Supervisor Falls Off Bike, Breaks Wrist

Nobody said that contributing to a cleaner environment would be painless.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn learned that the hard way Monday when he fell and broke his wrist while bicycling to the Ventura County Government Center from his Oxnard home.

Flynn, 58, said he bought a new bicycle last week and began riding to work to help the county government meet an air-pollution rule that encourages commuters to leave their smoke-belching cars at home.

“On my third day out, I crashed,” said Flynn, whose left arm is now bound in a cast from his palm to just above his elbow.

Flynn said he was approaching the government center Monday morning when he came upon a parking lot that was being repaved and had been roped off from traffic. Flynn said he tried to stop but could not get his left foot out of the stirrups that held his feet to the pedals.

He fell on his left wrist, ending his seven-mile journey only yards from his final destination.

His multicolored, off-road-style bicycle was undamaged.

Doctors told Flynn that he must wear the cast for two or three weeks.

While he describes his injury as very painful, Flynn said that because he is right-handed, the injury should not keep him from his normal work schedule.

The accident was the second for Flynn in the past few weeks. He was hobbling around the government center on crutches recently after he sprained an ankle while installing a window at his home.

Flynn said he will not let the injury discourage his environmental fervor. Once the cast has been removed, he vows to get back on his bicycle.

“I’m not giving up,” he said. “But those stirrups, I don’t think I’ll use those any more.”