Participants come to aid of local cyclist

The car driver was issued a citation for failing to yield to oncoming traffic.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- When Conner Sheets saw the crash, he immediately started running.
Around 12:55 p.m. Monday, just minutes after about 100 bikers pulled into downtown New Castle, a local man on a motorcycle crashed head-on into a car about a block away.
Sheets, the road captain for America's Ride in charge of safety, ran immediately to the scene, as did several other bikers.
As Sheets tried to console the downed biker, off-duty Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Dominick Caimona, 39, of New Castle, other America's Ride bikers directed oncoming traffic around the crash at the intersection of Falls and Mill streets.
"I just kept telling him not to move," Sheets said.
Fortunately, an ambulance had been in place just one block away for the America's Ride arrival.
Caimona and the driver of the car were taken away in minutes. Caimona was still in Jameson Hospital this morning, but the hospital would not release his condition.
Driver didn't see rider
The car driver, James Frederick, 60, of Hillcrest Avenue, told police he didn't see Caimona as he was turning left onto Falls Street. Both had a green light and were proceeding into the intersection; Caimona was going straight.
Caimona flipped off his 1999 Harley-Davidson and crashed into the windshield of Frederick's 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Police said Frederick is being cited for not yielding to oncoming traffic.
Sheets said he never had a second thought about going to Caimona's aid, even though he wasn't part of the America's Ride group.
"Hey, we're all Americans," he said with a shrug.