Competitive biker heads toward recovery

At the same time, Walter Fred Sorenson was returning home to Hillsborough on the same route after shopping for his wife’s gift at Stanford Shopping Center and reportedly imbibing some alcohol.

The two intersected in a severe crash that left the 30-something mother of three’s body shattered and the 76-year-old contractor facing felony charges that could send him to prison.

On Tuesday, both were in a San Mateo County courtroom. Sorenson, free on $50,000 bail, appeared with only his attorney to delay a plea until Feb. 22 to felony driving while intoxicated with great bodily injury.

Levenson, who walked in with the aid of crutches, was surrounded by a group of supporters so large it filled the courtroom.

The two didn’t speak — a gesture her husband Scott said isn’t surprising because he claims Sorenson has never uttered one word of remorse to the couple since the accident that nearly took his wife.

An apology wouldn’t take back what happened, Scott Levenson said, but it would ease some of the anger and frustration that has built up since a police officer arrived at his front door with only the news there was a family emergency.

"It was very traumatic. The officer didn’t know what was going on and my boys only knew that their mother was in the hospital and their father was leaving in a patrol car,” Levenson recalls.

What Levenson learned was that as his wife rode on Sand Hill Road near Interstate 280 in Menlo Park, Sorenson allegedly swerved his 1987 Toyota into the bicycle lane. MaryAnn Levenson was struck from behind and dragged 35 feet until Sorenson hit a curb and dislodged the bicycle and rider.

Levenson, a dietitian who races for the MetroMint Cycling team, sustained a shattered jaw, broken vertebrae, pelvic fractures, a shattered larynx and the sole of her right foot was torn off.

Sorenson, according to witnesses, tried fleeing the scene but was prevented and arrested. Varying blood alcohol tests place his level at just over or just below the legal limit although he reportedly failed other field sobriety tests. Police removed two plastic containers from the truck which they noted smelled like alcohol.

Sorenson could not be reached for comment but in a message on Levenson’s online journal his granddaughter wrote he was not legally intoxicated but overcompensated after his vehicle drifted. Sorenson, she wrote, didn’t realize he hit Levenson and believed he had run over an inanimate object that fell from his truck onto the road.

Levenson was rushed to Stanford Hospital where her husband found her conscious but with a tracheotomy and breathing tube.

"Even being in medicine, I was sort of in disbelief,” said Scott Levenson, a doctor in San Carlos. "I kept asking myself if this was a dream.”

The initial nine-hour surgery by a team of 10 doctors was just the beginning of Levenson’s recovery. She underwent three more last week, including one to remove road debris imbedded by the accident, her husband said.

While she recovered, her family did, too.

The boys — 7-year-old twins and a 10-year-old — initially kept their distance but are now doing pretty good, Scott Levenson said.

At one point, one of the twins said he was too young to lose his mommy because no one at school had yet, Levenson said.

Ironically, the Menlo Park school community had already felt the loss of a bicyclist.

Michelle Mazzei, a 34-year-old fourth-grade teacher, was killed Oct. 2 after being struck by a driver on Woodside Road. After Mazzei’s death, MaryAnn Levenson began a school bike safety program, said Scott Levenson.

Levenson expects to ride again, although she can’t bear weight for another four weeks and her $8,000 titanium bike is mangled, Scott Levenson said.

In the aftermath, Scott Levenson said he discovered something surprising — no chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving exist in the area. As a result, he hopes one springs up although he’s also considering the creation of a group of bicyclists against drunk driving. The family is also mulling a civil suit, particularly if Sorenson is not criminally punished in a way they see fit.

For now, however, Scott Levenson said the primary objective is his wife’s health and Sorenson’s prosecution.

"I always knew about MADD and was angry about drunk driving, but this is personal now. Plus, this wasn’t some teenager who went on a drinking spree. This is a 76-year-old man with alcohol in a water bottle on a Saturday afternoon,” Levenson said.

"He’s not the one who had to spend Christmas in the hospital.”

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.