Uneasy Riders

Crash: On May 21, Borchardt left her biking buddies a little after 8 p.m. to start her solo, 6-mile ride home. It was still light outside as she was riding down Loula, just east of old downtown Olathe. She says she's the kind of nerd who wears flashing lights on her bike and a rearview mirror on her helmet, so she wasn't too concerned when she spotted a car creeping up behind her. "I was right where I was supposed to be, 8 inches off the curb, not speeding, not doing anything weird," she says. The vehicle passed her, then suddenly turned into a driveway directly in front of her. Borchardt says she was traveling at 23 miles an hour when she slammed into the front passenger door of the 1978 Dodge Magnum. "My head was within 2 feet of the rear wheel," she says of her landing. With blood dripping from a cut on her left arm, she tried to ride away, but her wrist couldn't bear the pressure on her handlebars. She called friends, who found her on the side of the road and called 911. She was taken by ambulance to Olathe Medical Center, where doctors sewed up the wound with several stitches and put a cast on her swollen wrist.

Legal action: None. Driver Maverick Lafferty, 18, told police that he saw Borchardt but thought he had passed her before he turned into the driveway. (The Pitch was unable to reach Lafferty.) Sympathetic to the fact that he was young and had offered to help after the crash, Borchardt says she didn't press police to issue him a ticket.

Injured

Noah Dunker

Age: 28

Stats: When his car needed repairs in September 2006, Olathe resident Dunker bought a bike instead. Since then, he has commuted by bike to the bus stop or for the 30 miles round trip to and from his IT job.

Accident: It's tough to miss Dunker, who wears a lime-colored reflective vest and rides a bike with two rear flashing lights. In March, though, at 6:30 a.m., the sun was coming up as Dunker began his commute down Strang Line Road in Olathe. As he approached the intersection of 119th Street, cruising at 20 miles an hour in the right lane, the light was red and a couple of cars were waiting in the left lane. The signal turned green just as Dunker came up to the line of cars and, from behind him, a black Chevy pickup with tinted windows darted into the right lane to avoid slowing down for the two-car line in the left. The pickup came within inches of Dunker, who had to make a split-second choice between two bad alternatives: "Get bumped by the pickup and possibly sucked under the rear wheel or run into the curb," he says. "I opted for the curb and was flung ass-over-teakettle into the pavement, face first." The driver didn't stop, and neither did anyone else. Too dizzy to stand, Dunker crawled off the road, dragging his bike onto the sidewalk. He called his wife but got no answer, so he rode three miles back home before she rushed him to the emergency room. There, doctors told him that he had fractured the maxilla bone in his face in two spots.

Medical bill: $1,500. The bulk of the hospital tests and a visit to a specialist were covered by Dunker's insurance, but he had to pay $500 in dental costs to replace two shattered teeth.

Legal action: Dunker filed an online complaint with the Olathe Police Department, and an officer got in touch with him promptly. Because he didn't get the pickup's license-plate number, though, he couldn't file a report.

Injured

Chris Hershey

Age: 27

Stats: A racer for the Cycle City team in the Northland, Hershey started cycling and competing in 2000.

Accident: On December 13, 2006, Hershey and three others were biking back to Cycle City after a group training ride. At 8:15 p.m. it was dark, but Hershey was wearing a headlamp and was in the middle of the small band of cyclists. As they passed a strip mall at 81st Street and Prairie View, Hershey saw a pickup truck pull up to the edge of the parking lot. "I kind of thought the stop sign would make them stop. Not so much," he says. The vehicle pulled directly into the street — and into the rear wheel of Hershey's bike. The surprised cyclist swerved to the right to avoid the collision, but his bike fishtailed beneath him. "I lost control and ended up on the opposite shoulder from where I had been riding," he says. He watched as the truck continued to creep down the darkened street. "I was on the ground, and when I got up, they didn't stop," he says. "They were just making sure I wasn't dead." With the shock wearing off, Hershey realized that his left arm wasn't moving as it should. He'd broken his scapula, the edge of his shoulder bone, an injury that would require two surgeries to insert and remove a metal plate and several screws.

Medical bill: $20,000