Tyler Loucks, a 21-year-old senior geography major, was still listed in critical condition at ECMC at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A car struck Loucks around 1 a.m. Sunday morning on Winspear Avenue.
Loucks and a group of about 15 friends were headed to The Steer, a popular South Campus bar, when a woman struck him with her vehicle.
"The lady was going pretty fast," said one of Loucks' friends, who was at the scene and preferred to remain anonymous. "She had two kids in the back. He wasn't in the road at all. He was close to the curb and he got struck. The windshield got smashed and the bumper fell off.
"All of his friends freaked out. There were a lot of people on the street."
Contrary to what the witness told The Spectrum, Buffalo Police Spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said Loucks was walking east on Winspear and was in the street.
"It appears the pedestrian came out into the roadway," DeGeorge said.
DeGeorge said no charges have been filed.
"I was walking in the front with some of our other friends, and all of a sudden we just hear this huge sound," said Maria Manunta, a junior engineering major, who didn't see the car hit Loucks. "I turn around and I see Tyler just flying and rolling down the street."
Loucks is 6-foot-4 and described by Manunta as outgoing and always happy. Manunta said police did not arrive on the scene for five minutes and it took 10 for an ambulance to arrive.
"He was going in and out of consciousness," Manunta said. "He wasn't moving, though. I saw him breathing. I remember looking at him and making sure he was breathing."
UB Spokesman John Della Contrada said the university does not yet have enough information to release a statement.
Senior Managing Editor Brian Josephs contributed reporting to this story.
Maria Manunta will write for The Spectrum this fall.
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
