Early morning bicyclist hit by drunk driver: ‘The next thing I knew, I woke up confused’

Kari Fezzey, a local bicyclist enjoying a bike tour, was hit by a drunk driver in Jefferson County, who she believes should be in jail after she was released shortly after.

“The next thing I knew, I woke up confused. There were people standing around me that ended up being paramedics,” Fezzey said on the Dori Monson Show. “I later came to understand that I had been hit by a drunk driver and knocked unconscious. And I’m lucky I guess that it wasn’t worse, but I ended up going to the hospital.”

The alleged drunk driver has yet to be convicted. According to police, she was driving with a .23 blood-alcohol level, triple the legal limit, alongside traces of THC in her bloodstream at 10 a.m. when the accident occurred.

“She needs to be in jail. She shouldn’t have been driving. She had no right on multiple levels to be on that road. She destroyed my bike tour,” Fezzey said. “I woke up in the ditch. There was blood all over my hands and my clothes. The contact with my body was my elbow, she tore a hole into it where it required stitches. And there’s bruising and severe swelling up and down my forearm. And when I was ripped off my bike, it also caused soft tissue damage to my shoulder and my back shoulder blade.”

Frezzey stated physical activity is extremely important to her, ever since she had heart surgery at the age of four months to repair a defect she was born with. She competed in triathlons before pivoting to bike tours all over the country and the world.

“She needs to be behind bars,” Frezzey said. “I’m sorry, but she’ll kill somebody.”

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.