Dear Editor,
My heart goes out to all the family and friends of Joshua Hudson. Any time we lose a student, it's a tragedy, but it's even more tragic when the situation is preventable.
In the early 1990s, I was driving northbound on McKinley Avenue just before 8 a.m., waiting to turn left onto what was then Berwyn Road +â-¡- now the middle of the Art and Journalism Building - to park in my red lot. I was about three or four cars back when I saw a motorcycle careening through the heavy pedestrian traffic on the west sidewalk, scattering the crowd. An instant later, I witnessed a young man sliding south on the pavement.
He slid to a stop next to my car but against the curb, head first. I jumped out of my car and ran over to where he lay. He had been stopped for no more than 15 seconds but was already bleeding from his nose, ears and mouth. I checked his pulse, and he had one.
A University Police Department car pulled up immediately. The officer looked at me, and I said, "He's still alive."
An ambulance was there within 2 minutes of the crash, as the EMS personnel had been working an accident without injury at the corner of McKinley and Neely avenues.
Even with the fast response and critical lifesaving effort, the man, a grad student, died at Ball Memorial Hospital a short time after he arrived.
The accident was very similar to Friday's - the first car in line was waiting for pedestrian traffic to clear to turn left and didn't see the motorcycle. The rider wasn't wearing a helmet.
I see bikes with their "bare headed" riders every day, and I always think about that horrible morning. Now, it's happened again.
Is not wearing a helmet a sign of "coolness," or is it just comfort? I don't know because I don't ride. I buckle up in my car because it's safer, and it's the law.
Both these young men might very well be with us today if they had simply been wearing helmets. These situations affect many people. Think about the students who witness the accident, the people like me who try to help in a hopeless situation and, especially, the drivers of the cars involved and the families of the victims. One death can adversely affect the lives of dozens of people.
I ask the bike riders who are reading this: Which kind of cool do you want, riding with no helmet or a morgue?
Until Indiana reinstates the helmet law, it's unfortunately your choice.
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