FAYETTEVILLE -- Police are looking for whoever set up a barbed-wire trap on a trail that seriously injured a bicyclist.
Charles Grim, 72, suffered a severe head injury Friday when he ran into a wire suspended at his chest level on the Tsa La Gi trail near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The strand of wire came from a nearby fence and was stretched from one side of the trail to the other, according to police.
Grim has been discharged from Washington Regional Medical Center, spokesman Gina Maddox said.
"I do not believe we have had any incidents like this before on the trails," Cpl. Dallas Brashears said. "We are very protective of our trails and would like to figure this out as quickly as possible."
The detective division is looking into all tips, Brashears said.
About 360 people use that part of the trail daily, according to a 2015 city estimate. Mornings and evenings are peak commuting times on city trails during the week, and thousands of people use them on the weekends, trails coordinator Matthew Mihalevich said.
Fayetteville has 43 miles of paved trails within the city, and police patrol them on bicycles and on a variety of motorized vehicles.
"We have a standing order to patrol the trails day and night," Brashears said. He did not comment if patrols had increased since the incident.
Mihalevich said the city has a volunteer group called the Trail Trekkers who ride the trails looking for anything suspicious or for anyone who may need help.
"That group has been in place for several years and has been really helpful," he said. "They just keep an eye on things for us."
The city does not have a sanctioned camera system to monitor the trails, Brashears said, but many businesses along the trails have security cameras.
At least one camera is near where the barbed-wire trap was set near the tunnel under the railroad. The city installed the camera to catch graffiti artists, not someone with something this sinister in mind, Mihalevich said.
"We haven't really had a situation like this. I can't believe it happened or why someone would do something like this," he said.
With more than 200 miles of trail in Northwest Arkansas, Mihalevich said he isn't sure what else can be done to stop incidents but to encourage everyone to report anything suspicious.
Gabe Lodge, a University of Arkansas, Fayetteville senior and avid cyclist, said he has experienced aggression from motor-vehicle drivers and other noncyclists.
"There's a definite history between cyclists and noncyclists and the aggression of noncyclists," he said. "There's a lot of anonymity on roads and trails, because you can't put a camera everywhere. The anonymity allows them to express their anger."
What's surprising, Lodge said, is the extreme nature of the act and that it happened on a trail. He said the hostility is usually kept to the roads.
"That's more surprising and more unsettling," he said. "But that's not going to keep me from going out on a ride."
Whether malicious or not, there's always the potential for hazards on the road, said Travis Anteau, store manager at GPP Cycling in Fayetteville. It's always good to have safety equipment -- a helmet, lights and a bell -- and to have basic medical and emergency contact information in case something happens, he said.
"Surprisingly, a lot of people don't think about needing that stuff," he said.
Metro on 08/30/2017