believed that the attack hadn’t been predatory
in nature but a reaction to the grizzly feeling threatened. The authorities launched a search for
the animal but it’s unclear if they ever found it. Number 1 Las Vegas Crash
On December the 10th of 2020, 5 cyclists were killed and several others were injured
on a road between Boulder City and Searchlight, Nevada, after their group was hit by a box truck.
About 20 cyclists were on an annual 130-mile ride, through the desert in Nevada and California,
while accompanied by a Subaru Outback support vehicle. It carried water,
snacks and spare tires for the trip. 45-year-old Arizona man Jordan Barson, driving his regular
route in an Isuzu box truck, was behind the cyclists and the accompanying vehicle. At
some point, the group split into two, with the stronger cyclists riding ahead of the Subaru
and the others drifting behind it. Barson lost control of his vehicle and struck the trailing
cyclists before rear ending the Subaru. 7 cyclists were ejected from their bikes as they were
impacted by the box truck. 5 of them died at the scene, with their bodies horrifically mangled and
contorted. The victims, the majority of whom were Las Vegas residents, ranged in age from 39 to 57.
The Subaru’s driver and the other cyclists injured in the crash were later stabilized. Barson,
who wasn’t hurt in the accident, told the officers that he’d fallen asleep behind the wheel. Blood
tests would later reveal that he had a high level of methamphetamine in his system. He admitted to
having taken the drug the day before the crash and claimed that he’d had trouble sleeping afterwards.
Barson faced a dozen felony charges that would see him spend multiple decades in state prison.
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