Seed Of LVSportsBiz.com Was Planted Seven Years Ago Today From Awful Crash That Resulted In Website Launch Three Months Later
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“The car made no apparent attempt to pass the bicyclist crashing into the rear of the bicycle.” — St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office traffic report, narrative March 7, 2017
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
Seven years ago today in Fort Pierce, Florida, a 64-year-old man named Dennis Brophy was driving his Chevrolet Cruz south on Old Dixie Highway, a two-lane road on the west side of the Intracoastal on Florida’s east coast.
It was shortly after 8 a.m. on this spring day in St. Lucie County.
I had no idea where Brophy was heading to.
But Brophy never reached his destination in a town about two hours north of West Palm Beach.
That’s because Brophy drove his car right into me as I rode my bicycle on the same road.
It was a violent crash.
From the traffic report: “. . . causing the rider to roll up on the hood and make contact with the windshield.”
The harsh truth is this type of violent crash has killed many bicyclists in Florida and across the country.
But I survived.
I don’t recall Brophy driving his car into me.
One moment I was pedaling a bicycle and the next I woke up on a gurney being wheeled into an ICU room in a hospital in Fort Pierce.
I absorbed a bad battering.
But I was alive.
Symptoms from a severe concussion eventually faded. Two broken vertebrae didn’t stop me from returning to my bicycle.
Brophy was not ticketed by the St. Lucie sheriff’s deputy.
I stayed overnight in the ICU, trying to get rest in the brightly-lit room.
To this day, I remember how bright the room was.
My sister and my father drove me home the next day from Fort Pierce to Vero Beach.
Recuperating was boring and I cursed Brophy that I was bedridden during March, the month with the nicest weather in Florida.
One day an old newspaper friend from Colorado who was visiting his in-laws in Vero Beach came by to see me and offered an idea.
“Why don’t you return to Las Vegas and create a website on what you covered at the newspaper there,?” Mark suggested.
It clicked. I covered the business of sports and stadiums in Las Vegas for the local newspaper before I moved to Vero Beach in 2016.
And I decided to return to Vegas in 2017.
I was on the phone with Vegas Golden Knights founding partner Joe Maloof, who agreed to buy the first advertisement for LVSportsBiz.com.
I left Vero Beach on a Sunday afternoon at 3 in late May and drove through the night until I stayed in a motel west of San Antonio Monday night. After staying over in a motel west of Tucson on Tuesday night, I was in Las Vegas Wednesday morning.
LVSportsBiz.com was launched in early June.
The first live story I reported was downtown hotelier Derek Stevens and the Vegas Golden Knights announcing a sponsorship deal.
Two weeks later, I was reporting on the Golden Knights picking their roster of players during the expansion draft held at T-Mobile Arena.
This morning I hiked at 7 AM from my home for two hours in Red Rock, focusing on clearing all the mental clutter from my mind and appreciating all the wonder of life.
Seven years ago today a distracted motorist smashed his car into me as a rode a bicycle, jolting me into returning to Las Vegas and launching this news site.
It’s a good feeling knowing a crash that nearly killed me resulted three months later in the creation of LVSportsBiz.com.
We have reported on Las Vegas’ ascent into a powerhouse sports market, hosting championship teams and a Super Bowl. We have reported Las Vegas’ dynamic growth every step of the way.
It’s nice I was able to take a near-death crash and turn it into a journey to nearly seven years of publishing LVSportsBiz.com.
Tonight, I write this from the press ledge of T-Mobile Arena before fans are set to roll into the venue to watch the Vegas Golden Knights and Vancouver Canucks.
It’s emotional knowing that life could have easily been shut down seven years ago today.
I’ll be reporting and writing with that in mind tonight.
