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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, May 15, 2009

Injured biker sues tour bus company


By Mary Vorsino
Advertiser Staff Writer

A 34-year-old professional bicyclist who was critically injured by being hit by a tour bus May 2 has filed a lawsuit alleging the bus driver was negligent and swerved out of his lane into the biker.

John Henderson, of Waialua, was bicycling toward Wahiawa on Kamehameha Highway when he was hit while in the shoulder lane about 1:20 p.m. He was about 30 minutes into a planned four-hour bicycle ride with his girlfriend.

Henderson suffered multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a shattered pelvis, punctured lungs and severe damage to his spine. He remains in the intensive-care unit at The Queen's Medical Center, according to his lawyer, Rick Fried.

Fried said at a news conference yesterday that the lawsuit against Travel Plaza Transportation, which owns the tour bus, is aimed at determining what the driver was doing that would cause him to apparently swerve out of his lane.

Fried said witnesses saw the tour bus swerve, but that it's unclear why it made the sudden turn into Henderson's path. "You'd like to think that he didn't hit him on purpose and that he must have been inattentive," Fried said of the bus driver.

The tour bus was driven by a 52-year-old Waipahu man and there were 50 passengers on board when the crash happened. No one else was injured.

The suit seeks unspecified punitive and other damages.

Fried said Henderson's injuries are potentially life- altering. Henderson is executive director of Adventure Race Hawaii and has raced professionally.

A representative from Travel Plaza Transportation did not return a call for comment.