Editor's note: during a political-social event in Oakland some months back, I met Maxwell Davis, an advocate with the Sierra Club, who was volunteering for Councilmember Charlene Wang's campaign. Davis was familiar with Streetsblog and mentioned that he was nearly killed by a driver in March of 2022. In the pursuit of Vision Zero, it's easy to get fixated on death and serious injury numbers, which are important. But lost in those numbers sometimes are the personal stories of people who, even if they make a full physical recovery, undergo unimaginable terror, pain, and emotional distress because of traffic violence. I caught up with Davis last week in a coffee shop in Oakland. Below is his story.
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Streetsblog: Have you always been a cyclist?
Maxwell Davis: Mostly I’m a transportation biker. I biked to get to school, to work, or to BART. But, during the pandemic, I started “cycling”—just in 2020 and 2021.
SB: To get exercise during the pandemic?
MD: (Nods) I started doing rides with a friend who was more into road cycling. On March 11, 2022, I decided to take a solo ride to relax, ironically. I was going to do a 10-mile ride up Tunnel Road to Skyline and back down, five miles up, five miles back.
SB: That's impressive.
MD: Tunnel Road is pretty steep, but my friend and I'd been doing 40-50 mile rides on the weekends. This was a de-stress ride after work. It was about 5 p.m. when I left my home in Pill Hill. I biked from there. Everything was fine. I felt good. I got to my turnaround point and stopped briefly to look at a turkey. I have a picture of the turkey on my phone from that day.
SB: I guess that turkey saved your life, or almost cost it, depending on how you look at it.
MD: I started coming down the hill. It's steep and windy, but it’s a common bike route for roadies. I was coming around one of the tighter curves, a curve to the right, so the hill was blocking the view, and as I was coming around, there was a van, a Mercedes Sprinter van, the kind Amazon drivers use, right in my lane, coming right at me.
SB: On the wrong side of the road?
MD: Yes. I assume they were cutting the corner. I couldn’t see them until they were 20 feet in front of me. I tried to go for the brakes. But I was just suddenly transported to the ground.
SB: Jesus.
MD: I knew I was hurt bad.
SB: Right away?
MD. Yeah, it's the second time I've been hit by a driver. The first time I was a pedestrian in a Berkeley crosswalk. So I know what it feels like to be in shock. When I was on the ground, I was in shock again. And I could tell I was fucked up.
SB: Did the guy stop?
MD: The van stopped. I had a moment of eye contact with the driver... [At this point, Davis paused to get napkins to wipe tears]. This is the most emotional. The most traumatic. I was on the ground and looking up to the person who hit me and asking him “to please help me.” And then I remember him hitting the gas and driving off.
SB: Christ.
MD: I had a feeling of total loneliness. And fear, like, fear I haven’t felt before, knowing I was alone on the side of the road. I knew I needed to try and dial 911.
SB: And other cars could be coming.
MD: (Nodding) Knowing if another car comes down the road, I might get run over.
SB: Could you move?
MD: No, no, no. I knew my left leg was broken. I'd never broken a bone before, but you’ve seen videos, from soccer, and a leg breaks, and it’s bending in a location it’s not supposed to bend. I could tell for sure my leg was broken. My knee looked like a burst tomato. And my hand was very fucked up.
SB: What happened next?
MD: A passing driver stopped. Somebody got out. A second driver stopped a minute later. One of them stopped cars on the hill to make sure I didn't get run over. And one dialed 911. He said to the operator, “Oh, he thinks his leg is broken.” And I was like, “No, I know it’s broken.”
SB: How long before help arrived?
MD: The ambulance took like 15 minutes to arrive.
SB: 15?!
MD: I also called my girlfriend, who happened to be nearby with a car. I was trying to describe where I was, and we were using this guy’s phone. But he didn't know how to drop a pin on the phone map and text my location, so I got frustrated and said, "Give me the phone. I can fucking do it.”
SB: I think we can forgive your frustration.
MD: My girlfriend later said she knew I was okay because she heard me get frustrated on the phone, because I was conscious enough to get frustrated.
SB: Yeah, but—
MD: But I was pretty fucked up. Sometimes I’ll try to sing a song I know to distract myself, I’ll try to count to distract myself, which I’ll try to do in an MRI or something stressful. But in this case, the pain was so bad I wasn’t able to count. I couldn't focus my mind enough.
SB: I honestly don't give a shit, but I suppose I should ask whether you were wearing a helmet.
MD: Yes, but I didn’t hit my head. The doctors asked me anyway.
