Prof recovers from hit-and-run

by Robert Schoenberger

Daily Cougar Senior Staff

It wasn't funny, but he can laugh about it now.

"I found myself on the ground with one badly broken leg and a slightly broken one ... " said John Lienhard, a UH engineering professor and producer of KUHF's Engines of Our Ingenuity radio show. "I'm sorry, my wife is laughing about a 'slightly broken' leg."

Neither Lienhard nor his wife was laughing Feb. 15 when an unidentified car swerved off the road to hit him as he was walking his dog at 7:35 p.m.

"I was driving home from the store with my wife, and I said, 'Let me out here; I'll walk the dog home,' " Lienhard said. "It was a random experience. No one could have known I was going to be there."

According to a Houston Police Department incident report, Lienhard heard a loud roar behind him, and he took two steps onto the grass in the 3600 block of Linkwood. The car then struck Lienhard, breaking both of his legs.

Lienhard told the police, "The driver drove onto the grass and hit me."

Neither Lienhard nor any of the witnesses to the incident was able to identify the car, the driver or any other people present.

Lienhard underwent surgery on his badly broken leg the following morning at Hermann Hospital.

Shortly after his accident, both Lienhard and HPD officials declined to comment on the incident because "the investigation of the case was ongoing."

At the time, Lienhard asked both The Daily Cougar and KUHF radio not to report the accident. Both organizations honored Lienhard's request.

While in the hospital, Lienhard told police, "It is my opinion the driver of the hit-and-run car knew he had struck me. I never had time to look around. I cannot identify the driver of the hit-and-run car."

Almost a month after the accident, during Spring Break, Lienhard said he was able to return to work at UH.

"I'm walking on crutches now," Lienhard said. "I should be free of all of this in the next few weeks."

Lienhard, although shaken by the incident, said he would not let one moment color his outlook on life.

"I don't think I'm going to get paranoid about the world around me," Lienhard said. "This was a truly random occurrence."

As random as the incident was, Lienhard has one piece of advice for pedestrians who like to walk their dogs at night: "Look over your shoulder every once in a while."