2 cyclists injured after running into kite string on NYC bridge
Two New Yorkers are recovering from a run-in with a sharp object they couldn't even see until it was too late — a kite string.
"There was just so much blood"
Jennifer Noble was entering the Marine Parkway Bridge on her bike over the weekend when she saw a kite floating in the air and suddenly ran into something she couldn't see.
"It hit my upper lip and my nose, and then it cut through my forehead," she said.
The string also cut through the muscle of Noble's index finger and cut her helmet's temple strap. She says the force knocked her over backwards.
"And then I just hear screaming behind me. And it hit my friend who was behind me in the throat and cut his throat open," Noble said.
Noble said good Samaritans sprang into action, bandaged her finger and applied pressure to her friend's neck.
"It looked like a movie. Like it looked fake. There was just so much blood," Noble said.
"It tore through me"
Her friend, Robert Hillebrand, remains hospitalized. Noble said the entrepreneur has a long road ahead.
"He's not able to work. He's going to have a lot of medical bills," she said.
Noble said she's still in pain five days after the incident and has since returned to the emergency room for excessive pain in her finger.
"Looks like there are bone fragments in the joint, which is why I'm having so much pain now," she said.
She has an appointment to see a specialist on Monday.
Noble believes the string was attached to a so-called "fight kite," where the string is a very sharp, abrasive line sometimes coated with crushed glass.
"It just seems really horrifically, dangerously negligent to have this stuff out there in the world," Noble said. "It tore through me."