Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price returned to work on Wednesday, five days after a bad bicycle crash on the Trinity Trails.
Mayor Price attended the Interstate 35W Coalition meeting at Texas Motor Speedway on Wednesday morning before meeting with reporters outside of City Hall that afternoon.
The mayor, who's ridden bikes for 25 years, showed her damaged helmet to the media. The helmet, with her name and the Fort Worth logo painted on the side, has several large cracks on the inside of the helmet that Price said shouldn't be there.
"I'm going to keep it and use it as a remainder to everyone to where a helmet," Price said. "You really can't see the cracks, but they're significant because it shouldn't look like that."
Price was riding with her husband Tom at about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, along a gravel trail on the north side of the Trinity River, when she hit a rut and went head first over her handle bars.
"A blow of that sort to your head -- it rang my bell enough as it was, if I didn't have that helmet on it really would have been trouble," Price said. "I always wear a helmet and I encourage everyone to wear a helmet, a short distance from your house or a long ride, either one you need a helmet."
Price said Wednesday she remembers commenting about how a vehicle must have driven on the gravel when it was wet to create the ruts. That's the last thing she remembers before being placed on a backboard minutes later.
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The mayor said she is grateful for all the well wishes but is ready to get back to work.
"It's time to get back to business," Price said. "You know I feel good, we're just going to get back and do what we're suppose to do."
That included several meetings and appearances on Wednesday, including at her weekly town hall bike ride. Mayor Price didn't participate, but was there to meet with fellow cyclists and send them off on their ride.
"It's a bit overwhelming, I really appreciate everyone's concern, but I keep thinking I'm just another cyclist who happened to go down," Price said.
She's already taking the accident in stride, making jokes with her husband who called 911 to get her checked out after the accident.
"My husband said, 'She's perfectly fine. She's been hard-headed all the 40 years we've been married,'" Price said. "He said, 'Anyone else it would have killed, but not this hard head.'"
Price will be off the bike four to six weeks as her collar bone heals, but her weekly rides will continue with city staff and others leading them. The mayor has used them as a way to meet citizens and learn what concerns they have in the city.
