Cyclist cut by fishing line on Edmonton trail

An Edmonton woman suffered cuts to her face and neckafter she rode her bicycleinto a fishing linestrung across a bike path.

"I didn't think too much of it, until I felt the fishing wire actually in my teeth.... It hit me in the face and I felt it in my mouth," Sandy Jacobson said after the Sunday night incidentin Rundle Park.

The line hit Jacobson on the bridge of her nose,got caught in her teeth, then sliced into the side of her neck as she turned her head.

"EMT [Emergency Medical Technician] said had it caught me right in the neck, likecome down six inches [15 centimetres] lower, it could have been a different story, right?" she said.

Jacobson was flipped backward and thrown to the ground, while hershoes were still clipped into the pedals of her mountain bike.

Jacobson then saw whathad hit her. A fishing pole had been stuck upright into the ground and the line was strung across the riverside trail.

Young man charged

Jacobsonremembered seeing a group of four young men sitting in the picnic area and she went back to ask them why thelinewas strung across thetrail.The boys asked her why she was riding so fast, she said, and the conversation soon became confrontational.

Whenridingback home, Jacobsoncame across members of a City of Edmonton parks crew whocalled police after shetold them her story.

A 21-year-old man has beencharged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Jacobson is well-known in Edmonton for her athletic career as a marathon runner.

She is telling her story to warn others to be careful along the trails. Shenow plansto be more aware of her surroundings when she's out for a bike ride.

"I guess you have to take a step back in today's society and, just from an awareness standpoint, just be cautious."