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Child injured during Bear Downs

Nov. 6, 2009

By Laura Remson
Staff Writer

A 3-year-old child was injured at the Bear Downs bicycle race Wednesday night after he ran into the street in front of a rider.

Captain Danny Knight of the Baylor Police Department spoke to the father of the child Thursday afternoon and was told that he was still being checked over.

Knight said he had a minor skull fracture.

"They took him for precautionary evaluation," Knight said. "There were minor cuts and bruises, but he seemed to be in good shape."

The child was that of a faculty member who was riding in the race.

The Baylor Cross Country team's rider who collided with the child was in first place at the time, riding down Fifth Street at full speed, and did not stop for a transition.

"The team that was in first place was going really fast," said Brazos Fielder, one of the race directors for Bear Downs. "He barely hit the kid at all."

Centennial, Colo., junior Kylie Borgias saw the accident happen directly in front of her team's Pi Beta Phi sorority pit.

"It honestly just happened in one or two seconds," Borgias said. "The 3-year-old ran out from the curb, straight out to the street, like he was going to cross the street. The racer had no time to see the child."

Borgias said her proximity to the accident meant she saw everything.

"The front wheel of the bike hit him, (and) the biker and the child rolled over," Borgias said. "The biker landed on his back and the kid started crying."

After the collision, Borgias said the biker was on his back on the ground for about two minutes without moving.

"He was just lying still, but the Baylor medical response team was around him," Borgias said.

"They had so many of the Baylor medical team responders on site (and) the EMT on site. They did absolutely everything they could. To me they seemed really concerned, but after he was put in the ambulance, there wasn't anything to do, so they continued the race."

Fielder said the biker tried to avoid the child and turned out of the way.

"That rider flew off his bike," Fielder said. "It was a heroic move."

Immediate action was taken following the collision and Fielder stopped the race.

Fort Worth senior and another race director Aaron Bryant said Student Foundation used flags that all riders were instructed on. There was a red flag that signaled the race to stop.

Borgias said the flag system worked perfectly when the race was stopped.

"There were no other pileups around [the accident]," Borgias said.

Fielder said that after the accident, the child involved went over to the rider to see that he was all right.

Then the child was taken to Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple.

The child is expected to be released either Thursday night or today.

"The head of risk management was there when it happened and I talked to him," Bryant said. "It's one of those things you can't plan for, but we had everything perfectly. The racers stopped and the race was stopped."

Bryant wasn't surprised by the accident. "Something will always happen at a sporting event like this," he said.

As to the future of the race, Fielder is unsure of what will happen.

"We'll meet again with risk management and reassess the race," Fielder said.

"If [the race] does happen again, we'll try harder to prepare for things like that that happen."

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