Cyclist dies after fall, campus security slow to respond

Via the Post comes this previously unreported story about a cyclist who fell off his bike on the grounds of Gallaudet University, hit his head and died from the injury.

On the 23rd, around lunchtime, [Cheang Kok] fell off the bicycle that he was riding to work on just outside the cafeteria and hit the ground headfirst.

Though players on the football team saw him fall, and contacted campus security, it took them 15 minutes - and another attempt to contact them - before they arrived on the scene. 

Someone alerted the DPS and, after nearly ten minutes had passed, no one responded to the scene, prompting a football player to run down to the DPS office in Carlin Hall to get help. He was told by a DPS officer to wait because he was dealing with some other students inside the office, regardless of the gravity of the situation that was taking place at Hanson Plaza.

The no-show by DPS forced Gallaudet Head Football Coach Chuck Goldstein to flip Kok over, and he noticed he had blue lips which signaled that he was not breathing at all. Goldstein proceeded to perform CPR on him for approximately 15 minutes, before the first DPS officer arrived on the scene and took over the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation effort.

Gallaudet's official story is different.

"We can show that our security guy responded within 4 ½ minutes," she said. "And it's not just any officer. He's trained as a first responder, trained in CPR."

Some students have also taken exception to the university's official statement on the death, which says, rather oddly, that Kok "became ill" on campus.

Comments

[Mark Treadwell]

"not just any officer"? Why aren't all their officers trained as first responders?

[Blue-eyed Devil]

Since when did "suffered blunt trauma" become "became ill"? If they didn't want to come across as morbid with the specifics, they could have simply said "died in a bicycling accident."

The abdication of responsibility is epidemic in this country. Gallaudet takes it a step farther (or steps farther away) by trying to rewrite reality with an incongruous euphemism. Disturbing.

(An aside: How long before the helmet advocates start asking their operative question?)

[Michael H.]

Sad to hear about this.

As for the helmet issue, I think most people would agree that single-bike, low-speed (?) accidents are the types of situations where a helmet would provide some protection. It doesn't sound like it was a high-speed collision involving a car.

[the one and only ridor]

Folks, it is DPS! What do you truly expect from DPS at Gallaudet?!

After spending many years at Gallaudet, no student, faculty or staff viewed DPS as reliable to dispatch in case of emergency!

R-