Eleva woman charged in hit-and-run crash that hurt bicyclist
Aug. 6—EAU CLAIRE — An Eleva woman clipped a bicyclist with her vehicle near Cleghorn, which broke the man's arm, authorities say.
The woman then left the scene of the crash on Highway HHI, authorities said.
Barbara A. Wiedenbeck, 60, E3980 Nicole Court, was charged Friday in Eau Claire County Court with a felony count of causing injury by hit and run.
Wiedenbeck is free on a $2,000 signature bond, which prohibits her from drinking alcohol, entering taverns and having contact with the bicyclist.
Wiedenbeck returns to court Tuesday, Aug. 17, for a preliminary hearing.
According to the criminal complaint:
An Eau Claire County Sheriff's deputy was sent to a vehicle-bicycle crash at 8:45 p.m. Tuesday at S10597 Highway HHI in the town of Pleasant Valley.
Emergency personnel were tending to the 25-year-old bicyclist, who was covered in large amounts of blood.
The deputy found several pieces of vehicle debris in the immediate area including a large gray plastic piece that appeared to have been a passenger side mirror assembly. He also found a glass portion of a passenger side mirror.
The bicycle had minimal damage. There were scrapes on the left side handlebar.
The deputy spoke with the bicyclist at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, where he was being treated for a broken left arm and abrasions on his knees.
The man said he was biking north on Highway HHI when he was hit from behind by a vehicle.
The man said he was on the far right shoulder. After he was struck, he landed on his left side on the pavement. He called 911 after he got himself off the road.
Deputies determined that the vehicle debris came from a Toyota Land Cruiser or Lexus SUV.
On Wednesday afternoon, a vehicle matching the suspect vehicle was parked outside the Cleghorn Keg bar. The vehicle was registered to Wiedenbeck. The passenger side mirror was damaged. There were also scuff marks on the passenger side door, consistent with the height of a bicycle's handlebars.
A deputy entered the tavern and found Wiedenbeck sitting at the bar. Wiedenbeck said she was at the bar the previous night and left at around 7:30 p.m. to pick up some sweet corn from a friend's house on her way home.
Wiedenbeck said the mirror was damaged four months ago when she struck a guardrail swerving to miss a deer in Rice Lake.
Wiedenbeck denied hitting anything with her vehicle Tuesday night. If she would have hit somebody, she said, she would have stopped right away.
Deputies compared the vehicle debris found at the crash site with the damage on Wiedenbeck's vehicle and determined they were a match.
If convicted, Wiedenbeck could be sentenced to up to nine months in prison.
