BIG WHEEL

Leckie's driving record since that wild night in March 1988 includes three speeding tickets, two of them in Paradise Valley, the home of photo-radar. Maria Torregrossa says she's feeling better these days. An upbeat person by nature, she got married about a year ago and is working hard as an executive in the tourism industry.

Bicyclist John Faust has moved back to his native Iowa, where he takes long rides around the cornfields instead of on the Valley's hazardous roads. He asks if the driver who hit him is famous. Told the man is one of the most important government figures in the state of Arizona, Faust whistles into the telephone.

Is that right?" he says. He impressed me as being a bad dude.