"If you're stoned, I'm sorry, that's the same as being drunk. They should be prosecuted the same way," Brian Nordberg said. "Possession (of a controlled substance) is not a crime against a person. It's not running into someone and almost killing them. The whole system feels broken."

Nordberg said there are mistakes made by drivers, but once drugs are thrown into the mix, "It's negligence. It's no longer a mistake."

"It was just disbelief. I was hit and that's just a misdemeanor," Colleen Nordberg added.

Today, Nordberg is out of the hospital. But the signs of her near-fatal accident are plentiful. She has visible scars on her face, arm, shoulder and leg. She now has several screws, plates and a metal rod in her leg that runs the length of her tibia.

"The leg is the most painful part," she said.

Medical bills for the Nordbergs have now reached $60,000.

Two months after the accident, she was only able to move around on crutches for short periods of time before becoming exhausted. Most of the time she had to use a wheelchair. It was a very frustrating experience for a woman who loved to run 5 miles every other day.

"Crutching it is just not the same thing," she said, trying to maintain a sense of humor.

It was only recently that she was able to return to her love of bicycling.

Although she said she's been fortunate not to have too many headaches, Nordberg said the trauma to her head has caused her to have short-term memory loss, she is now much more impulsive and aggressive than before, and her decision-making process has slowed.

Even her co-workers said there was a noticeable change in her attitude. Nordberg is back up to working about six hours a day.

Nordberg calls herself fortunate because she survived the accident and has been able to recover relatively quickly, considering the seriousness of the collision.

Now, the Nordbergs would like to raise awareness about the law and hopefully change it before something like this happens again. The Nordbergs, both avid bikers, are particularly concerned about what will happen if another biker or pedestrian is hit by a motorist impaired by drugs.

"If you're on any drug, you shouldn't be driving," Colleen Nordberg said.

The Nordbergs said they're troubled by the fact the driver in this case could have driven stoned in the past, but because it doesn't go on his record, other officers would never know. They are hoping the driver won't be allowed to plead down his charges even more in court.

"I'm not out to get the kid. I don't want to see him fried," Nordberg said. "I'm not vindictive. (But) we need to bring attention to this. This has to get changed."

At the very least, Nordberg said, she would like to think that watching her fly 40 feet after he hit her is enough to stop the driver from ever using marijuana and driving again.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com