BY JOSE ALVARADO VEGA

Benjamín Alicea Hernández, 39, was riding his racing bicycle in the breakdown lane of PR-3 in Río Grande the morning of Sunday Nov. 8 when he was suddenly hit from behind and lifted into the air.

He fell with his bike onto a blue 2000 Volkswagen Jetta, cracking the car’s windshield and denting its hood and roof, which has an impression of his helmet. He was taken to the Río Piedras Medical Center with a gash on his head requiring 80 stitches and a nearly detached ear requiring 30 stitches, apart from the bruises and cuts to other parts of his body.

Police identified the driver of the Volkswagen Jetta, which veered into the breakdown lane and hit Hernández’s bicycle, as Ian Solis Morales, 27, from Fajardo. Morales hit Hernández after dozing off and breathalyzer test found that his blood alcohol content was 0.229 percent, well above the 0.08 percent limit to be declared legally drunk, police said.

Morales had yet to be charged as of Friday since the police investigation of the accident had not concluded. Police confiscated the car.

“The only thing I felt was the blow, though I remained awake all the time,” said Hernández, a member of the Tropigas bicycling team, while resting on a bed at this home in the Countryview section of Canóvanas. His head must remain laid back to keep the wound from discharging blood, and he has had to return to the hospital due to convulsions.

“If Benji hadn’t had his helmet on, he would be dead,” said Edgardo Rodríguez, 59, one of the six friends who was riding along with Hernández when the accident took place at 8:29 a.m. on kilometer 30.8, near the intersection of the road leading to the Westin Rio Mar Hotel, on the breakdown lane heading west.

Jorge Peredo, executive director of the non-profit Puerto Rico Bicycle Coalition, said that Hernández joined a growing number of bicyclists on the island who have been either injured or killed in accidents involving automobiles. He said that “hundreds of bicyclists” on the island have been injured in traffic accidents so far this year, including 12 bicyclists reported killed so far this year by the commonwealth Traffic Safety Commission.

This compares to the 13 bicyclists killed in 2008 and the seven bicyclists killed in 2007, according to commission statistics.

All of the 32 bicyclists killed on the island’s roads since 2007 were men ranging in ages from 16 to 77. About 53 percent of these accidents took place during the day, while 46 percent occurred at night. These accidents were distributed among 20 municipalities throughout the island, with eight of these in San Juan and other metro area towns. Seven of the bicyclists killed in these accidents had blood alcohol levels over the legal limits, according to the commission.

Commission spokeswoman Kathy de Jesús said that the agency does not keep records on the number of bicyclists who are injured in traffic accidents.

Several bicyclists were killed this year near where Hernández was hit by a car. A 57-year-old male was killed in Río Grande on Sept. 9 at 4:51 p.m. while he was riding his bicycle on PR-955. Two bicyclists were killed in nearby Canóvanas while riding on PR-3 – also known as 65th Infantry Avenue: a 46-year-old man killed on Oct. 29 at 12:50 a.m., and a man, whose age was not identified by the commission, killed on Feb. 9 at 5 p.m.

Peredo, whose organization promotes bicycling as an alternative means of transportation beyond recreational use, acknowledged that such accidents may discourage people from using bikes on the roadways. But he stressed that the Puerto Rico Vehicle and Traffic Law of 2000 includes a chapter specifying the rights of bicyclists vis-a-vis drivers when traveling on the island’s streets and roads.

“The more people use bicycles, the bigger the probability of accidents,” he said, noting that there are many local bicycle clubs whose members ride on bike lanes created in recent years in Bayamón, Isla Verde-Loíza and in state parks.

Although the use of bicycles to get around is still scant on an island where the automobile rules, many professionals such as doctors and attorneys are taking to riding bicycles as a social activity, he said, said Peredo, a former investment banker who lived in Philadelphia for seven years.

“The problem here is two-fold: a lack of knowledge of the traffic law governing bicycle riding on the roadways, and a lack of enforcement. This is an issue involving education and awareness,” he said. “Cyclists on the island have been easy prey of attacks from drivers with road rage, which has been caused by the unpleasantness of driving here.”

While the law calls for the government to publicize safety rules for bicyclists on the roads, little has been done so far, Peredo said.

While it is generally known that bicycles are not allowed on sidewalks and expressways, Peredo said many don’t know that the law penalizes drivers whose vehicles come closer than three feet from a bicyclist on the road.

Moreover, he said, the island lacks the special bicycle lanes that have been built alongside major avenues in such cities as Philadelphia and New York. These cities have physically separated drivers and bicyclists by putting up concrete barriers or building islands. Some roads such as PR-165 in Toa Baja have been designated as bike routes, but have now marked bike lanes, only signs telling drivers to share the road with bicyclists.

Such lanes should be considered in local urban planning, given that they would encourage use of the bicycle as an alternative to the automobile. This would offer a cheap means of transportation that would cut pollution and improve people’s health, he said.

“It’s debatable that merely setting off lanes with white lines can ensure bikers safety,” he said.

Marta Bravo, the Public Works and Transportation Department’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Coordinator, could not be reached for comment.

Hernández, who has competed in bicycle competitions since 1987, agreed with Peredo on the need for such exclusive lanes. He used to travel between his former home in Country Club in Carolina to his job in Puerto Nuevo in San Juan, “without the hassle of traffic jams.”

“We need special lanes because we are going out into the streets at our own risk,” he said.

Rodríguez, who has coached bicycling teams in which Hernández has competed, said police are not generally helpful when going after drivers who harass bicyclers.

“Once an F-150 Ford pickup grazed me with its large rear-view mirrors, and I almost fell off the bike,” he said. “When I complained to a police official, all he said was that I was not hurt. So do we need to get run over to get attention?”