Update: Press Releases:
Wreck highlights dangers of cycling: Durham man says a driver swerved toward him then fled after collision
(News & Observer, 21 June 2005)
Drew Cummings is used to being harassed by drivers while he's on his bicycle.
But after a hit-and-run accident nearly tore off his leg Saturday morning, he's more wary than ever of
drivers unwilling to share the road with cyclists.
Cummings was biking down U.S. 15-501 from his home in Durham to a Habitat for Humanity build in
Pittsboro about 8 a.m. when an oncoming driver crossed the double yellow line, gunned the engine and
headed straight for him, he said. The front left corner of the car hit his left ankle, then his left thigh hit
the car's side mirror, breaking it off.
The car skidded back into its lane and headed off, leaving Cummings on the side of the road, his ankle
shredded and his left thigh gashed open, the exposed muscle protruding "like a steak," he said.
"My first thought was that he was going to swerve away," Cummings said, "and my second thought was
that he wasn't."
Cummings called 911 on his cell phone and was taken to UNC Hospitals. He was released the next day
and will likely spend six to eight weeks in a brace and a cast.
Although he can't prove the driver acted intentionally, "unless they were totally dead drunk
they can't have not known they hit somebody," said Cummings, 32, who recently received his master's
degree in public policy from Duke University and has been working as a temporary code enforcement
officer for the town of Hillsborough.
The state Highway Patrol has determined that the car was a light-brown Buick and is waiting to identify
the exact model and year or possible years before it starts combing vehicle registrations and notifying
local body shops. If found, the driver will face felony hit-and-run charges, a spokesman said.
In the meantime, the local biking community has rallied around Cummings. Friends have volunteered to
cook dinner and are taking fliers to body shops, hoping a mechanic will notice the vehicle and report it.
According to the N.C. Department of Transportation, more than 1,000 bicyclists are involved in
police-reported collisions with motor vehicles each year. About 30 cyclists are killed and 160 more are
seriously injured.
In 2003 there were about 158 crashes in the Triangle area, 23 of which were hit-and-run, according to
the DOT.
Efforts to educate the public about bicycle safety and sharing the road are ongoing, said Alison Carpenter,
bike and pedestrian coordinator for the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization.
"Bikes are vehicles on the road and have the right to be on the road," she said. "Traffic laws need to be
abided by both bicyclists and motorists."
Cummings and his wife, Amy, who recently completed her master's in education at UNC-Chapel Hill, are
both avid cyclists. Although the Triangle area is considered relatively bike-friendly, the Cummingses
and their friends said drivers sometimes honk angrily at them, "buzz" by closely and occasionally even
throw things at them.
"People just get intensely selfish about their right to speed along a road," Cummings said.
Sean Lyman, a friend and medical student at UNC-CH, picked up the remains of Cummings' bike and
brought it by his apartment Monday. The sight of the bike, with its left pedal bent inside the frame and
the back nearly shorn off, brought tears to Amy Cummings' eyes.
****
Car hits bicyclist, leaves scene; details hazy
(Herald-Sun , 21 June 2005)
Drew Cummings isn't sure what happened. Did someone purposefully try to run him down as he was riding
his bicycle to Pittsboro? Or was someone just so careless that they accidentally hit him, then left the
scene of the accident in fear?
Whatever the cause, Cummings said Monday he's fortunate to be alive. The Durham resident and
Hillsborough town employee is recovering from two serious injuries to his leg -- missing skin and a
broken bone in his ankle and an 8- to 10-inch gash in his thigh -- where the car clipped him as he tried to
get out of its way.
Cummings, at 32, is about to become a father, which he said made the accident even scarier for him and
his wife.
On Saturday morning, the bicycling enthusiast was riding to Pittsboro to help with a Habitat for
Humanity building project. At 8 a.m., there wasn't much traffic on U.S. 15-501 just north of Fearrington
Village as he bicycled south on the two-lane road.
As he rounded a gentle curve in the road, he spotted a tan or brown car in the northbound lane coming
toward him.
"I just remember I noticed that this car was crossing the line and coming straight at me," Cummings said.
"He seemed to be gunning his engine."
Although Cummings refers to the driver as a "he," he acknowledges he's not sure that's accurate. He
didn't see the driver and doesn't know the gender, race or age of the person who hit him.
"My thought for a second was, 'Surely this guy is just trying to scare me and will swerve back,' "
Cummings wrote in an e-mail to other local bicycling enthusiasts. "By the time I realized that no, he
wasn't, there wasn't a whole lot to do. His left wheels were already on the dirt and he was coming
straight at me."
Cummings turned the wheel of his bicycle sharply to the right to try to get off the road, but it was too
late.
The front left corner of the car, he said, hit his left ankle, and shredded the skin from it. Then the
side-view mirror of the car ripped through his left thigh and he crashed to the ground, he recalled.
As Cummings looked up, he said he saw the car skidding back onto the road. It didn't stop. It just kept
going.
Cummings flagged down some cars, and then called 911 from a cell phone in his backpack. An ambulance
took him to UNC Hospitals, where he underwent surgery to close the deep wound in his thigh and repair his ankle.
N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper S.L. Bridges is investigating the accident. About the only clue he
has, besides a general description of the car, is the side-view mirror that was torn off the car when it hit
Cummings' leg. Bridges took the mirror and compared it to various cars until he saw that it looked like the
mirrors seen on Buicks.
He's contacted Buick and General Motors and is awaiting word from them to let him know what years,
makes and models of cars had that type of mirror. They've told him they'll get back to him in two days.
The color of the car could be described as tan or light brown, Bridges said.
Since he e-mailed the story of his wreck, Cummings said he's heard from many people who have told him
about being harassed, hit, yelled at and even shot as they rode their bicycles along local roads.
While it seemed as though the driver intentionally hit him, he doesn't know for sure, Cummings said.
"It could have been someone on a cell phone or dealing with a child, but I find it very unusual that on a
deserted road it came as straight at me as it did," he said.
Steve Goodridge, advocacy officer for the N.C. Bicycle Club, said the type of wreck Cummings was
involved in is unusual. Cars don't usually hit bicyclists going in the opposite direction, he said.
"In this particular case, this was a driver who crossed the center line," he said. "We don't know why.
We really have no idea."
Slightly more common would be for a car to hit a bicyclist it was passing going in the same direction,
Goodridge said. The most common car-bicycle accidents occur when a bicyclist is riding on a sidewalk and
gets hit by or hits a car that is turning onto the main roadway, he added.
Anyone who has information about the car that hit Cummings should call the N.C. Highway Patrol in Siler
City, which is the district patrol office for Chatham County, at (919) 742-2124. The car is a tan or light
brown Buick. The side-view mirror on the driver's side is missing, and there may be a broken patch of glass
on the left front headlight area.
Last edited by * jack *; 06-21-05 at 11:34 AM.