Medical crew attend to a woman that was struck by a vehicle on Prices Fork Road.
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A Virginia Tech student was hospitalized Friday evening after being hit by a car while on her bike.
The accident happened shortly after 7 p.m. at the crosswalk on Prices Fork Road near Turner Street.
According to police, Apolinares Grazia, a 32-year-old, was riding her bike through the crosswalk when she was hit by a car.
Grazia was flown to a hospital in Roanoke for treatment of injuries. There has been no update on her condition.
The driver of the car that hit Grazia, Carolina Miguel, is being charged with driving without a license and failure to yield.
According to Virginia law, bicycles are subject to the same laws as motor vehicles. Police say the charge of failure to yield is likely to be settled in court.
Virginia law also states that, “A person riding a bicycle ... across a roadway on a crosswalk, shall have all the rights and duties of a pedestrian.”
Westbound Prices Fork was closed for three hours after the accident.
A version of this article appeared in the Oct 23 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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The headline should be "Tech student on bike hit by car". Currently it reads as though the car were riding a bike.
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really it takes them 3 hours to clear a minor accident scene? and this is a major road even at night a lot of traffic.
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that's what you took away from this?
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Crazy! A bicylcist had been hit at the Tom's Creek/Prices Fork intersection the day before this (Thursday morning)! It didn't seem too serious, though; the cyclist got off the windshield himself and was standing. Bicyclists really need to mind the crosswalk laws, and drivers need to pay more attention...
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@joe -- Additionally, I wouldn't call an accident that requires a victim to be airlifted to the hospital to be "minor".
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Really Joe you consider a person being hit by a car and being flown off the scene a minor accident? Try a crime scene.
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I ride bicycles. I would never use a crosswalk unless the uinterestion was really nuts. And if I use a crosswalk (never had to in Blacksburg btw), I am really careful. Drivers expect things in crosswalks to move at pedestrian speeds.
If this is the crosswalk at where Webb Street enters, it is a death trap for cyclists who use it.
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It's for sure a dangerous crosswalk for cyclists who aren't careful... I was riding my bike a few feet behind a cyclist when he was hit last fall. The difference between him and I was that I stopped and looked to make sure the drivers saw us and were slowing down, while he flew through without a pause- until the driver who didn't see him hit him, of course.
I ride my bike through this crosswalk multiple times a day though, and see plenty of other cyclists who just fly through without even slowing down.
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This crosswalk can for sure be dangerous if cyclists aren't careful... I was riding a few feet behind a cyclist who was hit last fall. The difference between him and I was that I paused to see if the drivers saw me and were slowing down, while he sped through without a pause. Until the driver who didn't see him hit him, of course.
I bike across this crosswalk multiple times a day, but I always do so extremely cautiously. I see other bikers fly through it without even slowing down all the time though. Scary.
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Anonymous, you are the exception to the rule that cyclists who use crosswalks are nuts :)
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I am an avid road cyclist. Logging 300+ miles per week and I Cat 1 racer. That being said, Blacksburg is one of the most unfriendly biker towns I've seen (In fact they had to take down their "bike friendly community" signs a few years ago). However, some of the undergrads think that when they are on their bike they own the road and can do what ever they want. I wish campus police would start giving out more tickets when bikers do not follow the rules (i.e. no hand signals, flying across crosswalks, etc.) These are the people that are dangerous to both drivers and themselves and give other riders a bad reputation.
Also, everyone should wear an helmet. If you don't you are a moron. I know you don't like how they look or feel but they WILL save your life (I have a couple of helmets from wrecks to prove it).
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The road was likely closed so that the accident investigators could locate all the evidence. That takes a considerable amount of time, since it requires special training to properly investigate pedestrian crashes.
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Are you drunk?
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