Campus accident hospitalizes student

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    By Lane Stilson

    A 17-year-old BYU student collided with a car near the Marriott Center while riding her bike to campus Thursday afternoon.

    The girl, whose name was not released by the police, was riding on the east sidewalk when the driver of the car pulled out in front of her from the parking lot on the north side of the center. The bicyclist and the bike over the hood of the car and into the middle of the road.

    “She must have been going pretty fast because the impact was so great,” the driver said, speaking on the basis of anonymity. “I”m so grateful she”s OK. No broken bones, nothing.”

    The woman driving the car was making a right hand turn out of the Marriott Center parking lot, but looked only to her left for oncoming traffic before making the turn.

    “She was coming the opposite way, that”s why I hit her,” the driver said. “I was looking for traffic.”

    The student landed on her head, ripping clumps of hair out of her scalp, eyewitness Barbara Smith said. Smith also said she lost a shoe and injured her foot.

    “She wasn”t even wearing a helmet,” she said. “I”m surprised she came out OK. She should have been wearing one.”

    The girl was coherent when paramedics arrived on the scene, but Smith said she thinks the student suffered a concussion.

    “The paramedics told us she had no broken bones or serious injuries,” said Smith, who saw the accident in her rearview mirror and stopped to help. The paramedics then took her to Utah Valley Hospital.

    BYU police officer Mike Mock said the motorist was at fault for the accident because as a pedestrian she had the right of way.

    “If a bike is on a sidewalk it is just like a pedestrian,” he said.

    According to a Provo city ordinance, bicycles are not allowed on sidewalks, but BYU is private property and has no ordinance, Mock said.

    The car was mostly undamaged except for a couple of scratches on the hood. The front license plate was also ripped off.

    “I don”t care if the car is totaled as long as she”s all right,” said the woman driving the car.

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