Man hit by car on Carson Street refuses treatment

A bicyclist was hit by a car in front of Kragen Auto Parts Saturday -- the fourth time a person was hit by a car in Carson City this week.

Carson City resident Rick Jankowski sustained minor injuries after colliding with a gray Suburban on the sidewalk. He was riding south on the east side of Carson Street when Dane Weiler, 18, attempted to join northbound traffic in his Suburban.

"I was just rolling out and (he) ran right into me," Weiler said. "I thought it was funny -- I heard this BANG and then I see this guy's face up against my windshield."

Jankowski, holding his wrist, said he thought Weiler was at fault.

"I seen him coming out and the traffic was clear so he thought he'd just bury it," he said, referring to Weiler's alleged fast acceleration onto Carson Street. "But instead he buried me."

Jankowski's green bicycle lay with a bent front rim and twisted handlebars under the right front wheel of Weiler's rig.

Weiler said he recently bought the truck.

"I just got this last night --Ehe dented it and I'm not happy about it."

Jankowski, who refused medical treatment, said plates and pins in his right hip hurt after the wreck.

"I got hit by a car before," he explained. "I'm gonna quit riding bicycles."

He was cited by the Nevada Highway Patrol for failure to ride with traffic.

Trooper Jaime Hulett said bicyclists are required to follow the same laws as vehicular traffic and Jankowski, riding against traffic, was at fault.

"It's very cut and dry," she said.

Carson City Sheriff's Deputy Bill Richards said this kind of accident happens often.

"It's a big problem. We have these gentlemen who travel frequently on bicycles, but they don't obey the law. We've had five or six hit on Carson Street since January."

On Friday night, a pedestrian was killed walking across Williams Street. In a similar accident three days before a pedestrian who grazed by a car walking in the same area walked away. A 14-year-old girl was also grazed in front of the State Library and Archives in the 100 block of Stewart Street earlier in the week but she too refused medical treatment.

Both the Sheriff's Department and the Highway Patrol stage cross walk stings to increase awareness among motorists, Hulett and Richards said.