Utah Law Talk

A collision between two cyclists in City Creek Canyon on November 14, 2008, has left one of the cyclists critically injured. According to the Deseret News, two male bicyclists collided around 1 p.m. just past the entry into the popular Salt Lake City, Utah, canyon. The injured cyclists was in his 60’s. An off-duty nurse happened to be in the area and administered first aid, including CPR on the man until emergency crews arrived. He was taken by helicopter to a local hospital with serious head trauma. The other cyclist was treated and released. Both men were wearing helmets at the time. Currently, there is no word as to how the cyclists happened to collide into each other.

I happen to road bike myself and am trying to fathom how this cycling accident may have occurred. I suspect that one of the cyclists was coming down the hill at a good rate of speed and struck the other ascending cyclist. My sense is that the cyclist descending is the one with the serious injuries.

Another interesting issue is whether the road bikers were following the speed limit law. According to the City Creek Canyon website, the speed limit in the park is 15 mph. Injuries of the magnitude we are seeing from this case generally wouldn’t happen at these speeds unless there was a head on collision. I don’t think this happened since the other biker is okay.

A few months ago I was road biking with the Utah Velo Club in Utah County when one of the cyclists in our group rubbed tires with the bike just ahead of him. The pack was going about 26-28 mph at the time on a flat road. Well, he lost control and just tumbled until he came to a stop. I was first on him since I was in the back of the pack. He wasn’t responding and he was foaming at the mouth. Emergency crews came and took him to the hospital. Turns out he had a skull fracture. It was very scary. He has thankfully gone on to recover. The point is that his skull fracture came as a result of a high speed fall. This is why I suspect there was a high speed element to this bike accident. At any rate, our thoughts and prayers are with him and we wish him all the best as he deals with what sounds like a traumatic brain injury.

November 19, 2008 update: The seriously injured cyclist has been identified as University of Utah English professor Brooke Hopkins. My best wishes to Mr. Hopkins, and especially to his family, as he begins a new chapter in his life.

Ron Kramer is a Utah personal injury attorney, an avid road and mountain bike rider and represents persons involved in bicycle accidents.

Published by: Ron Kramer

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 1:16 pm and is filed under Brain Injury, Cycling Injury, Personal Injury. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.