Ethan Lee was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance on Feb. 6 after being hit by a car at the intersection of Old Greenville Highway and Sherman Street.
Lee, a junior world cinema major at Clemson University, was riding an electric-powered bicycle when the accident happened. Since then, he has been released from the hospital — Prisma Health in Greenville — and spoke with The Tiger about his experiences on Monday.
Lee said that he does not “remember the accident happening at all.” He also barely recalls the class he attended earlier in the day or being in the hospital.
Bystanders at the scene told The Tiger after the accident that a white vehicle was making a left-hand turn onto Old Greenville Highway and collided with Lee’s bicycle, resulting in his bicycle hitting the driver’s windshield. It is unknown whether the traffic light displayed a green arrow at the time of the incident.
When Lee spoke to his friend and girlfriend after the accident, the two told him that they all had plans to meet up for lunch. When Lee did not show, they knew something was wrong.
Lee sustained a concussion, a broken tooth and a broken foot that will require surgery due to the accident.
Lee explained that he has been riding bikes since he was 12 years old. With this, he has gained a lot of experience cycling on the road. Even though he’s been biking for nearly 10 years, Lee has never experienced an accident like this before, he told The Tiger.
Lee also expressed gratitude that he is still alive, highlighting this as one of his takeaways from the incident. Despite suffering from some injuries, Lee noted that the accident could have resulted in a much worse outcome.
Lee’s advice to anyone who drives a motorcycle, bike, moped or any other vehicle that is subject to these types of accidents, is to “please always wear a helmet.”
“The outcome of this would have been a lot worse if I did not have a helmet on,” he told The Tiger.
The National Institute of Health found in a 2012 study that the use of bicycle helmets reduce head injuries by 48%, traumatic brain injury by 53%, serious head injury by 48% and the total deaths or serious injuries due to bicycle incidents by 34%.
“You never know what may happen when you are on the road,” Lee told The Tiger. He also noted that the camera on his bike was turned off on the day of the accident.
Richard • Feb 14, 2025 at 5:47 am
While I’m glad that Lee is ok, I can’t share his views on cycle helmets. Prevention is always better than cure, and it is always better to avoid a collision than it is to wear protective gear. It’s not clear who was responsible for this collision, but police data in the UK shows that most bike/car collisions are the fault of the driver, so we need to make drivers drive better, not armour ourselves because they don’t. It’s not as if cycle helmets are particularly effective, e.g. the death rate of cyclists went up in Australia after their helmet law.