[UPDATED, 4:45 PM: Full police dash video now included.--AJ]
As mentioned earlier this week, Josh Koeppel was involved in a traffic accident Monday morning when a pickup truck moving the opposite direction turned in front of him. He was treated for minor injuries at the UIHC and released shortly thereafter. That is all true. That also sounds almost routine, and according to video of the crash itself, Josh Koeppel's morning was not fucking routine:
Yep; that's Josh Koeppel flying through the air, and somehow not being seriously injured. If you're wondering how video of this incident could possibly exist, recall that the initial report about the accident indicated that a police officer witnessed the crash, and that certainly seems to be an iPhone video of a police car's dash cam. Also, the report indicated that the crash happened at the intersection of Gilbert and Burlington with Koeppel headed west and the truck driver east; all of those details are clearly consistent with this video. All of which is to say, this is legit.
In some of the least surprising news ever, Koeppel was declared out for the season opener against Eastern Illinois; despite his injuries not being severe, Koeppel is dealing with lingering soreness (having been hit by a car myself, I can attest to this first-hand: day 3 hurts more than day 1), plus it's just smart to spend a few days evaluating Koeppel before he's up to full-speed.
As you can imagine, Kirk Ferentz has never been a big fan of players using motorcycles or mopeds to get around Iowa City, but even he acknowledges that it's unavoidable:
This, by the way, is a completely reasonable stance by Ferentz. It would be nice to see him make a stand and say "no more two-wheel vehicles for anybody!", but from a practical standpoint, that's totally impossible without negatively affecting players' grades on a macro scale. Parking on campus is far easier for two-wheeled vehicles than for cars and trucks, and removing them as an option for transportation on a campus that stretches almost two miles east-to-west creates an unnecessary disincentive for players to take care of every obligation when time is a scarce commodity to begin with.
Still, though--these guys are more likely to wear a helmet on the football field than driving a moped or motorcycle? Really? In lieu of 500 more words about how vehemently we disagree with the logic, this one more time: