Darcy Sheppard may have caused his own death

Followup of: Michael Bryant & Darcy Sheppard: Fight or Flight Reflex?

Some new details have come to light in the Bryant / Sheppard altercation.

It's looking to me as if Sheppard caused his own death. The Star reports:

"According to witnesses, Bryant cut the argument short by pulling away. As he headed westbound on Bloor St., Sheppard chased the car on foot. He grabbed hold of the vehicle on the driver's side. It's not clear if he was trying to get into the car, get at the driver or merely prevent him from leaving."

"Within seconds, the westbound car had crossed over into the eastbound lanes of Bloor St. Construction workers laying pipe on the stretch of road gaped as the car swerved toward them. It was dark. Many couldn't see Sheppard clinging to the vehicle. All of them said they could hear Bryant screaming."

"The car was riding right up against the sidewalk where there were trees and posts and newspaper boxes. The tires were screeching," said witness Josh Harlan.

- Michael Bryant's deadly duel , Cathal Kelly, The Star (thestar.com)

Those quotes are not the entire article and I left parts out (please read it yourself for the other details). However they are very telling in terms seeing what happened.

• Sheppard was clearly the aggressor, chasing down the vehicle and grabbing onto the drivers side.
• The vehicle moved into the oncoming lane, which in North America is the side the driver sits on, and the side that Sheppard was hanging onto.
• Shepard didn't let go of the vehicle until objects on the side of the road knocked him off.

So essentially as Bryant pulled away from the light, Sheppard ran after the vehicle and grabbed into the drivers side (the convertible's top was down). It is entirely possible that Sheppard grabbed the steering wheel of the vehicle, however until we are able to read the court documents or review the video ourselves, we don't know that. We do know that he latched onto the drivers side though, and any interference with the driver on the left side of the vehicle, would cause the driver to move away from the source of that interference and would have caused the vehicle to swerve to the left (the natural instinct of a human is to push away from something), crossing into the oncoming traffic, and eventually hitting the curb on the other side of the road.

I suspect that the angry cyclists congregating downtown may end up eating crow.

Although I do not feel that anyone deserves to die in such a way, it bothers me that the cyclist can do no wrong in the eyes of other cyclists.