Forgetting to wear his bicycle helmet on one trip has cost George Bechtel dearly.
The longtime spokesperson for Transport 2000, advocate for alternative transportation and subject of a February post that reported on his goal to ride the equivalent of three times around the Earth has been sidelined after a crash this past summer.
He contacted me partly because of the recent bicycle accidents and partly because of the critical injury of young Kitchener Ranger Ben Fanelli, who suffered a fractured skull when his helmet came off after a hit during a game. Bechtel has been thinking about helmets a lot.
The 77-year-old Bechtel is also rebuilding himself after what could have been a fatal cycling crash. He had left home on July 28, hauling a bike trailer on his way to clear some weeds from around a historic plaque on the Bechtel family farm. While he normally wears a bicycle helmet, he didn't put it on for this trip. He remembers putting two types of weed clippers in the trailer before leaving the house, but the rest of the day has been erased from his memory.
He was found on the pavement on a hill on Speedsvale Road in Cambridge. The presumption is that somehow he lost control and fell. One suggestion is that the bike trailer twisted and pulled him down. He was told that the police report says he was doing 60 km/h at the time, something he finds unlikely since he has never recorded speeds like that on his odometer. He was taken to Grand River Hospital and transferred to Hamilton General, where after several days he first regained consciousness, and stayed there for two weeks, followed by two weeks at Freeport Hospital, learning to walk again. He's home now, under the watchful eye of his wife, Grace and assisted in his rehabilitation by three therapists.
Head injuries can be complex. Aside from the scars on his face, both temples and the back of his head, there is the memory loss: "I've always been a poor speller, and I really am now . . . Sometimes I have trouble getting the right word or someone's name." Bechtel has been a longtime contributor to the debate in Waterloo Region over mass transit, and has frequently appeared in The Record as a columnist, a letter-writer or a contact person for reaction to a news story. But he's philosophical about his hiatus during his rehab: "It leaves some room for other people to write."
He was told by the brain surgeon that he cannot drive or bike for three months, and is expecting that restriction will be extended through the winter. But if he can ride again in the spring, he will continue toward his goal of three times around the Earth.
He's been watching the Fanelli case: "I feel very sorry for anyone with the kind of injury I've had . . . I've been praying for him." He has advice for cyclists: "You have to have people understand that they should always wear their helmet." And, finally, he wants to know what happened. "I would really like to know what happened. . . On thing I can't understand, is that I left my helmet. I never went any distance without my helmet. Why did I do that?"
Comments