Dennis Kucinich, good Samaritan
What a story!
Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Police still seek school bus that hit man, drove on
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Gabriel Baird
Plain Dealer Reporter
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich was reading e-mail in his office in Cleveland when he saw the man lying in the busy street.
Kucinich ran out of his office at West 118th Street and Lorain Avenue, assuming the man had suffered a heart attack. What he found was much worse. The man was bleeding heavily from his ears, nose and mouth.
Witnesses told police the man had stumbled against a passing school bus, which kept going after it hit him.
Kucinich felt the man's pulse and tried to reassure him.
"Help is on the way," Kucinich said.
Emergency workers took 68-year-old David Tvrdik to MetroHealth Medical Center about 4 p.m. Thursday. He died there of head injuries at 4:13 p.m., Cuyahoga County Coroner Elizabeth Balraj said.
Kucinich said Friday: "I just wish I could've done something for him."
Police think the bus that hit Tvrdik could belong to the Cleveland schools, said Lt. Thomas Stacho, a police spokesman.
School officials gave police a list of drivers and routes, but as of Friday afternoon, investigators had not found the bus or driver.
Investigators believe the driver may not have known the man was hit. They are asking drivers who were on Lorain Avenue Thursday afternoon, and anyone else with information on the incident, to call 216-623-5295.
Tvrdik had been inside North Coast Vacuum, across from Kucinich's office. He visited the shop's owner, John Simko, 62, about once a week. Thursday's visit was like any other -- a couple of old-timers talking about politics, sports and the way things were.
Soon after Tvrdik left, Simko heard a thump. He rushed outside to find Tvrdik and Kucinich.
He said Tvrdik had been on his way to his van, parked along the curb in front of the store. After he was hit, Tvrdik still had his keys in his hand. Tvrdik's girlfriend of 30 years, Mary Jane Conn, came into the store Friday to get the keys, which Simko had taken from his friend and kept for her.
At first she said nothing. She looked over the hoses and the vacuum-cleaner bodies lying in pieces.
"I'm just lost," she said.
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