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GREENSBORO — A UNCG professor and well-known biking advocate is recuperating from serious injuries after his bicycle was struck from behind by an inattentive motorist.
Mark Schulz, an epidemiologist in the School of Health and Human Performance, suffered injuries including a shattered kneecap, crushed vertebrae, broken ribs, a broken sternum and a concussion.
He faces lengthy rehabilitation as a result of the March 26 crash at about 10 p.m. on Aycock Street.
Schulz remembers nothing of the accident that happened as he biked home after working late at the office. He was knocked unconscious.
“I do not remember being hit. It’s just a matter of being rear-ended,” Schulz said Tuesday in a telephone interview from his hospital room. “I went flying. I didn’t have time to look back and see what happened.”
Greensboro police officer M.P. Kees said that Schulz did everything properly for riding at night.
“(He) had on a reflective vest, helmet and front and rear battery powered lights which were working after the crash,” Kees said in the accident report.
The officer said that motorist Amy Dunnuck of Julian was “text messaging on her phone when she looked up and saw a male on a bicycle.”
“She attempted to swerve left to avoid contact with the bicycle but was unsuccessful,” said Kees, who cited Dunnuck for failing to reduce speed.
City officials and bike groups say that many motorists need to get better at sharing the road with bikes and being more alert for their presence.
“Obviously, from the driver’s standpoint, don’t be driving and using a hand-held device at the same time,” said Jesse Day, a friend of Schulz and a fellow biking enthusiast.
Schulz, an assistant professor in public health education since 2002, said he hopes to be back on the job in several weeks at a reduced pace, but he knows it will be much longer before he’s able to ride again. Doctors have told him his knee must be immobilized for six weeks.
The accident shows that “the bicyclist can be absolutely perfect, but there are still drivers out there who aren’t paying attention,” said Peggy Holland, the city’s coordinator of bike and pedestrian programs.
Greensboro reported 69 accidents involving bikes last year, with no fatalities, one disabling injury, 26 “evident” injuries, three without any injury and the rest with unknown levels of injury, she said. But Holland said bicycle-car accidents are a two-way street and no few stem from bike riders not obeying the rules of the road.
Schulz had every right to be on the street after dark, Day said, considering that he was wearing reflective clothing and his bike was equipped with proper lighting.
“We don’t recommend children ride at night,” he said. “But for an adult, in denser urban areas, there should be enough street lighting to make it safe.”
Schulz, 54, said he will have no qualms relying on a bike as his favorite mode of travel when he’s physically able once again.
That’s true even though bicyclists have “double the chance of dying” in an on-road crash compared with a motorist, he said.
“That’s not trivial. But if I were a smoker, I would have 10 times the chance of dying of lung cancer,” the epidemiologist said.
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That last line shows how the man thinks. Unfortunately, he DOES have a better chance of dying from some idiot texting while driving. He should sue the fucking pants off that girl. She even admitted to it.
Fuck a car, and fuck your SMS-sending ass.
She was text messaging while driving and she gets cited with failure to reduce speed…
Something along the lines of criminal negligence and having her license pulled sounds more appropriate.
assholes all around my town do it, what are the cops doing?
yesterdays nice little event was this old lady ran a red light
right near a park. TOTAL RED!! When will people wake up and get out
its like this protective metal box theory.
I hope the person gets well soon!
Cars do SUCK!!
Guys-
Pretty mind-numbing… looking at her fucking phone while she mows down a cyclist… and gets slapped with a $50 ticket?? I hate litigation, but damn, I hope there’s a lawsuit there. Yeesh.
Mikey
I”m thinking the states workers compensation lawyers should use the power of money to punish someone in this mess, even if its the taxpayers it’ll get someone’s attention.
Criminal.
…best of luck, mark schulz, you seem like an extremely sane & rational human being…i’m sure i’d be spewing a lot of venom…
…while the cop did cite her, read between the lines of what he’s saying & it’s almost like he’s apologizing for her stupidity…not only that, but he’d cite in her favor if the cyclist wasn’t up to snuff in his opinion…
…reality should come down hard on these people…”listen, you self-centered little bitch, you just seriously hurt & almost took the life of another human being, so that you could what, text a fucking message to one of your friends ???…do you have any common fucking sense in your empty fucking head ???…
…THAT should be the message from law enforcement BEFORE these incidents happen…the dmv & the schools should be offering this gentle reminder to everyone…
…cell phone calls are bad enough, but the law should be re-written in a way that in an accident, phone records can be accessed & if your retrieved text is not something in the nature of a dire emergency, criminal charges can be filed…no witnesses need be present for that situation obviously…
…do cyclists do illegal & stupid things ???…all the fucking time & a lotta them oughta clean up their acts but one on one, vehicle vs bicycle, i think you know the statistics…
…heal well & ride safely, mark…
Lawsuit sounds good to me as well, but how about revoking the little cunt’s driver’s license, and make her ride around on a full suspension wal-mart bike for the next ten years or so. It wouldn’t take but one or two close calls with asshole motorists for bitch to figure it out. Education is just as important as citation.
He gets months of rehab and a lifetime of pain and discomfort. She gets a citation. That makes sense… WTF!? Those flashing red lights can be seen from over a mile away. She must have been unconscious. Her actions were criminal. I’d like to see her car have a little “accident” with a louisville slugger since the legal system obviously isn’t effective…
I hope that chick gets sued for every dime she and her parents have.
as usual cops don’t think cyclist have rights either. they don’t give a fuck about a cyclist and think we are a bother and get in the way. I am getting really fucking tired of this kind of bullshit, and I don’t know what to do about it. How pissed off are people gunna be when a cyclist is rightfully taking the lane and “slowing” the motorist…especially when gas is $7 a gallon?
I’m gunna quit bitchen’ ARGGH!
The driver should have been arrested and charged for reckless driving. I can’t believe there aren’t laws out there against text-messaging while driving. It should be prosecuted as severely as driving drunk. At least a drunk person would have seen the flashing lights on the bike and probably swerved out of the way. The stupid text-messaging person wasn’t even looking at the road!! That should be a major crime, people are killing others with their cars everyday because of that crap!
This makes me so mad!
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I am so sorry Mr. Schulz for your pain and your misfortune, especially since you did do the right thing. As for the rest of you who have ligitamit concerns for your safety I hope you will forgive me for hawking my own wares, but i had an accident with a food service deliverer in the middle of the night while coming home from a late church service while i was coming down a steep hill to get to my garage. He was on the side walk and i lost sight of him, and when i turned into my garage he hit my car at a high speed and catapulted to the otherside food and all.
I understand the reason he would not ride the streets but I was hysterical, he got up plead with me not to call for help and that he was alright! since then i went to work trying to create something for bikers that would get peoples attention night or day! and that means drivers of automobiles can see the lights in the front and in the back because they look a lot like their own lights with signals for left and right turns and flashing and can be seen for one mile. we will be on the market soon i hope you will be interested and we can help save lives by “BEING SEE AND BEING SAFE!” They are called PATHWAY LIGHTERS
BE WELL MR SCHULZ I’M PRAYING FOR YOU.