Every now and then, flashbacks will play in Merv Wagstaffe’s head.

He sees a green light, then watches his wife ride through the intersection just in front of him. In the blink of an eye, a red car strikes his wife’s bicycle, flinging her vertically into the air and onto the pavement.

“It was horrific,” Wagstaffe said. “She was lying on the ground shivering and groaning. There was just a panic running through me.”

It’s an image neither Sharon Lyson nor her husband could have imagined when they started out on a scenic bike ride after work June 24 in Oak Harbor. But the ride finished with a helicopter ride to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Lyson underwent a four-hour surgery to repair a tibial plateau fracture in her left knee and was also treated for a collapsed right lung, a partially collapsed left lung, four broken ribs and a contused spleen.

She spent eight days at Harborview before returning home to Oak Harbor to begin a slow recovery process.

Grateful to be alive, Lyson is having trouble sitting still, as she has been required to keep weight off her left leg for 12 weeks and stay away from her job as a physical therapist until at least the end of October.

For someone who enjoys an active lifestyle, she is going stir crazy, but she’s also learned patience and gained a new perspective.

“I am a caregiver and a very sympathetic person,” said Lyson, who works out of Whidbey General Hospital’s north campus on Goldie Road in Oak Harbor. “This has taught me new empathy that I didn’t have before. It’s taught me a lot about being a patient and having a long-term injury and what it’s like to go through that.

“It’s also taught me how much people, including my friends, family and colleagues, care about me. I’ve received a lot of visitors and cards and well wishes and meals from family and friends. I never realized how much people cared about me, I guess.”

Lyson thinks a lot about these people these days and how fragile life can be.

Nine weeks after the accident, her knee is still inflamed, her ribs still ache when she walks on crutches and she will be ready to start her own physical therapy next week.

But she still has three weeks until she can put weight on her left leg.

“It’s driving me crazy,” said Lyson, a former rower on the University of Washington crew team. “It’s a beautiful summer. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t go for a bike ride or go hiking or go for walks on the beach. I’m an extrovert.”

Still, she understands the end result of what happened June 24 could have been much more grim.

The incident occurred at 7:09 p.m. as Lyson and her husband waited for a green light to cross State Highway 20 at the intersection where Bayshore Drive becomes Southwest Erie Street near the Albertsons grocery store.

Lyson never made it across the highway as a 1972 Toyota driven by Charles King struck her in the middle of the street. King told Oak Harbor police he didn’t see the two bicyclists as he turned left off Southwest Erie Street on to State Highway 20, according to the police report.

He was cited for failing to yield the right-of-way to the approaching bicyclist while turning left at an intersection and was issued a $175 ticket.

Lyson said she can’t fully remember the moment of impact, but she’ll never forget the excruciating pain in her leg, which was bent abnormally below the knee. She remembers experiencing back spasms and recalls the frightening experience of struggling to breath as she lay on the street with collapsed lungs.

“I was fighting to take each and every breath,” she said.

The sort of incident that took place in Oak Harbor is all too common in the Puget Sound region, according to John Duggan, a Seattle attorney retained by Lyson.

Duggan specializes in cases involving bicycles and cars or accidents caused by bad roads.

“I’ve got 100 cases going right now,” said Duggan, a self-labeled cycling attorney.

Duggan is an avid cyclist himself who commutes to work each day in Seattle and sponsors several cycling racing teams.

He is a strong proponent of requiring drivers to be better educated about cyclists’ rights on the road.

Essentially, state law requires bicycle riders to follow the same rules of the road as motor vehicles. Cyclists are supposed to ride as close to the right side of the right-through lane as is safe when traveling at a speed less than normal traffic flow.

Under the law, cyclists may even ride two abreast upon a roadway, but are still expected to get as close to the right side of the road as is safe when bottling up motor traffic behind them.

Riding in larger numbers is to the cyclists’ advantage regarding road safety, Duggan said, adding that many drivers involved in accidents with bikes say they didn’t see the cyclist.

“We have a huge cycling community here,” Duggan said of greater Seattle. “We have mediocre infrastructure.

“Portland is ahead of the game. They have way better infrastructure and less people getting hit. They have more education and more awareness.”

The Oak Harbor Police Department responds to a handful of vehicle versus bicycle incidents a year, said Jennifer Yzaguirre, an officer with the department for 10 years.

She said the majority of riders are not wearing helmets, which is not required by law yet strongly advised.

Lyson is thankful she was wearing her helmet.

“In some respects, I guess I’m lucky that I wasn’t killed and didn’t have a head injury,” she said. “Still, obviously, my injuries are very significant. It’s significantly impacted my life and my ability to earn a wage.”

Lyson asked Duggan to represent her to deal with the insurance companies because of her injuries and time away from work. She said her medical expenses exceed $150,000.

What Lyson is hoping for most of all by agreeing to be interviewed is a greater awareness of cyclists on the road.

“I’m not a person who wants attention,” she said. “People need to concentrate when they’re behind a wheel on just driving and paying attention. People are just driving so distracted. Every time you get in a vehicle, a car is a weapon. We need to be aware.”