BROOKLYN, Ohio - George Novak, of Cleveland, had just got on Interstate 71 north Monday afternoon when Cleveland Browns Defensive lineman Marcus Benard passed him on the left on his Can-Am Spyder motorcycle, a bike with two wheels in the front.
Novak said Benard cut across four lanes of traffic at a spot where the interstate bends and he knew something wasn’t right.
“That one wheel lifted up and when I saw that I knew that this poor guy was in big trouble,” Novak said. He said Benard corrected and got the wheel back on the road “but at that point he was too close to the guardrail.”
What followed Novak couldn’t believe: The motorcycle hit the guardrail.
“That bike started disintegrating, I mean it was up in the air and everything,” he said. “Parts went flying everywhere.”
So too did Benard. The impact sent him airborne off the side of the road down an embankment.
“For the way that bike hit, he was thrown out of harms way. He even missed one of the light poles I don't know how he managed that,” Novak said. “He was up in the air, he was in flight for a big guy like that.”
Brooklyn police said Benard finally came to a rest 80 yards from the spot where he was thrown off the bike.
"No doubt, no doubt,” Novak said, on hearing how far Benard traveled. He said he and another motorist, who ran to help, were actually looking at first in the wrong spot.
“The only reason why me and this other fellow saw him was he raised his leg,” which they spotted in the grass further down the side of the interstate. “We were looking in one area. Then we look off to the left and there he was."
They dialed 911 and ran to his aid.
“We were instructed to keep him still and quiet, and that’s pretty much what he did. There was one time when he actually leaned up and we talked him into laying back down carefully,” he said.
“The only thing I saw at that point was abrasions on his right hand because his glove had come off and his one shoe had come off.”
When Novak learned that a broken wrist was the most serious of Benard’s injuries he couldn’t believe it.
“I mean God must have a plan for him because if that bike hadn't thrown him he'd have been dead," he said. “He was very, very fortunate.”
