Photo Credit: David Schick

Rob Richards, Jr. may be invincible. Or just really lucky.

Yesterday, a car struck Richards on the first day of classes at the University of Georgia. Today, he was miraculously walking the streets of downtown Athens on his way to a martial arts class after putting in some hours working at UGA’s main library.

Here’s what happened in his own words:

“I’m on the Joe Brown side of the crosswalk [on South Lumpkin Street] and I noticed there’s a bunch of buses kind of blocking the view of the road. So, I walk out to see if a car comes and a car comes zooming past me. I look back and I don’t see any cars, so I walk out. And then as I’m walking I turn my head left and see a car barreling towards me, so I quickly duck into a judo roll and go with the force, and the next think I know, I’m lying on the ground.”

Despite speculation that he was distracted and using an electronic device, he says, “I had my iPad in my hand, but it was off. I had no headphones in. I was walking looking both ways, and the guy apparently dropped something and went to go pick it up.” 

Richards, a junior, says he was at the hospital only for a couple of hours, passed all the tests and checked out. He walked away with some minor cuts and bruises, as well as some road rash, but no concussion. “But I broke his windshield with my head,” he says.

According to Richards, the car was going “about 40” miles per hour when it hit him. “And it was a black car, not a silver truck,” he says, contrary to a report by the Red & Black.

Richards’ advice to pedestrians, in the unfortunate event they are hit by a car: “When you get hit, accept it and know you’re in shock, and do everything the [EMT] tells you to, and just roll with it, literally.”

And his advice to drivers: “If you drop something and you’re near a crosswalk, don’t pick it up.”