A driver in Cobb County hit a cyclist hard enough to knock off the vehicle's side mirror, yet the driver kept going, leaving the woman lying in the road -- and in the path of oncoming traffic.
Carrie Kane, a third grade teacher who was riding to her school Wednesday morning, survived the impact. Her husband, John Kane, said she is expected to heal from her cuts, bruises and short-term memory loss, and said it could have been a lot worse if a pair of Cobb County Sheriff's deputies hadn't rescued her on a busy Austell Road.
"It makes me really, really angry that somebody would leave my wife lying in the road," he told the AJC Thursday. "I'd really like to see that person in court."
Police recovered a black passenger side mirror and are processing it to find the manufacturer, said Sgt. Dana Pierce of the Cobb County Police Department. That could link the mirror to a specific vehicle.
Meanwhile, the Kanes hope witnesses of the 6:30 a.m. incident near the intersection with Hicks Road will contact police.
Carrie Kane said she plans to climb back onto her bicycle once she regains her balance and gets her bent rear wheel fixed. She also needs a new helmet. Her brown one with the flowers and reflective stickers was crushed by the impact. She suffered some temporary damage to her brain, forgetting the name of her husband of 23 years while in the emergency room.
"I was pretty out of it," said Kane, 43. "I knew who he was, I just didn't know what his name was."
It was a blunt reminder of the dangers of cycling for Kane, who started riding 100 miles a week about a year ago when a friend gave her a bicycle. She races in triathlons now and commutes a few times a week from her home northeast of Marietta to Skyview Elementary School near Mableton 16 miles away.
She likes saving money on gas and she likes feeling fit. It's become such a way of life for her that she ran for, and got elected to, the board of directors of Bike Cobb, a group that advocates for better cycling roads and for cyclist safety.
Kane had her first meeting as a board director Tuesday night -- just hours before she was hit. She remembers telling the group that they should focus on educating drivers. By law, cyclists must use roads rather than sidewalks.
"We have to educate drivers that we're out there," she said she told the group's members, adding with a chuckle: "I didn't get that message out to motorists quickly enough."
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