TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa man is lucky to be alive after he said a vehicle going full speed on a highway clipped him as he rode his bicycle near Haskell.
He ended up in the hospital with broken bones, fractures, and a concussion. Now, he wants to get the word out about mindful driving and hopes to find out who is responsible.
As he sits in his dining room, William Clark looks at his wife, Margot. He's covered in bandages and bruises and feeling a little foggy, but he is alive and thankful.
“Out of all of that, to be walking away and to be here alive and just to have those types of injuries is crazy,” William said.
An orthopedic surgeon and father of six, William has a lot of lives to look out for, but this time, he found himself on the other side of things after a terrible accident along Highway 16 near Haskell.
“I kind of got the Ironman bug with the Tulsa Ironman that was hosted here for a couple of years, so I wanted to add another Ironman race to my calendars,” he said.
Willian set out on a 120-mile bike ride, and at 60 miles, his journey took an abrupt turn.
“Next thing I know, I recall being in a ditch,” he said. “I remember hearing the sound of, I think, my phone or my watch."
He was thrown from his bike. The spokes and frame were bent and broken. William’s body was thrown from his shoes, and his helmet and bike were found 50 feet away. Meanwhile, his watch sent an alert to his sister, Andrea Whittington.
“I got a text message on my phone from an 833-area code, and I get a lot of junk texts on my phone all the time,” Andrea said. “This one happened to catch my attention because it said William Clark."
The text was an incident alert notifying William’s sister he was in an accident. When her calls to her brother went unanswered, she knew something was wrong and called his wife.
“I felt really helpless because I knew he was far away, and I didn't know the severity of what was going on,” Margot said.
Meanwhile, as the family came up with a plan of action, the phone rang.
“I was waiting for his sister to get here, and we were going to leave, and that's when I got the call from Steven,” Margot said.
Steven, an Oklahoma Department of Transportation employee, along with two others, found William alongside the road.
“Steven was so wonderful,” Margot said. “He called and even called me back, and I was able to call him and talk to the paramedics.”
William echoed the sentiment.
“I just want to tell him thank you for being there and watching over me in that harrowing time,” he said.
The family credits Steven and the ODOT crew for potentially saving William’s life and going above and beyond by collecting everything from the scene, like a headlight piece to a possible semi-truck, which the family hopes will give some clue as to who hit William and didn't stop.
They also hope sharing the coordinates may lead to some information. William was hit at: 35°44'25.7"N 95°41'12.6"W
In the meantime, the Clarks are urging drivers to be mindful on the road.
“I think just having that awareness for people on the road and sharing the road,” Margot said. “Being present when you're driving and not being distracted."
William is also urging the public about the importance of notifying their family of their whereabouts when out on a journey like his, especially downloading some kind of accident alert technology to your phone or smartwatch.
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