Downstate driver pays fines for careless driving after July 2003 car-bike crash

A St. Clair Shores man has been found responsible for a hit-and-run accident which severely injured a bicyclist July 14, 2003 in Rogers Township. Al Friebe, who was 46 at the time, of Springfield, Virginia was on a 2,700 journey on his “super bike” with intentions of bicycling solo from Washington D.C. to Duluth, Minnesota and back. On Friebe’s return trip to the nation’s capital, which took him through the upper peninsula and northern lower Michigan, he was in Presque Isle County on a flat stretch of US-23 near Highway 646 when his journey came to a quick and sudden halt. The senior instructor of computer science at Alchemy in Springfield was struck by a vehicle and ended up unconscious in the southbound ditch. Friebe was transported to Munson Medical Center where he underwent surgery the next day.

THE DRIVER left the scene of the accident, leaving officers without a suspect. Presque Isle County Sheriff’s Department deputies found evidence of a broken mirror, with possible damage done to the passenger side of the vehicle that hit Friebe. The sheriff’s department received a call from a family member of Venlyne Hicks, 76, who was taken to Cheboygan Memorial Hospital to receive treatment for what he thought was a mini-stroke. The family member, staying at a cottage in the county, said there was damage to his father’s vehicle that couldn’t be explained. Officers were told that the driver didn’t remember hitting anyone. It was later determined during a medical evaluation that Hicks did not suffer a stroke and that the accident was caused more by fatigue.

Hicks testified at a hearing for driver’s license reinstatement in Macomb County Circuit Court that he fell asleep at the wheel. “I had been at the casino all night, and I dozed off,” Hicks stated. “I took myself off the road for three months — two months because I wasn’t sure if I fell asleep or had passed out, or what.” Hicks sought medical attention from his family doctor to make sure. Hicks’ attorney Sal P. Palombo said, “The doctor appears to have found nothing wrong with him other than he may have fallen asleep at the wheel. It does not indicate that there is a neurological problem.” At the reinstatement hearing, Palombo also said “I don’t think he ever actually made contact…in other words, he fell on his bike.’

Following the incident, Hick said he “didn’t want to endanger myself or endanger anybody else,” and that’s why took himself off the road.

AT THE TIME of the hearing, Hicks had not been charged, but because of his suspected medical condition, his driver’s license was suspended, pursuant to state law. Hicks’ driving record stated that he had one speeding ticket prior to the accident, court transcripts state. The motion for reinstatement was granted at the November hearing. On December 27, 2004, Hicks was charged with careless driving and had to answer to the charges before 89th District Judge Harold Johnson in February. The

charges were levied after the prosecutor’s office received a copy of the court transcript. Based on Hicks’ testimony in Macomb County Circuit Court, Judge Johnson ruled February 28 that Hicks was responsible for careless driving. Last Thursday, he paid the $215 fines and costs.

Prosecutor Don McLennan said Hicks couldn’t be charged with leaving the scene of an accident, because he doesn’t remember the incident. Friebe was out of work for a considerable amount of time with multiple fractures. Friebe left on his trip the morning of June 2 and arrived in Duluth, Minnesota, 15 days later.

With more than half of the journey behind him, his day on July 14, 2003 started in Mackinaw City with Alpena the goal for the day.