Man dies of head injuries after bicycle crash
By Pete Bosak
FERGUSON TOWNSHIP -- A Penn State alumnus from Virginia, in town for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, died early Friday morning when he crashed his bicycle and landed on his head, Ferguson Township police said.
Sam Zachariah, 28, of Arlington, was biking with friends -- fellow Penn State graduates -- at 5:50 a.m. and attempted to drive his mountain bike over an approximately 3-foot retaining wall separating businesses in the 1200 block of North Atherton Street, at Back Yard Burgers.
Unable to clear the wall, Zachariah was thrown from his bicycle and landed headfirst on the pavement, authorities said.
Zachariah was not wearing a helmet, but it was not certain whether one would have saved him, Ferguson Township Police Chief Diane Conrad said.
"Certainly, that's what helmets are for, to protect from or mitigate a head injury," Conrad said. "But I can't say whether that would have saved him. He suffered a severe head injury."
Zachariah was pronounced dead at the scene by Centre County Coroner Scott Sayers. The death was ruled an accident.
"As severe as this head trauma was, it's tough to say (a helmet) would have made a difference or not," Sayers said.
Still, bicycle helmets usually reduce the severity of injuries and potentially save lives, the coroner said. "At least there would have been some, or a little, protection there," Sayers said.
Two riding companions with Zachariah did not see the accident, so it is not certain whether the man -- who was riding downhill toward the retaining wall -- did not know the wall was there or intentionally tried to jump it, Conrad said.
Zachariah graduated from Penn State in 2001 with an engineering degree, according to the university's public information office.
