After being hit and run over by a construction truck Wednesday, injured cyclist James Hughes’ father said he’d have a long road to recovery.
Ohio State Police identified 18-year-old Hughes, a first-year in chemical engineering, as the student who was hit near a construction site on Woodruff Avenue Wednesday by a dump truck while biking to class.
The South Point, Ohio, native was transported to Wexner Medical Center for treatment of injuries.
Hughes’ father, David Hughes, said his son is in critical condition, but is stable. He said when he heard about the accident and that his son was injured, he was shocked.
“At that time we just knew he’d been hit, we didn’t have a lot of information,” he said. “At this time, to our understanding he left his dorm and was headed to class on his bike, and got hit by a dump truck. He got ran over by the front wheel of the dump truck.”
A representative from the Medical Center said Thursday afternoon that the hospital did not have James Hughes in its system.
David Hughes said that his son is still in the hospital Thursday afternoon.
“He won’t be out of the hospital for a long time,” David Hughes said. “It’s going to be a long road for him.”
He said the incident has been hard on his family, but they have been staying with friends and family in the aftermath and doing a lot of praying.
The university released a statement from Jay Kasey, senior vice president of administration and planning, that expressed his remorse about the situation.
Kasey said that safety remains the “highest priority” on campus, and that the project manager on the construction project is cooperating with the university and is involved in the review of the incident.
“All of us at Ohio State are deeply saddened and concerned about Wednesday’s tragic accident that occurred on Woodruff (Avenue). Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with our student and his family,” he said in the release. “The Ohio State University Police Division continues to investigate, and the university will thoroughly and aggressively review the facts.”
The truck involved in the accident was a Monesi Trucking and Equipment Repair truck, and representatives from the company said Thursday they had no comment on the incident.
University Police identified the truck driver as 71-year-old Isaac Hinton, who declined comment to The Lantern Thursday afternoon.
The University Police release stated it will not release further information about the incident until the investigation is complete.
The incident occurred near Woodruff Avenue Wednesday at about 2:45 p.m.
One witness, Xiao Yue, a first-year in finance, said the cyclist was riding his bike near a construction site off Woodruff Avenue, when he was struck by a truck backing out of the site.
She said the Monesi Trucking vehicle paused for a few seconds after striking the student, then continued to back up the vehicle. Yue said the student who had been struck was screaming, and bystanders in the area yelled for the driver to stop.
Police arrived on scene shortly after the incident and Woodruff Avenue remained closed while University Police investigated the scene. Campus Area Bus Service buses were rerouted due to the road closure Wednesday afternoon. The road was reopened sometime between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday.
According to a Thursday evening ABC6 report, a second student was hit while cycling at Lane Ave. and Fyffe Road Thursday morning. A police report of the incident will not be available until Friday morning, and the student’s condition is unknown.
Rules of the road and bike safety tips can be found on the university police website, as well as the How We Roll website, a group that aims to teach students in Ohio bike safety and foster a “positive bike culture.”
Daniel Chi contributed to this article
