San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo will return home from the hospital this evening after being treated for multiple fractures, scrapes and bruises from hurtling into a 2002 Toyota Highlander while on a New Year’s Day bike ride.
Mayor Liccardo has been released from Regional Medical Center, and will be resting at home through the weekend.
Here’s a video of a short message he gave at the hospital earlier today.
-Team Liccardo pic.twitter.com/BIOeet57u5
— Sam Liccardo (@sliccardo) January 3, 2019
According to San Jose Police Department spokesman Sgt. Enrique Garcia, the motorist was driving southbound on Salt Lake Drive toward Mabury Road just as Liccardo was headed east on a bike lane through the intersection. The Toyota stopped at the stop sign and, just as the driver proceeded to cross Mabury, Liccardo broadsided the SUV.
The driver was issued a traffic citation for failing to yield to another motorist, Garcia said. Drugs and alcohol were not suspected in the run-in and the driver was not arrested.
Mayoral spokesman David Low sent an update to reporters Wednesday afternoon saying Liccardo won’t require surgery but will likely wear a brace until his injuries—including a broken collar bone, broken chest bone—heal up.
The mayor—a bicycling enthusiast who often bikes to work—“remains in good spirits” and was up and walking the morning after the collision in North San Jose, Low added. Doctors at San Jose Regional Medical Center expect him to make a full recovery.
Liccardo posted a statement on social media this morning to again thank first responders and residents who helped him at the scene of the collision.
“Thank you to the many thoughtful neighbors and friends who reached out with their well-wishes since my bike accident yesterday. I’ve got fractures to two of my vertebrae and my sternum, but felt blessed to be able to walk on the hospital floor today with the help of the great folks at Regional Medical Center. I’m told the prognosis is good—although I’ve got a couple months of physical therapy ahead, I expect to be working from home this week, and back at City Hall doing the job I love next week. Thanks to neighbors like Linda Dutra and Tom who magnanimously helped at the scene, the firefighters at Station 19 for their quick response, the AMR paramedic crew, SJPD, and the hardworking staff at Regional.”
This article was updated with additional details about the incident from SJPD.
As an unfortunate person who has been in and out of surgical bays for the better part of my life, seeing Mayor Liccardo in traditional hospital garb and walking with an attendant close by brings back many memories.
Two fractured vertebrae, fractured sternum and other associated soft-tissue injuries are very painful and slow to heal. Doctors usually couch the pain as “discomfort” but, this definition doesn’t come close to the nuisance these injuries bring to one’s life and “the pursuit of happiness.”
Over the years at the Rules and Open Government Committee meetings, Councilman and then Mayor Liccardo periodically would come to the meeting sporting one injury after another with designer crutches, slings and other physical therapy related devices. He was and appears still cheerful as ever.
At “RULES” I used to remark to his Honor that political life was not a healthy life-style choice for him since he seemed to be repeatedly wounded. But, he dutifully showed up for work masking his pain with his humorous one-liners concerning the affliction of pain- du jour.
I wish him well and a speedy recovery.
David. S. Wall
Was the Mayor riding in a bike lane? I suspect he was, since I haven’t been able to find any information about that.
If so, score a point for those who say bicycle lanes aren’t any safer than pre-bicycle lane roads. And if so, why are we spending $28 million per mile to put in bicycle lanes and ramping up congestion by removing all those traffic lanes, when the main rationale for the bicycle lanes is “safety?”
Also, another news outlet said the Mayor “broadsided” the SUV. That would make this accident the fault of the byciclist, no?
But it’s the MAYOR, so guess who gets issued the traffic ticket?
Since this was filed under “NEWS,” maybe the “Newsroom” could get us answers to those questions, instead of just accepting the Mayor’s official story.