Update: Park City Municipal dropped its ticket against the driver Oct. 11.
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The driver posted the video he recorded to TikTok and a local Facebook group Oct. 7. Park City police said the incident happened more than a week earlier on Sept. 28.
Cyclist Gary Peacock, 73, said he was biking up Park Avenue toward Old Town Park City from his home in the Snyderville Basin when a Subaru drove dangerously close to him. Driver Pierce Kempton, 22, denies that.
“I lost my temper," Peacock admitted, expressing regret. "I didn't go there with the intention of hitting them or doing anything but just telling him, ‘Hey, you came way too close to me. And I'm upset about it. I'm angry about it.’ And then his reaction just set me off.”
Kempton, a videographer by trade, was on his way to meet a friend at City Park’s skate park. Peacock confronted him in the parking lot, where Kempton recorded him for roughly six minutes. The video contains explicit language.
The video shows Peacock opening Kempton’s car door, which he said was to prevent the driver from leaving the scene. Peacock then called Park City police who later told him he was not allowed to open the car door.
Kempton told KPCW he thought the situation should have been handled differently.
“I feel like he could have settled that just by telling me with his words," the driver said. "I don't think he needed to be aggressive, and I don't think he needed to get the law involved.”
Peacock said the police also told him he didn’t have the authority to detain Kempton and he should have just reported the license plate.
The cyclist added he routinely has close calls on the road but that he’s never confronted someone.
“This guy, unfortunately, was the subject of my wrath, because of all these other incidents,” he said.
Kempton showed his cellphone video to the responding officer, who wrote both the cyclist and driver tickets.
Court records indicate Peacock received a disorderly conduct infraction and paid a $160 fine.
Kempton received an infraction for passing too closely, which carries a $130 fine. He said he slowed down and gave Peacock at least the required 3-foot berth, so he’s fighting the ticket in court in November.
Dashboard camera footage shows Kempton did move left while passing and was decelerating from 29 mph to 26 mph before reaching Peacock.
Kempton passed him at the narrowest part of Park Avenue, where the curbs pinch in and the southbound bike lane disappears, just past the Park City Library bus stop.
Utah law prohibits vehicles from endangering “vulnerable” road users, which includes both cyclists and skateboarders. Cars and trucks have to give those users a 3-foot berth when passing.
Auto-cyclist accidents or near misses are recurring issues in the wider Park City area. Park City police fielded a call about a near miss at Kearns Boulevard and Bonanza Drive two days prior to Peacock and Kempton’s altercation.
And a cyclist was injured in a hit-and-run on state Route 32 earlier in the summer.
Recent road rage incidents between cars have been more severe.
A man was shot and killed at Jordanelle State Park late Sept. 25 in what Wasatch County investigators said started as road rage. They are still searching for the suspect, who may be driving a Jeep Gladiator or Gladiator Rubicon with front-end damage.
Two people were arrested in the Thaynes Canyon neighborhood earlier that month after alleged reckless driving on state Route 224. The arresting deputy said one driver brake-checked the other, who then threw their coffee at the first car.
And in July, a driver was arrested, accused of pulling a gun on another driver at the intersection of Interstate 80 and U.S. Highway 40. The driver, 41-year-old Nathan Jacobson Putnam, has since been charged with a class A misdemeanor.
“We've had more road rage incidents in the last three months than we have had all year. Take a deep breath,” Summit County Sheriff Frank Smith recommended on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Oct. 7. “We live in a great place. All those road rage incidents are always followed by regret.”
Sgt. Skyler Talbot said the sheriff’s office is projecting nearly 10% more “attempt-to-locate” calls this year than in 2023. Those are when deputies are asked to find a vehicle on the road.
ATLs could be related to a number of issues, but Talbot said “many of them can be attributed to aggressive driving and road rage.”
Summit County dispatch received 1,916 attempt-to-locate calls in 2023. So far this year it has had 1,572.