Novak cited after hitting pedestrian

Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak was cited by police after he hit a pedestrian with his black Corvette in downtown Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning.
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“I didn’t know I hit him. I feel terrible,” a shaken Novak told reporters from Politico and WJLA as he was returning to his car. "He's not dead, that's the main thing." Novak said he was a block away from 18th and K streets Northwest, where the accident occurred, when a bicyclist stopped him and said, "You hit someone." He said he was cited for failing to yield the right of way.

The bicyclist was David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, who was on his usual bike commute to work at 1700 K St. N.W. when he witnessed the accident.

As he traveled east on K Street, crossing 18th, Bono said a "black Corvette convertible with top closed plowed into the guy. The guy is sort of splayed onto the windshield.”

Bono said that the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a "Walk" signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and that Novak then made a right into the service lane of K Street. “The car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away,” Bono said.

He said he chased Novak half a block down K Street., finally caught up with him and then put his bike in front of the car to block it and called 911. Traffic immediately backed up, horns blared and commuters finally went into reverse to allow Novak to pull over.

Bono said that throughout, Novak "keeps trying to get away. He keeps trying to go.” He said he vaguely recognized the longtime political reporter and columnist as a Washington celebrity but could not precisely place him.

Finally, Bono said, Novak put his head out the window of his car and motioned him over. Bono said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He quoted Novak as responding: “I didn’t see him there.”
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"This guy hit somebody and he won't stop so I'm going to stay here until the police come," Aleta Petty quoted Bono as saying, as he stood in K Street, blocking traffic.
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“’Learn to read the signs, [bodily orifice]!’ Novak snapped before speeding away,” according to an item in The Washington Post’s Reliable Source column.
... <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11985.html">http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11985.html</a>;

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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The following is a good comment from JM -

Although it was unfortunate that a pedestrian was hit, perhaps this accident has a silver lining in that it encouraged Bob Novak to get a medical exam which diagnosed his brain tumor. I'm glad that Bob Novak, like Ted Kennedy, has found the tumor and is arranging medical treatment. I wish both of them well.

Of course,Bob should pay the injured pedestrian's medical bills. It's not fair to force the hospital to distribute another unpaid medical bill among their paying patients and health insurance premiums that most of us pay. Assuming the pedestrian recovers without permanent injury, this could even be a win-win situation. Thanks to the accident, Bob receives treatment sooner rather than later, improving his chances for recovery. Then Bob could point out the need for people to get things checked when they have difficulty driving, miss things, and have near accidents. And, if Bob wants to help more, he could put in a good word to drive gently around pedestrians and bicyclists. After all, had the bicyclist not pointed out the accident to Bob, he wouldn't have known. Bob might later have had a much more severe accident that could have killed someone. Or at best Bob might not have know about the brain tumor until later, reducing his chance for treatment. If I were Bob, I would thank the cyclist.