The youngest daughter of L.N. Rock, aka, African American Political Pundit, was involved in a major auto accident, with serious injuries resulting. Felicia Rock, 19, was a passenger in a car in which the driver fell asleep on Route 495 in Maryland, crossed the divider through the oncoming traffic lanes and flipped over twice to land in a ditch. She had planned to be in Denver this week to provide blogging coverage from an African American youth perspective.
Felicia was credentialed through The Denver 7 blogger to cover the Democratic National Convention, August 25-28, as a youth reporter.
After speaking with his daughter and the driver of the car, L.N. Rock reported that the car landed in a ditch, where Felicia was pinned in and had to be taken out by fire department professionals using the "Jaws of Life."
The young woman was admitted to Suburban Hospital in Bethesda Maryland were there was no indication that alcohol or drugs were involved. The driver, whose name has not been released, was unharmed.
With offers of admission from Howard University in Washington DC and Montgomery College in Maryland. Felicia will begin college this year. She now has a full brace of her back and chest but is expected to fully recover.
In spite of the accident, Felicia had still planned to "struggle to be with her dad, to videograph the Democratic National Convention, and report on the AAPP blog in a planned youth section". Her injuries, however, were deemed to be too serious to make the trip.
"Barack Obama has won my heart and mind and I want to be there to witness history," Felicia said. "I can only read about Martin Luther King, Jr., but I had planned to be there to see Barack Obama nominated for president, even if I had to go in a wheel chair."
Armed only with their laptops, Blackberrys and other electronic gadgets that can fit inside a single carry-on, "The Denver 7” are the first group of black independent “credentialed journalist” bloggers to cover a major political party’s national convention.