I've met Henry a couple of times and always found him to be a genuinely nice guy. The incident involving the student was unfortunate and in the end, he was paying the price for that with some time, a divorce, and being separated from his family...
My condolences to his family and children. It's terrible that a stupid decision will be his legacy instead of his accomplishments. Hopefully people can forgive him for his transgressions and remember that he was a positive influence to many.
I saw this. Absolutely crazy.
As a friend, I was saddened to see him lying so helpless in the hospital. May he rest in peace, and may his family find comfort in this difficult time.
Sad that he was killed before he could fully turn his life around.
Very sad, you will be missed Hank.
My prayers go out to Henry and his family and friends, this is truely an awful situation, especially now, knowing that he had a new lease on life an opportunity to recover his name. May we all remember him for the good times, he was a great asset to the community, despite his ill decisions.
very sad to hear that.
Awesome man who made everyone around him smile. Super talented too and former US champ. He'll be missed.
RIP Hank
Sex with a 16 or 17 yr old should be frowned on, but I don't think that person should be convicted nor labelled as a sex offender.
Rec Runner x wrote:
What pedophiles and cross country teachers who have sexual desires on children lose sight of to a terrible, terrible degree - a devastating degree - is that their victims are real people who will suffer forever whatever abuses are perpetrated on them.
Victims? Abuse? he had relations with a 17 year old girl. She didn't do anything against her will & he sure did not abuse her. Sheeesh!
Holy crap that sucks. When I saw the title of this thread I thought I was going to read about a suicide.
Drunk drivers and people who don't pay attention to their driving are BIG problems for people on bikes. For everyone's safety, I wish people on bikes would stick to bike trails and not ride on public streets. I know they have the right to, and bikers don't bother me when they're on the road, but man there are a lot of reports of deaths in this manner. Just not a safe activity.
RIP Henry Dennis.
lknsljkskjd wrote:
[quote]Not Smelly wrote:
Victims? Abuse? he had relations with a 17 year old girl. She didn't do anything against her will & he sure did not abuse her. Sheeesh![quote]
Society disagrees and apparently so does God, looking as he upped the slap on the wrist sentence to capital punishment.
I would suspect it was Henry who upped his punishment.
This is what happens when you drive drunk - you kill people.
...what a waste...
I get your point and yes, you're right. The bicyclist is not the problem. The drunk driver is, or the stoned driver is, or the half asleep driver is, or the texting driver is, or the senile driver, or the just really incompetent driver and so on and so on.
But you're never going to get all of those sorts of drivers off the road. So I also think Flagpole is right. Bicycles are an excellent form of transportation but there is a real danger to bicyclists using streets and highways as we see here again. That danger goes away if you have a path that they don't need to share with cars.
Flagpole wrote:
Holy crap that sucks. When I saw the title of this thread I thought I was going to read about a suicide.
Drunk drivers and people who don't pay attention to their driving are BIG problems for people on bikes. For everyone's safety, I wish people on bikes would stick to bike trails and not ride on public streets. I know they have the right to, and bikers don't bother me when they're on the road, but man there are a lot of reports of deaths in this manner. Just not a safe activity.
RIP Henry Dennis.
The rate of death for bikers per road mile is not much higher than for autos. While it would be great to have infrastructure better designed for bikes and cars on the road, in the meantime, we can't create fear on the road. It is one of the biggest barriers to more people riding.
Read again...I'm not calling for legal action here...just WISHING that bikers would not ride there, for their own safety. No matter who is wrong (obviously drunk drivers are wrong), a dude on a bike does not win a collision with a car.Regarding drunk drivers, I think they should be hung up in the town square by their thumbs, allowing people to whip them with rubber hoses...and then tossed into jail for a very long time...and if they killed someone while driving drunk, I say they spend their life in jail.It's not the bikers that are wrong brother...they have the right to bike on public streets, but with drunk drivers, distracted drivers, just plain old bad drivers, it's just not a safe activity. Even for good drivers, it IS harder to see a guy on a bike that it is another car.If either of my kids decides that biking will be a major part of their fitness regimen, immediately after telling them that I still love them even though they are obviously gay, I will ask them to please stay on all the nice bike paths we have here in Columbus, OH and that are available in many areas of the country.
haha YO wrote:
Flagpole wrote:Holy crap that sucks. When I saw the title of this thread I thought I was going to read about a suicide.
Drunk drivers and people who don't pay attention to their driving are BIG problems for people on bikes. For everyone's safety, I wish people on bikes would stick to bike trails and not ride on public streets. I know they have the right to, and bikers don't bother me when they're on the road, but man there are a lot of reports of deaths in this manner. Just not a safe activity.
RIP Henry Dennis.
Are you kidding me? The guy is hit by a drunk driver and you talk about getting bikes off the streets?
It's not about fear brother. It's about reality. Bicycles and automobiles (and trucks) don't mix.You can try to rationalize risky behavior any way you want, but people die every day in bicycle crashes with motorized vehicles. And YES they do in cars too, but the bicycling for the most part is done as recreation or fitness, and those activities CAN be done elsewhere.See here - http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/facts/crash-facts.cfmI'll pull out relevant facts:1) 630 people (just under 2 a day) were killed in the US in bike/vehicle crashes in 2009.2) 51,000 bicyclists were injured in 2009 in collisions with vehicles, and those are just the reported cases. According to the site, only a fraction (10% or so) are reported.3) It represented 2% of vehicle deaths in that year but only 1% of the trips were on bicycles. And, a lot of those bicycle trips were taken in safe areas (parks, bike paths, etc.) and not on roads with traffic.My brother-in-law is a paramedic/fire chief, and he says he sees bicycle crashes with vehicles all the time...motorcycles too which he calls "donor cycles".
dingle wrote:
Flagpole wrote:Holy crap that sucks. When I saw the title of this thread I thought I was going to read about a suicide.
Drunk drivers and people who don't pay attention to their driving are BIG problems for people on bikes. For everyone's safety, I wish people on bikes would stick to bike trails and not ride on public streets. I know they have the right to, and bikers don't bother me when they're on the road, but man there are a lot of reports of deaths in this manner. Just not a safe activity.
RIP Henry Dennis.
The rate of death for bikers per road mile is not much higher than for autos. While it would be great to have infrastructure better designed for bikes and cars on the road, in the meantime, we can't create fear on the road. It is one of the biggest barriers to more people riding.
All, this is a lesson how fast your life can change in a second. I feel terrible obviously for my friend Henry who i'll never get to say Hi to again or talk to, his 2 beautiful little boys who i'm sure are hurting very badly right now and his family. He wasn't perfect and made some mistakes, but he was still my friend. I also feel terrible for the family of the 22 year old drunk driver who hit and killed him. His life as well as his families lives will forever be changed. This is the second Wisconsin Runner athlete affected by someone driving a car, see Jenny Crain. I know this site is read by alot of college age\young runners. I know alot of runners like to drink as well and generally feel invincible as I did at a young age. If anything good can come from this there are 2 lessons to learn. 1. When training always keep in mind there is a chance that you will encounter a driver who is not paying attention or could be intoxicated. 2. Please, Please, Please if you've had a few drinks do NOT get behind the wheel. You're life could be changed forever even if you don't think you're impaired. May you rest in peace Hank we will miss you.