SB: Oy. So you got to the hospital.
MD: The ambulance finally came. They cut my clothes off and loaded me onto a gurney. Getting loaded onto the ambulance was incredibly painful, getting moved with my leg broken. My back also hurt. Turns out my back was also broken, with a burst vertebrae. And the next day, I told the doctors it hurts when I move my arm. I had a broken collarbone too. They were most worried about my leg. They kept checking the pulse in my leg.
SB: Because they were afraid you’d lose your leg?
MD: Yeah, they were worried about that. That night, I went into surgery and got an external fixation. Two days later, they operated again and did an internal fixation.
SB: Plates and screws. Did the police come?
MD: Yes, an officer came and followed me to the hospital and asked me some questions.
SB: Good for that.
MD: I was in incredible pain, even with all the drugs, but I was able to talk with them.
SB: Did they find the guy?
MD: No, but my sister came up from Southern California. She went to the location and found a camera on someone's gate. And she was able to get an image of the license plate. It was grainy, and we couldn't make out all the numbers, but we narrowed it down to a Mercedes Sprinter van.
SB: Did the police help with any of this?
MD: I'll get to that. My girlfriend posted the image of the van on Nextdoor. Someone replied and said it looks like my friend’s van that got stolen.
SB: Oh wow. Did the owner file a report before the crash?
MD: Yeah, the guy filed a police report that morning.
SB: Did the police help? Did they find the guy?
MD: I tried calling them a few times. I think I once talked to an officer about it, but didn’t get much information. But that was all before we “solved” the case for them. Once we had done that, it turned out the van was stolen from Alameda, so I tried calling the Alameda police. So I called them and said, "Hey, we've done your job for you."
SB: But no more information?
MD: I'm still waiting for them to call back.
SB: Three years now, right?
MD: We eventually learned the van was recovered a few days later from a homeless encampment, with drug paraphernalia in the back.
SB: Tell me about your recovery.
MD: I was at Highland Hospital for a week and a half, then went to a recovery center at Sutter for five days. I was on crutches, and then a cane, and then by September...
SB: More or less recovered?
MD: (Shrugs) I could run a year later, I could run again, but I had pain. I got more physical therapy. I have more back pain now than I did. I’m annoyed that I have more back pain; if I have something without back support, I need to adjust it.
SB: And how old were you?
MD: I was 31. 34 now.
SB: Still young enough to recover physically. Have you had any PTSD symptoms?
MD: Some emotional trauma. But no recurring nightmares.
SB: Really? I think I would.
MD: I don’t have any nightmares at all.
SB: I know you biked here. When did you return to cycling?
MD: I bike around. But I don’t road bike anymore. My risk tolerance is generally lower. I used to ski sometimes. Now I don't.
SB: Did the crash get you into advocacy?
MD: I was already doing some transit advocacy. And housing advocacy. And then I got hit by someone driving a stolen van. A homeless person driving a stolen van, maybe? It all feels more personal now. There are a lot of things you could get mad at, such as the police not catching people. Those blind corners could have posts down the middle so people don’t cut the corner; those things could make a big difference.
SB: Are you angry?
MD: No. Not even at the person who hit me. I’m not mad at them.
SB: How could you not be mad at that guy? He left you to die.
MD: (Shrugs). He drove off thinking he might have killed somebody. Or he might not remember. Or he might be in jail right now and think it was a fever dream. We don’t know if this person is homeless or not. Or if he has drug-use issues.
SB: I mean, fine, but I'm mad at the guy.
MD: I already knew there were people out there who are homeless, who have drug addictions, who steal vans. I just happened to be in the way of one. I don’t blame this specific person more than any other person who steals vans and drives crazily. (Davis motioned outside) Stand on the corner. You'll see someone run a red light. You'll see people drive dangerously. We live in a society where roads are dangerous and you just have to hope you’re not in the way of it.
SB: Any other thoughts?
MD: If I hadn’t taken that picture of that fucking turkey, I might have avoided the whole thing. Or if I'd stayed and taken more pictures of that fucking turkey, maybe I'd be dead. That’s just where we are. We don’t know when stopping to tie our shoes might kill us. I was coming around the wrong corner on the wrong day at the wrong time. Or the right time, as a foot to the left, and I'd be dead. A foot to the right, and he might have missed me completely.
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Maxwell Davis is a mechanical engineer. He's originally from Minneapolis and grew up in Tennessee. He has been in California since high school and attended UC Berkeley for college.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
