The Iowa cycling community will be closely watching a court case in Benton County today (Wednesday). Cyclist Matt Phippen claims a pickup truck passed him in an aggressively close manner on a country road back in March. Matt Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition, says this may be the first time a motorist will go to trial for violating the Iowa law the demands vehicles give bikes more space.

“We’re seeing incidences that this happens,” Wyatt says, “and it’s really hard to say ‘the motorist buzzed me’ without any evidence to prove it.” The cyclist in the case -does- have evidence, video of the incident shot from a pair of bike-mounted cameras facing both directions. Phippen says the video shows there was plenty of room on left side of the road, but the driver drove down the center, then hit his truck’s diesel to create a plume of smoke to “make a point.”

The pickup driver, Steven Payne, is contesting the $270 in fines and fees. Wyatt made his comments on Iowa Public Radio’s “Talk of Iowa.”

(Radio Iowa)

HULL, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say an 88-year-old resident has died after a pickup crashed through a wall into a nursing home in northwest Iowa. The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office says Anna Dykstra was pronounced dead Monday afternoon at Pleasant Acres Care Center in Hull. The pickup driver, 77-year-old Lawrence Sohl, was taken to a Sioux Center hospital for treatment. No other injuries have been reported.

The Sheriff’s Office says Sohl was driving behind his wife when he ran into the rear of her minivan before ramming into the nursing home.

(Corrects time frame of fire to Tuesday evening…not Monday)

Five area fire departments battled a fire involving hay bales Tuesday evening, southeast of Kirkman. According to Harlan Fire Chief Roger Bissen, Kirkman fire was dispatched to the scene near a dairy farm at around 5-p.m. Crews from Harlan, Westphalia, Irwin, Defiance and Kimballton provided mutual aid to help fight the blaze.

The fire was located inside a steel constructed, open hay barn full of hay bales. Approximately 400 – 1000 pound square bales were lost in the blaze.  Firefighters were able to save about half of the bales in the barn, and Bissen says the structure is still usable. The extra departments were on the scene for a little over four hours, Tuesday. The Kirkman Fire Department was also on the scene until 3-am today (Wednesday), putting out hot spots.