BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Spanish version: Para español haga clic aqui.
Elana Owens is an avid biker and runner. In November, she strapped her toddler and her neighbor's son into her cargo bike and headed to Memorial Park in Bentonville. She was 38 weeks pregnant.
"We started taking off the same route I've done 100 times," Owens said. "We are sidewalk on the whole way. There's two crosswalks and then we're at the park."
While attempting to cross the sidewalk at Exit 88 onto East Central Avenue, Elana was hit by a vehicle making a right turn on red.
"I still remember hearing the sounds of just screeching," Owens said. "I could tell that a car was coming. And then I got hit, felt metal on my shoulder, and woke up underneath the car. All of a sudden, I remembered I was pregnant, about 38 weeks pregnant, and that was really scary in that moment."
She was immediately rushed to the hospital. Almost 35 hours after the accident, Owens had her baby Lillian with a broken foot.
"It's what they call the trauma-induced labor, so it's when the body basically isn't necessarily ready, but then a trauma happens and it causes your body to start kicking into labor," Owens said. "Oh, gosh, what about my foot? We knew it was broken the whole time. I was in severe pain the entire labor process for my foot."
Both the boys on the bike and Lillian were uninjured and now the family is adjusting to a new life. While Owen recovers, she says she'll get back on the bike but not without some skepticism.
"I just didn't realize the extent of how your life kind of stops, and you are just kind of stuck in a couple of spots, and you can't do a lot of things, [you] are not very mobile," Owens said. "Have an almost two-year-old and trying to keep up with a young boy and also be a mom of a baby, when you can't walk is really, really challenging."
Now, Owens questions how safe pedestrians in the area are.
"Can I safely bike on a sidewalk? Can I safely cross the road? And our drivers aware enough here to keep me in safety and my family? Because at the end of the day, a bike versus a car, you're always going to lose," Owens said.
Luke Powers is a biking safety advocate and runs the NWA Active Commuter and Safety Reporting Facebook page. He's brought a few intersections to the city's attention that he believes are dangerous.
"I ended up creating a proposal for the traffic safety and signage committee and brought them before them in May for two dangerous intersections," Powers said. "They are taking action on the intersection that they own that is dangerous. And they're now supporting kind of the push to ... fix the intersection where Elena was struck."
"Pedestrian fatalities here are not a matter of if but when," Powers said. "I can't believe that my friend was the one that almost made it a reality."
David Wright, Parks and Recreation director for the city, said that over 3.5 million people used Bentonville's trails in 2020. However, he said that number has since gone down due to the trails being broken up.
"Our hard surface trails, multi-use trails in the last two years have taken a step back, not intentionally. But there's been so much construction in Bentonville," Wright said. "Because of the Walmart campus, because of the Interstate-49 construction, because of some of the work that's going on in downtown Bentonville."
He said he expects the number of cyclists to double once all the construction is finished.
"How does a family with young kids ride in that space and their parents feel safe about it. And so there's several ways you go to accomplish that," Wright said. "What we're trying to do is build more and more bike lanes that are truly protected. That gives people options to get to work and methods other than just a vehicle."
Wright said their goal for roads in the city is to create more barriers for cyclists including bike lanes, tunnels, bridges, and "zippers."
"We call it in the industry a zipper. But basically, what it is like a barrier that would prevent a vehicle from hopping over into the bike lane. It really does create that true separation," Wright said.
For now, Owens encouraged people to be more cautious.
"It'll probably be a year before I'm relatively pain-free to be able to bike, to be able to run," Owens said. "The amount of setbacks that it's caused for our family, from a two-second decision from a driver is wild to me. Just how important time is and how it can affect people for a really long time."
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