Columnist Chased by Lawyer, After Accident, Has Brain Tumor
A 77-year-old syndicated newspaper columnist who reportedly hit an elderly pedestrian and didn’t stop last week until a lawyer chased him down on a bicycle was diagnosed a few days later with a brain tumor.
Robert Novak revealed the Sunday diagnosis today, and is suspending his work for the Chicago Sun-Times for an indefinite period, the newspaper reports. However, he hopes to come back to his job of more than 40 years before long.
A reporter who works with Novak, Charlie Spiering, says “It’s really too early to tell” whether last week’s auto accident might have resulted from the columnist’s medical condition.
At the time of the accident, as an earlier ABAJournal.com post discusses, Novak said he didn’t see the 86-year-old pedestrian or realize he’d hit him until attorney David Bono chased him down on his bicycle. Bono said the man was on Novak’s windshield at one point. Accounts differed about whether the 86-year-old pedestrian, who wasn’t seriously injured, was walking with or against the light.
Novak received a $50 ticket for a right-of-way violation.
