“It’s my first day back and I’m learning to adapt,” Dean Lundberg, 61, told Silent Sports by phone.
Lundberg was struck from behind by 84-year-old Emogene Gunderson, of Grantsburg, and thrown onto the windshield of her vehicle, according to the Burnett County sheriff’s office. She told authorities she thought she’d hit a mailbox as she continued to drive about 100 feet, at which point Lundberg fell off the vehicle and into the ditch. Gunderson drove on but eventually turned around and returned to the scene, The Inter-County Leader reported.
Now getting around on crutches and a walker, Lundberg said he spent the previous two-and-a-half weeks at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recovering from a broken hip, four broken toes, a dislocated shoulder and torn ligaments. He said he was unconscious for about 12 hours after the accident, and has lingering clarity of thought issues and still feels periodically lightheaded.
“I was wearing a helmet. That’s the only reason I woke up,” Lundberg said.
He said he has no memory of the accident, much less leaving the house on his bicycle the afternoon of Friday, May 22. An officer told him he was found to be lucid soon after the collision, but Lundberg said he can’t remember a conversation, the ambulance ride to a hospital in Grantsburg or being airlifted to the Hennepin County facility.
“I woke up in the trauma center,” he said. “My first thought was ‘This isn’t good.’ My second thought was ‘I probably need to be here so there’s no use fighting it.’”
Two days after the accident, Gunderson was issued two citations, one for driving without a valid diver’s license and another for inattentive driving. She faces fines of up to $359. The case has been referred to the county attorney’s office, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told Silent Sports.
Lundberg, a retired aerospace industry and dairy worker, lives alone in a house midway between the small communities of Frederic and Grantsburg. Lundberg, who said it is not uncommon for him to pedal the 12 miles to town, believes he was four to six miles from home when he was hit.
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