GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Evan Cusack describes himself as an avid cyclist. One day, an accident cut his ride to work short.
“The next thing I know, I was in the ambulance, and the car had hit me from behind. He didn’t see me,” he recalled.
Cusack ended up in the hospital battered and bruised. He said the car that hit him was going 55 miles an hour. He was driving on an open country road in Byron Center. His four thousand dollar bike only had 30 miles on it, but the crash totaled it.
“I probably shouldn’t be here to be honest. I totaled the car with my body and walked away with a few scratches,” he explained.
He hurt his shoulder, but had no broken bones, and said he thanks God everyday. Cusack said his helmet saved his life, and he almost didn’t wear it that morning. In 2012, the Michigan Department of Transportation said 1,970 bicycle crashes occurred in the state. Twenty of those crashes were fatal.
To avoid becoming that 1%, Cusack suggests motorists look out for cyclists. If you’re on a bicycle, he suggests faithfully wearing your helmet and obey all traffic signs.
“As a cyclist, you do have the same rights as a motorist, but I think some cyclist, we overuse that power,” he said.
Cusack added, “We have to be careful to watch where other people are going because you can’t just assume that they’re going to yield to us.”
For motorists and cyclists, sharing the road goes both ways.
