Susanna Schick: L.A. Bike Community Rallies For Road Rage Survivor

By Dennis Romero Fri., Apr. 13 2012 at 2:59 PM

@graphikdeziner

Susanna Schick after the accident.

Updated at the bottom with an eyewitness saying Schick crashed completely solo: First posted at 8:04 a.m. April 9.

Friends of bicyclist Susanna Schick are raising funds to help her with her recovery and biking gear after she was injured in what some are claiming was an act of hit-and-run road rage downtown over the weekend.

Her fellow bicyclists say it happened about 11:30 Friday night on Spring Street at Fourth when she was hit from the rear by a man in a white Lexus and ended up unconscious on the sidewalk.

What's scary about the story is that her friends say it was deliberate:

Schick was apparently riding in the new green bike lane on Spring Street when words were exchanged with the driver, who reportedly had a female passenger next to him and swerved into the bike-rider's path.

Schick / Facebook

A few blocks later, at Fourth and Spring streets, he allegedly aimed for her back wheel, struck the bike and drove off, according to BikingInLA.

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The bicyclist awoke with paramedics working on her. They they took her to County USC Medical Center, where she was being treated for a concussion.

On her Facebook page Schick, whose nickname is "Pinkyracer," lists herself as the founder of a company called Sustainable Fashion LA.

Friend Jennifer Beatty tweeted that Schick suffered from ...

@leonspencer hit n run - broken collarbone, 6 broken ribs, pelvis broke in 3 places. All left side.
— Jennifer Beatty (@GraphikDeziner) April 8, 2012

Angry, Beatty added:

One person decides to use his vehicle as a weapon...little does he know that an entire community is about to shove their feet up his ass.
— Jennifer Beatty (@GraphikDeziner) April 9, 2012

Anyone have an info on the driver?

Call police at 1-213-972-1853.

[Update at 5:10 p.m. Tuesday]: Blogdowntown called LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon, who says there was no collision, and that officers nearby, who actually were the ones who called paramedics, witnessed Schick go down solo.

He says the rider had words with the occupants of the Lexus, but that the car never hit her -- that she went down on her own.

Should she be arrested, then, for allegedly making false claims?

Well, it's possible the claims aren't her own (see above). Nonetheless, the story has made Schick's accident a cause celebre within L.A.'s bicycle-rights communty.

We have a call in to Vernon to clarify.

[Update at 2:59 p.m. Friday]:

An LAist reader who comments under the handle "wy wy" had this seemingly credible account of the crash, which was republished on the site yesterday:

I ran to her side moments after she crashed. No one crashed into her or veered into her- there was no traffic near her. She simply lost control and fell off of her bike. The officer said to me that her front wheel wobbled and she fell. I was across the street on my skateboard and heard her hit the ground, immediately looked in her direction, saw she wasn't moving, and ran across the street directly to her. About 3 other by-standers came to the scene soon after me, including 2 police officers who made sure no one touched her or her bike until the ambulance came. Susanna was face-down, breathing heavily and was unresponsive for about 2 minutes, and the whole time I was talking to her until and after she regained consciousness. I asked her simple things like 'do you know where you are?' 'do you know what day it is?' 'what is your name?' and I told her that the ambulance was close and that she was going to be okay. She told me her name, asked if she crashed on her bike or motorcycle, said her shoulder and her hip hurt, she felt stupid and couldn't believe that happened, she asked if her nose was bleeding, asked why her foot was cold and it was because one shoe came off when she crashed. I stayed by her side talking to her and kept an eye on her bike until the firetruck and ambulance came and they made me move out of the way. The police officer who saw her crash took on the responsibility to get her bike to her house after she told us her address, which was a block and a half away. I made sure the officer took care of her bike- he had her address written on his hand and put her bike in his trunk. I looked her up on facebook while she was being loaded into the ambulance and sent her my phone number so she could call me and let me know how she was doing. I took a few seconds of video while she was being loaded into the ambulance and I was walking away.

Schick's supporters maintain her the back wheel of her bike was "taco'd" and that she was hit, But it's sounding more and more like they've been trying to use Schick's non-hit-and-run as a weapon in their war on cars.

Vernon, by the way, did call us back Wednesday.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

bicycle, bicyclists rights, bikes, hit and run, LAPD, Los Angeles, road rage

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JasonParker

LA biking is intense. The cops said she was going about 35 miles per hour. Hope she gets better.

T-stage

This is what I think happened:

She is obviously very happy and enthusiastic about bicycles and motorcycles and rides them frequently. She got into some sort of altercation with a white Lexus. After she fell, by her own admission, Schick said she didn't think the a car hit her. Now this was after Schick hit the mirror of said white Lexus. Schick's friend said the Lexus hit her and the friend also said the rear wheel of Schick's bicycle looked like a taco.

Has anyone seen a picture of the rear wheel of Schick's bicycle?

I think the friend ran her mouth and now the internet has taken off with those accusations. Also, Schick is asking for donations. She doesn't have health insurance after 5 concussions? I bet the Lexus has insurance. I'm not on anyone's side. If the above statement by the witness is true, hopefully the people who gave her money don't feel used.

