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Rocks placed on trail cause bicycle spill

Published Thursday, July 02, 2009 11:22 AM

By David Berman
Summerville Journal Scene ®

Richard Danielson was pedaling at a decent clip when it happened — between 15 and 18 mph, he estimates.

An avid cyclist, the 55-year-old Danielson abruptly slammed into a row of rocks June 24 while riding his bicycle on the Sawmill Branch Trail.

Danielson was thrown over the handlebars. His body struck the asphalt in a succession of blows. His knees hit first, then his right shoulder and finally his head, cracking his helmet.

“I crashed and burned,” he said.

At the time of the crash, the trail was awash in sunlight, except under Bacons Bridge Road, where there was heavy shade. Behind a pair of sunglasses, Danielson’s eyes struggled to adjust to the light change and just as he noticed the rocks, his bike collided with them. “I had no reaction time,” he said.

“I thought I saw something ahead of me, but I ride this thing three or four times a week,” he said, alluding to his familiarity with the trail.

The rocks that toppled Danielson were deliberately placed in a tight row, he said.

He doesn’t who put them there, but he and others suspect it was the dirty work of bored teenagers.

“I didn’t have the presence of mind when I was on the ground to see if there was someone laughing in the bushes,” he said.

Another person on the trail came to Danielson’s aid until police and paramedics arrived. He declined medical treatment on the scene but later went to a doctor. The crash left him sore, scraped up and nursing a knee that swelled to several times its normal size, he said.

Danielson considers himself lucky to have landed where he did. The alternative, he said, was either a stone retaining wall to his right or a slope with more rocks to his left.

The row of rocks that spanned the trail was one of two arranged under the bridge. Each one consisted of roughly 12 rocks, he said.

The large granite pieces — known as “man-size riprap” — each weigh between 20 and 30 pounds, said Mike Hinson, parks and recreation director for the Town of Summerville, which maintains the trail.

Danielson’s fall marked the first time such an incident has occurred on the trail, Hinson said. “Really and truly, if I had to speculate, I’d say it was kids playing a practical joke.”

“This is a first. I was really quite surprised and my hope is that this was just an unthinking act by young kids,” said Mark Greenslit, president of the Greater Summerville Bicycle and Pedestrian Coalition.

“In general, I feel the trail is very safe and is our greatest community asset from a physical exercise standpoint,” Greenslit said.

Hinson acknowledged the difficulty on one’s eyes when walking or biking under the bridge, where he said there’s a 40 to 50 percent light difference. “It’s almost like driving into one of those tunnels in the mountains,” he said.

The short stretch of trail under Bacons Bridge Road is not particularly troublesome, save for the occasional graffiti markings, he says. The trail is routinely inspected by parks and recreation employees and patrolled by Summerville police officers on motorcycles.

Anyone with information on the incident may call the Summerville Police Department at 851-4100.

Contact David Berman at 873-9424 ext. 214 or dberman@journalscene.com

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