Severe accident injures one

Traffic crawled to a stop on Third Street just after 1 p.m. Thursday, as IU police hurried to remove remnants of a severe accident between a mo-ped and an SUV. Alva Pelfree, 59, was hurt in the accident but is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery, said Lisa Aldridge, Bloomington Hospital patient care director.\nThree minutes after the initial accident was reported, IUPD officer Deborah Delay arrived on the scene. \nAccording to the police report, Pelfree was riding his mo-ped west on Third Street when he attempted to change lanes. Sideswiping a sports utility vehicle, the Bloomington resident attempted to push himself off the car. Eventually the mo-ped's handle bars scraped the side of the SUV and turned, forcing control of the mo-ped away from Pelfree. He then catapulted over the handle bars and struck his head on the concrete. Pelfree was not wearing a helmet.\n"For whatever reason, I don't know why, he seemed to attempt to change lanes," Delay said. "He just lost control."\nThe Bloomington Police Department sent an ambulance to the scene, and Pelfree was moved to Bloomington Hospital.\n"Initially I didn't even see the car involved," Delay said. "All I saw was the overturned mo-ped and the man on the ground."\nAldridge said Pelfree experienced a bone fracture in his spinal column, along with various lacerations and abrasions to his head.\n"I went down to the hospital, and he was pretty much out of it," Delay said. "He wasn't real coherent, although if I had hit my head that hard I wouldn't be coherent either." \nDelay has much experience working auto accidents and said the best thing cyclists can do to protect themselves is to wear a helmet.\n"It just shows that on bicycles, mo-ped and motorcycles, people need to wear helmets," Delay said. "I've just seen too many horrible accidents to think otherwise"