ATLANTA -- Only a handful of runners knew as they passed the Shepherd Center this 4th of July that one of their own was inside fighting to recover.
Dr. Jan Morgan, a 57-year-old retired physician from Mississippi, suffered a severe brain injury when she was hit by a car in Starkville, Miss. while out on a training ride for the Ironman Competition.
Her husband, Dr. David Morgan said, "She was hit full force from behind on a wide open road. Car carried her up into the air, threw her on the hood for probably 200 feet. She rolled off the hood. Woman got out of her car on her cell phone, got back in her car, ran over her again."
The tragedy for the Morgans, who've been at the Shepherd Center for a week now, is compounded in that Mississippi's law only allows the driver, a 44-year-old woman, to be charged with a misdemeanor.
Just two days ago, Georgia Tech professor Kurt Frankel was killed when he was out for a bike ride in the Florida panhandle. Police say a 19-year-old driving a Mercedes hit Frankel on U.S. 98 in Walton County at 8:30 in the morning. He died at the hospital. Frankel was an Earth and Atmospherics professor at Tech.
And then just Monday morning, Marietta resident 52-year-old Brian Morgan, out for a bicycle ride on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs at 7 a.m., was hit from behind by a car and died a little while later at North Fulton Regional Medical Center.
All three were wearing their helmets.
"I have close calls all the time." Rebecca Serna as she cautiously rode through her Oakhurst neighborhood. A bicycle is her preferred mode of transportation. It is not without risks, but Serna, Executive Director of Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, feels Georgia is moving in the right direction with the new law that went into effect last Friday, requiring drivers to give bicyclists a 3-foot-wide berth when passing.
The law is a huge help, but it cannot address the danger of distracted drivers. Morgan's family says the woman who hit her was talking on a cell phone.
As a bicyclist who's had several near misses, Serna agrees. "So many of the people I see doing questionable things are on their cell phones, and you can just tell mentally they are not there. They are not on the road; they are where the conversation is."
Dr. David Morgan is pushing for tougher cell phone laws in Mississippi, and while his wife fights to regain her life, he asks quite simply, "Look out for people that are out there trying to be healthy."