Yoo Focker

Why is she talking back to a car anyways? Doesn't she know a bike stands no chance against a car?? Oh wait, cyclists think they own the road. They have talked crap to me when I have honked at them to move out of my way. They were cussing and cutting me off daring me to hit them in the middle of the road no less. This should be a fair warning to all cyclists. Stop trying to own the roads and follow the damn rules like every other car if you guys want to be riding on the streets. One time, a cyclist was going full speed ahead on the sidewalk when my dog and i turned the corner and he was inches from running my dog over. He had the nerve to blame me, cuss me out, and ride away. Ride in the damn bike lane. It's not like he was going against traffic. They want to own the streets and sidewalk now??

Dick

Sorry, this was posted at the wrong place LOL

WTF

lol you're such an asshole, Dick!

Don

Was the rider wearing a helmet?

Roadblock

yeah cause that makes a difference when some douchebag coward runs you over and takes off like a little soft bitch.

Nbnnb

By pinkyracer on January 7, 2012This is not my bike, it's my friend's bike. But it goes so well with my dress I had to take it for a spin

I’ve had 5 concussions. The last 3 would’ve been negligible if I’d been wearing a helmet for the first 2. The first one felt like “no biggie”, as most injuries do to a teenager. 40mph into the side of a Volvo? Whatever, stop asking me how my head feels, I just wanna see my scooter. How’s my scooter? And why does this ambulance reek of piss, don’t they ever clean them? Oh. right.

-From her website. Draw your own conclusions...

ShakinBoots

What's your point? Another bike/cyclist hater? Do you always go to crime victims websites LOOKING for some fragment you can twist into some negative opinion and victim blame? You need to get a life.

Note to LA WEEKY: This is the type of attitude you helped cultivate and encourage with all your anti-bike rants. Proud now?

ShakinBoots

Yes, this is the STORY we're being given by the LAPD before they even finished their "investigation". In other words, they made a conclusion before investigating.

I was not there so I can't say conclusively what happened. I'm curious to know and at this time there are TOO MANY incongruous accounts to simply believe, face value what the LAPD is saying. I have followed this closely since it was first tweeted.

You mentioned a pothole. This is a brand new bike lane. Recently painted bright green. Do you *really* think there's a giant pothole big enough to cause her to fly in the air and land hard enough on her own to cause THAT kind of injury? If she fell on her own she most likely would have more road rash, maybe a couple of broke bones, but not the injuries she has. IF there was something in the road, wouldn't that be enough cause for the city to want to conceal that and say she just lost her balance and brush it under the rug? Also, imagine there was a giant pot hole, the physics of getting her to fly and land hard enough to cause her injuries are extremely unlikely. One more point that someone made in another comment, it would be her FRONT wheel that would be damaged if she hit this invisible pothole, not her back wheel. Sure, there might be damage to the back wheel too, but there would definately be damage to the fron wheel no doubt.

It's my understanding the damage to her back wheel is minor, but her front wheel is fine.

Does the lapd story still add up to you? It doesn't to me, and I'd like to know the truth, hear or see what's on surveilance cams etc. LAPD did none of that.

The LAPD has a history of blaming cyclists even when the cyclist dies. There is much reason for skeptism.

Karen

And, we hear now that she fell on her own. There was no collision. Maybe she was so rattled by the verbal altercation she lost focus for a moment. Her somewhat cavalier language on her blog makes it seem that safety is something she wishes would happen while she speeds along crowded, pothole-ridden streets. I'm not trying to blame the victim here, but just saying she wasn't hit by a hit-and-run driver. And putting yourself on a bicycle in any metropolitan area means putting yourself in danger. Something she seems to have accepted long ago.

Niall Huffman

The rest of that post (which I would link to if LA Weekly allowed it) includes a picture of her wearing a helmet and expresses a desire for additional head protection beyond the standard styrofoam lid. The full post can be found at pinkyracer dot com, about a third of the way down.I can't help thinking that the out-of-context fragment you posted, which makes Ms. Schick seem reckless and unconcerned with safety, was deliberately selected in a cynical attempt to discredit this woman and blame for her the injuries she suffered (which, by the way, are 100% the fault of whoever hit her, regardless of what she had covering her dome), for reasons I can't fathom.

Niall Huffman

The least you could do is post a link so people can read the entire post, which shows a picture of her wearing a helmet and expresses a desire for additional head protection beyond the standard styrofoam lid. http://pinkyracer.com/2011/09/...The out-of-context fragment you posted makes her seem reckless and unconcerned with safety, and causes me to think that you're engaged in a cynical attempt to discredit this woman, for reasons I can't fathom.

Dennis Romero

She was. Check the twitter feed of Beatty, linked above. She tweeted a photo of the helmet.

swrve

Yes. She was wearing a helmet which appears to have done its job quite admirably. Unfortunately though, its protection doesn't extend to the rest of her body.

Dick

Oh you think you so funny. Have some respect asshole.

Andrew Fung Yip

Was the driver wearing their seat belts? lol. Susanna probably did, she broke a lot of bones but not her skull! I hope that douche gets caught. There's cameras every where on Spring St.