Lance Armstrong Cited For Hit & Run In Aspen
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ASPEN (CBSDFW.COM) - Police have cited former cycling champion Lance Armstrong for hitting two parked vehicles last December in Aspen, Colorado.
Even though Armstrong and his girlfriend, Anna Hansen, did return to the scene of the crash and offer to pay for the damage, police say Armstrong did not report the accident to police as required by law. Also, Armstrong didn't initially take responsibility for being behind the wheel during the crash.
Police say as they were investigating the accident, Hansen told them the roads were icy and she was driving the 2011 GMC Yukon at the time of the accident.
She told police as the couple was leaving an art museum party, she got behind the wheel. "Lance had a little bit to drink, so I was driving. I was not drinking," she said.
However, as police continued their investigation, they talked to a valet employee from the party who remembered Lance got into the driver's side of the SUV and drove away.
Once police confronted Hansen with this information, she changed her story once more saying Lance drove from the party to City Market, but emphasized she had driven from City Market to their home and was behind the wheel during the accident. When police told her that surveillance video at the store would prove whether she was telling the truth, she admitted she made the whole story up.
"We've had our family name smeared over every paper in the world in the last couple of years and honestly, I've got teenagers, I just wanted to protect my family because I thought, 'Gosh, Anna Hansen, hit some cars, it's not going to show up in the papers, but Lance Armstrong hit some cars, it's going to be a national story,'" she said.
She called the decision to take the blame for the accident a "joint" decision she made with Armstrong. "He was not intoxicated," she told police. "I'm sorry I lied to you that morning, but I was trying to make it sound like, well, I was driving because that was just, I don't know, I'm not in the habit of lying in general and especially not to police officers so, I don't know. I was just trying to make something up at the time."
Police dropped the charges against her and cited Armstrong for Duty To Report Accidents and Exceeding Safe Speed For Conditions.
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