Dear Editor,

In reading the July 9 Reporter, about a bicyclist who was hit by a pick-up truck, I realized it was the friend I had been hoping and praying for that he would live.

He was unconscious for almost a week. His dear wife, his brother and his mother and father were at his bedside at Harborview around the clock for days. The emotional agony, anxiety of that took a toll they were glad to experience to somehow make sure he lived.

Paul was/is such a wonderful man, riding his bike to work at Microsoft on a regular basis. But because of the speed and lack of attention of a driver, he was almost killed and may never be the same.

Fortunately, he had many friends, many of whom are members of the Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirkland, where he is a member, hoping and praying he would survive, as well as furnishing food and child care while the family was at his bedside. His Microsoft friends were helping in many ways, too.

When I read “that no charges will be filed,” I was angry and chagrined. Then when I found out that the driver of the truck had no insurance, I was even angrier. I thought the law states that you have to have insurance in order to operate a car.

Does he have any idea the thousands and thousands of dollars Paul’s medical bills will be? The weeks and months he may be in the hospital recuperating? I’m quite sure he would have been killed if he hadn’t been wearing a helmet and riding in a bike lane.

Don’t we hold people responsible for carelessness when it involves someone’s life?

~Ellen Hanly