About 7 p.m. Oct. 21, Mary Giacoletti of San Simeon was riding her bicycle on Buckley Drive, heading toward Cambria Pines Road and then to her home in San Simeon.

Suddenly, “a smallish deer darted out suddenly” and ran into the bike, tossing Giacoletti to a “hard landing” on the ground, she recalled Tuesday, Oct. 30. “There’s hardly a scratch on the bike, and the deer kept running, unscathed.”

Giacoletti was taken by ambulance to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, where physicians told her she had fractured a bone in her pelvis, which with rest, would gradually heal over the next couple of months.

She said the accident has “seriously derailed me. I’m supposed to be campaigning for political office,” a two-year post on the San Simeon Community Services District Board of Directors.

However, when her physical condition hadn’t improved, Giacoletti consulted an orthopedist who recommended more detailed tests, because the initial diagnosis may have missed a fracture in a larger pelvic bone, “maybe one that’s more weight bearing.”

Giacoletti’s upbeat, despite the pain. “I’m both grateful and annoyed … But I’m alive, and the paramedics said I was fortunate I was wearing my helmet.”