Sacramento State should compensate a student involved in an on-campus bicycle accident last month, says lawyer Jon Allin.

Dan Kopp, a 29-year-old senior majoring in environmental studies, was riding his bike home from class through lot 6 on March 4, when he swerved to avoid a car pulling out from a parking space.

Kopp avoided the car, but was forced to ride over a storm grate.

“I saw the grate but didn?t think it posed any danger to me.” Kopp said. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

The front wheel of Kopp?s Trek 12 speed racing bike fell through a gap in the storm grate, which did not have horizontal crossbars, causing Kopp to fall face first to the street.

Kopp?s injuries, which included a detached nostril, blood filled eye and road rash, required eighteen stitches.

“They had to sew my nose back on,” said Kopp, ” I was just trying to go home and now I have two big scars and permanent tattoos on my face.”

Students Sara Stefaniak and Phemie Tran, witnessed the accident.

“I was surprised he was not knocked unconscious,” Stefaniak said. “I stayed to help because if I was him, I would want someone to help me.”

“The girls were my guardian angles,” Kopp said.

Stefaniak said she and Tran called police and told them that an ambulance was needed at lot 6 because someone was severely injured.

The police report stated the cause of the accident as driver inattention.

According to Jon Allin, Kopp?s Lawyer, a measurement of the storm grate was done and the gaps between the cross bars were two inches and the width of Kopp?s bicycle tire was only seven eights of an inch.

Allin contacted Sac State?s risk manager, Steve Somsen, who acknowledged he was aware of the incident and told Allin that the storm grate in lot 6 was replaced immediately after the accident.Kopp said he feels Sac State needs to do more.

“They are not acknowledging me as a person,” Kopp said. “I was majoring in environmental studies, but now I?m majoring in pissed off.”

“I think mostly this is a case of compensating Kopp for his injuries,” Allin said.

Sac State has yet to say if they are going to compensate Kopp.

Kopp is now attending counseling here on campus to deal with the emotional pain of his injuries.

“I have nightmares about my face hitting the concrete,” Kopp said.

“Now I can?t even walk through that parking lot.”

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