Baraboo Assemblyman Fred Clark told a police officer he wasn’t paying attention when he ran a red light and struck a bicyclist on Aug. 18.

Madison police, who cited Clark for failing to stop at the red light, released the accident report to the Wisconsin State Journal Tuesday.

“I was just not paying attention,” Clark told an officer afterward, according to the report.

On Monday, Clark said it was a “very regrettable accident for everyone involved” and declined further comment.

The bicyclist, Richard B. Rideout, 56, was listed in the police records as having non-life-threatening back and lung injuries and was taken to a local hospital. He did not respond to a telephone message left at his phone.

Clark has said the victim was a “friend and colleague."

Rideout works in the Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, agency spokesman Adam Collins confirmed. 

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