The mayor of San Jose, California, was lucky to be alive on Tuesday after a driver turned into his path during a New Year’s Day bike ride.

Police said Sam Liccardo, 48, was riding eastbound in a bike lane on Mabury Road, a thoroughfare northeast of the city’s downtown, when a driver in a 2002 Toyota Highlander cut him off. The driver, heading southbound on Salt Lake Drive, briefly stopped at a stop sign and then turned directly into the path of Liccardo, who didn’t have time to stop or swerve, according to a police spokesperson.

Liccardo slammed against the side of the SUV. Some media reports said his head went through the car’s window, although police could not confirm this. Witnesses quickly rendered aid, moving Liccardo off the busy road. One witness told the local CBS affiliate that at first, no one recognized the injured man as the mayor because he was wearing sunglasses.

The day after his crash, Liccardo was walking but wore a brace to help heal his fractured sternum and vertebrae. San Jose Mayor’s Office

Police didn’t say why the driver failed to yield to Liccardo, who had the right of way. Police don’t believe the driver was impaired at the time of the crash, and the driver wasn’t arrested. (Because no one has been charged with a crime, police refused to identify the driver or release the citation report.) The driver did receive a ticket for failing to yield.

David Low, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said Liccardo was riding to a frequent training spot, the nearby Sierra Road—a famed local climb with pitches that reach 18 percent—before the crash.

Liccardo was kept overnight at Regional Medical Center for observation. When he addressed reporters in the hospital lobby the next day, he was standing and walking, but wearing a brace to help heal his fractured sternum and two broken vertebrae. He said he would work from home for the rest of the week, but return to City Hall the following Monday.

Liccardo at a bike-to-work event in San Jose. San Jose Mayor’s Office

Doctors told Liccardo that he will need months of physical therapy but expect him to make a full recovery. Despite his injuries, Liccardo was in good humor during the press conference, joking, “Fortunately, the doctors state that all defects to the head were pre-existing conditions.”



A self-described “cycling geek,” Liccardo not only rides but also backs bike-friendly programs in San Jose. As a city councilmember a decade ago, he helped create Bike Plan 2020, which aimed to install a 500-mile bikeway network in the city and halve the number of car-bike collisions by 2020. (A 2017 status report said the city had reached a total of about 300 miles of bike lanes and off-street trails so far.)

As mayor, Liccardo has advocated for the Better Bikeways project to redesign city streets to become more bike friendly, and was instrumental in bringing Ford GoBike, the Bay Area’s bike-share program, to San Jose in 2017. A day after his crash, the city announced plans to add more than 10 miles of protected bike lanes to the downtown.

Liccardo, who took office in 2015, was reelected mayor of the nation’s 10th largest city in November. He was released from the hospital on Wednesday.

Robert Annis After spending nearly a decade as a reporter for The Indianapolis Star, Robert Annis finally broke free of the shackles of gainful employment and now freelances full time, specializing in cycling and outdoor-travel journalism. Over the years, Robert's byline has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Afar, Bicycling, Men's Journal, Popular Mechanics, Lonely Planet, the Chicago Tribune, and Adventure.com

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