Woman Who Caused Tour de France Crash is nabbed but spared lawsuit

The cycling fan who got the Tour de France off to a slow and painful start by causing a massive crash during Stage 1 of the epic bike race has been found and arrested by French authorities, according to Reuters.

The fan, an unidentified 30-year-old French woman, turned herself into authorities, prosecutors said. “A suspect is in custody,” said Camille Miansoni, the state prosecutor for the city of Brest in Normandy.

She is accused of involuntarily causing injury and putting the life of others at risk after holding a cardboard sign honoring her grandparents in the path of competitors that German cyclist Tony Martin rode into, leading to a massive pile-up and creating chaos on the race route.

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Although the Tour de France originally intended to sue the woman for causing the crash, Tour organizers said they had withdrawn their lawsuit against her and will not be pursuing legal action.

“We are withdrawing our complaint. This story has been blown out of proportion but we wish to remind everyone of the safety rules on the race,” Tour director Christian Prudhomme said. “If you come to the Tour, you hold your kid, you hold your pet and don’t cross the road carelessly. And above all, you respect the riders — they’re the ones worthy of live TV.”

Pierre-Yves Thouault of the Amaury Sport Organization, which runs the Tour de France,  had previously said: “We are doing this so that the tiny minority of people who do this don’t spoil the show for everyone.”