Police cite driver suspected in downtown accident with cyclists

Police have found and cited a motorist who they believe was involved in a hit-and-run accident with two bicyclists Friday morning at Ninth and New Hampshire streets.

The accident occurred about 10:30 a.m., when a red car sped east on Ninth Street and struck two cyclists while turning north on New Hampshire Street, said Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman. Witnesses told police the car accelerated toward the intersection and ignored the stop sign before it hit the cyclists, who were riding west across New Hampshire Street. The car then continued north and turned east on Seventh Street.

Originally, police believed the suspect vehicle had a Cherokee Nation license plate, but they later identified another car.

“The good thing about this case was that we had the help of so many witnesses,” McKinley said. “That’s what really helped solve this.”

Police found the suspect vehicle in the 800 block of New Jersey Street Friday afternoon and cited the driver for leaving the scene of an accident, failure to report an accident, failure to obey a stop sign and having no proof of insurance.

The two young men struck by the car declined medical treatment, though one had suffered an injury to his leg. They also declined to file a police report, McKinley said, but police investigate hit-and-run accidents. Police did not publicly identify the cyclists or the motorist Friday afternoon.