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According to Lisa Jones, associate director of the Student Center and adviser to the Beer-Bike Committee for the past two years, Beer-Bike '97 was as successful as last year, although in different areas.

"This year, the concessions were all free," Jones said. "In the past, only the beer was free. ... This is the first time it has happened to my knowledge."

Unfortunately, however, both major and minor accidents accompanied the festivities. According to EMT director Mark Escott, a total of 30 people were injured through the course of the day.

These numbers include everything from injuries due to thrown water balloons to a dislocated ankle, and those treated on campus as well as those taken to the hospital.

"Nobody was transported by ambulance, but several were transported by the Rice Police Department," Escott said.

There was a potentially serious source of injury during the parade that preceeded the race.

"We were backing up to leave from the new Main Street gate, and as we turned in reverse, we collided with a small truck from Wiess [college]," Rakesh Agrawal, a Sid Richardson College senior and driver of the truck, said.

"This, in combination with the large number of people on the truck, caused a shift in weight which caused the side of the truck to be shifted over. ... The siding folded over about 110 degrees. A lot of people fell out on on top of each other," Agrawal said.

Michelle Emrich, a junior at SRC, and Missy Fiumara, a sophomore at SRC, were the first to fall off the truck and perhaps the most severely hurt.

Emrich was immediately taken to the Hermann Hospital emergency room. Fortunately, nothing was found broken.

Fiumara had her arm in a sling for a while, according to Agrawal. However, she was more shaken than hurt.

Agrawal ascribes this accident to there being too many on the truck.

However, compared to last year, this year's injury count was relatively moderate. Last year, 34 or 35 people were treated, according to Escott.

As a whole, Beer-Bike proceeded without complications. However, a few incidents set this year's Beer-Bike apart from years past. Colleges pulled the usual jacks on each other, such as stealing banners, popping balloons, breaking into other colleges' commons and jacking each other's float trucks. However, this year a much more serious jack was pulled on Brown College.

At 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Brown members found that somone had stolen their chug canisters. "We were washing the canisters at 2 a.m. and we discovered [that they were stolen] at about 7:30 in the morning," Robert Guerra, a Brown junior and one of the Brown Beer-Bike coordinators, said. "Our chug teams were really psyched out."

According to Jones, "This is the first time someone's chug cans were stolen from a college and not returned."

The Brown chug teams borrowed canisters from Jones College for the alumni race. All but two of the Brown chug containers were found in time for the women's race.

"Jones was really sympathetic to us," Guerra said.

"A jack like this crosses the border from jack to sabotage and hurts our team's chances," Joe Goetz, a junior at Brown and a Beer-Bike co-coordinator, said.

The case is still pending and the perpetrators are still unknown. The general belief of Brown students is that another college perpetrated these actions acting through a member of Brown.

Another incident that marked this year apart from previous years was the absence of Baker College's fire hose. Traditionally, Baker hangs a fire hose from a tree such that it hangs over the Inner Loop and sprays the parade as it comes by.

"Everytime we do that we flood our fourth and fifth floors," Anna Culpepper, a senior at Baker and one of the college's Beer-Bike coordinators, said. "We may have decided not to do it [this year] because it does more harm than good."

This item appeared in the News section of the March 21, 1997 issue.