Man injured in bike crash promotes safety

By Jennifer Pierce, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY - A man's bike flipped over the wall along a trail near Lake Hefner after crashing into another cyclist Saturday afternoon.

"I was just doing a long ride. I was training for a triathlon," Matt Gjertsen said.

Gjertsen was on his usual ride around Lake Hefner when another cyclist suddenly turned around and crashed into Gjertsen.

"We just ran right into each other and then that vectored me into the wall," said the cyclist.

His bike flipped over the wall and Gjertsen fell 20 feet onto a bank of jagged rocks. He credits his helmet for saving his life.

"It really protects the most critical part of your body. Even if I had a worse injury of a broken leg or something, that's something that can just heal up over time, but with your head there's really no room for error," Gjertsen said.

He suffered minor injuries including some scrapes and bruises, but he plans to continue his bike rides after he heals.

His bicycle however, didn't fare as well as he did.

"Front handle bars aren't supposed to be like that," Gjertsen said.

First responder Matt Erickson said Gjertsen is one lucky guy.

"When I heard it go out I thought, ‘oh that's going to be a bad deal if he went over the wall. It's not going to be good,'" the EMSA Paramedic said.

That's because Erickson has seen more than one bike crash where the rider doesn't walk away.

"There are two sides of me, part of me wants to just to be down like ‘oh man I can't believe I had such a bad crash,' but the other half of me is just happy that I got through without being in three pieces," Gjertsen said.