A 39-year-old Minneapolis man has been charged with two misdemeanor driving offenses after he fatally struck a woman as she rode her bicycle in St. Paul in September.

Initially, police reported that the driver, Adnan Abuhamed, had stopped at a stop sign before he hit Virginia (Ginny) Heuer, 51, of St. Paul. But a reconstruction of the accident revealed that Abuhamed "must have run the stop sign" and that his failure to yield caused the accident, according to the charges filed against him last Friday.

Heuer, who was wearing a helmet, was on her morning ride Sept. 27 when she was hit by a sport-utility vehicle on Summit Avenue near Snelling Avenue. She died seven hours later.

Authorities initially presented the case to the Ramsey County attorney's office for possible felony charges. That office, however, determined there was insufficient evidence to prove "gross negligence," said Paul Gustafson, Ramsey County spokesman.

Abuhamed now faces misdemeanor charges of failing to yield the right of way and disobeying a stop sign in a case being prosecuted by the city attorney's office.

ANTHONY LONETREE