Kurt Stafki was eager to draw attention to an event promoting biking, but not like this.
Stafki, 26, is a participant in "30 Days of Biking," created in 2010 to encourage people to ride their bikes every day in the month of April. The creators, friends Patrick Stephenson and Zachariah Schaap, simply wanted people to get off their duffs and ride somewhere, anywhere, every day for a month. You could ride around the block, around the lakes or 20 miles to work, it didn't matter. Riders were encouraged to bike, then post their experiences on social media.
This year, Stafki was a designated social media poster. For two weeks, he wrote about his experiences on sites such as Twitter. Then, late last week, Stafki posted a tweet from an unlikely spot: Hennepin County Medical Center.
As usual, Stafki was riding his bike Thursday to his job at Gabriel deGrood Bendt in downtown Minneapolis, an easy 3-mile ride for the avid biker.
Stafki was trucking down Nicollet when he approached another bike rider, who was apparently doing what Stafki advocates: Riding his bike to work.
The rider, who was wearing a suit, was pedaling slowly, so Stafki started to pass him.
"He turned right in front of me without signaling or anything," said Stafki, who slammed on his brakes to avoid T-boning the bonehead. "I went over the handlebars and hit the pavement with my face and forearm."
The other guy didn't stop.