There was plenty of snickering in the media yesterday about Robert Novak’s very literal run-in with a pedestrian. Heck, we snickered ourselves silly, and even Jon Stewart couldn’t resist making jokes — “You know what Washington needs? More vigilante bicyclists!” (see video above).

As we mentioned earlier, today WJLA is reporting that the victim of Novak’s negligence might be worse off than originally thought:

The victim, a 66-year-old Don Lilkinquist, appeared somewhat incoherent, said the source who had seen the victim. The man appeared to have casts on his neck and back. The victim was X-rayed and a surgical team plans to evaluate him, the source said.

Additionally, the cyclist who flagged Novak down about a block away from the incident claims that the man who was struck rolled off of Novak’s windshield, calling into question the conservative commentator’s claim that he didn’t even know he had hit someone.

Beyond the possibility that Novak may have tried to flee the scene of a more serious accident than originally reported, we’re a little miffed that he was only given a $50 ticket for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a walkway. That’s the District’s standard, but it starts seeming awfully low when you consider that many parking D.C. tickets start at $30 and that Arlington County charges up to 10 times the amount for the same offense. The D.C. Council has been debating raising the fines since late last year, but not much movement has been seen on that front.

So what will come of the Prince of Darkness and his pedestrian problem? Since Novak writes about pretty much anything — including things that are classified — maybe he can write a column about what happened.