Lawyer Chases Down Columnist Novak After Accident
Updated: After syndicated columnist Robert Novak reportedly hit a homeless pedestrian with his car Wednesday morning and didn’t immediately stop, an attorney on a bicycle chased him down.
“The bicyclist was David Bono, a partner at Harkins Cunningham, who was on his usual bike commute to work at 1700 K St. N.W. when he witnessed the accident,” reports the Politico.
Novak, 77, who was ticketed for a right-of-way violation, told authorities he didn’t realize he’d hit the 86-year-old pedestrian until Bono caught up with him, according to the article and the Washington Post. He apparently said that the pedestrian was crossing against the light.
However, Bono says the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a walk signal, was on Novak’s windshield at one point, the Politico writes. Novak, according to Bono, was “trying to get away,” and stopped only after Bono put his bike in front of the car, to block it. Traffic reportedly was heavy and moving slowly at the time of the accident.
The pedestrian was not seriously injured and told a radio reporter on Thursday that he’s doing fine. He also seemed surprised to learn that Novak was the one who hit him, the Washington Post reports in a follow up story today.
“Bob Novak is the one that hit me?” Don Clifford Liljenquist said to WMAL (630 AM). “Well, everybody knows who Bob Novak is! He’s a famous journalist! … I was struck by Bob Novak? … Well, I think that makes it a great story!”
Novak, who drives a sports car, has a reputation of being an aggressive driver.
But Liljenquist told WMAL that it’s possible Novak didn’t realize he’d hit him.
“The vehicle was moving at 10 miles per hour or something like that, and the driver might not have seen me, because I rolled off and fell down to the pavement. So, yeah, it’s possible that he didn’t see me. He wasn’t paying attention to his driving.”
Subsequent coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Columnist Chased by Lawyer, After Accident, Has Brain Tumor”
Updated at 9:50 a.m. Friday to add new details and to correct Liljenquist’s age, which initially was reported by police to be 66. Corrected at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to note that Novak is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Updated at 5:30 p.m., Monday, July 28, 2008, to include link to subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
Correction
Updated at 9:50 a.m. Friday to add new details and to correct Liljenquist’s age, which initially was reported by police to be 66. Corrected at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to note that Novak is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. The Journal regrets the error.
