Bicycle accident messed up student's hair--and his head

Parents of 13-year-old victim call for stricter enforcement of the bicycle helmet law

By Jessica Lyons

Earlier this year, 13-year-old Cody Smith was voted "Best Hair" by his eighth-grade classmates at Willow Glen Middle School. "But it really didn't look anything like this," Cody says, motioning to the large circle that's been shaved into the brown, curly mop, streaked with blond highlights, which won him the honor.

The temporary bald spot is one of the more minor wounds Cody sustained after being hit by a car on March 9.

As he does every morning, Smith was riding his bike to school at 7:45 a.m. As he approached the intersection of Cherry and Curtner avenues, he was hit by a car. The car's driver immediately fled the scene. Eight days and two surgeries after the hit and run, Smith is in stable condition at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. He sustained a compound fracture of his left femur, a broken left ankle and right arm, and a skull fracture.

His parents are just happy that he's alive.

"We've very, very fortunate," Cody's mother, Kris Smith, says. "It looks like a full recovery. A soon as he's able to get in and out of bed, we'll have him at home."

The alleged driver, Octavio Miranda Pastrana, 23, was booked at Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of felony hit and run.

Cody wasn't wearing a helmet when he was hit. "I didn't want him to be the poster boy for helmets, but if it wasn't for his head trauma, he'd be out of the hospital already," says Thomas E. Smith, Cody's father, sitting next to his son's hospital bed. "They should have someone at the bike corral at the school, and if the kids aren't wearing helmets, they should write them up. [Not wearing a bike helmet] is against the law--maybe after three warnings a police officer at the school could give them a citation."

"I honestly think that if everyone else was wearing them, wearing bike helmets wouldn't be so bad," Kris adds. "Being against the law doesn't seem to do it. Kids don't want to mess up their hair, but it's either mess up your hair or mess up your brain."

Cody is lucky. Upon being hit, he had bleeding on the brain and was in a coma, but according to his pediatrician Keith Alan Fabisiak, Cody will make a full recovery.

"When you buy a bike, you've got to buy the helmet," Fabisiak says. "And if you're a parent who's into biking, you need to set a good example and wear your helmet, too."

Cody learned his lesson, and now he's planning what kind of bike helmet he wants to get to go with his new bike--his first purchase after he recovers, he says.

"I'm going to get a Specialized Fat Boy," he says. "It's a freestyle bike. It's light so it's good for doing tricks." He says he can't do any tricks yet, "but I'm going to get into that."

Cody has a cast covering his left leg--he can't put any weight on it at all--and a sling around his right arm. His physical therapist tries to show him how to get around using a crutch, but with opposite arm and leg broken, it's too hard, and Cody's tired from the pain medication. He opts for the wheelchair instead. But even moving from the wheelchair back onto the bed proves to be a chore. "I can only stay in one position and lay on my back," he says, sounding very frustrated. "That's all I can do. I can't even roll over onto my arm."

It will be at least six weeks until he can return to school. Even though his friends can't visit him in the hospital--the minimum age for visitors in the pediatrics ward is 14 years--they call his hospital room and send him get-well-soon cards. Some of them are already planning a welcome home party.

"Even people we just know in passing have sent cards," Kris says. "I've never felt more of a sense of community than I've felt here. It makes me glad to be a Willow Glen resident.

"Every time Tom would come home from the hospital there is a different casserole waiting. Five police officers came up to check on Cody right after the accident. The volunteers from Kaiser brought him a stuffed dog. I'm looking at it as in this whole situation, 99.9 percent of the people in the community are outstanding."

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