Not too long ago Tony Kornheiser made the remark that people should just run cyclists over. I've heard similar remarks from various folks over the years. Obviously those people never had an experience like I did this morning - the experience of finding someone you know and have ridden with on several occasions lying in a ditch with life-threatening injuries.
Early this morning a friend and I had our training ride interrupted by emergency vehicles only to find that an acquaintance of ours, Mike Bitton, was a victim of a hit and run accident that left him severely injured and unconscious. His assailant was nowhere to be found, and fortunately a small group of cyclists had found Mike and gotten a local resident to call 911. My friend Brad recognized Mike's bike and we began to try to call anyone who might know how to get in contact with his immediate family. Lesson to cyclists - there's no reason not to have some sort of ID on you at all times with a list of emergency contacts.
Mike was taken to a local hospital where he underwent emergency surgery. He suffered some broken vertebrae, blood loss, head injury and internal injuries. In fact, I just got word that he is still in the ICU and doctors are working to stop his internal bleeding (this is some 13 hours after help arrived on the scene). I hope you all will join me in wishing Mike a successful and speedy recovery.
Although Mike's injuries are terrible, to me the real stomach-turning part of this situation is that today, a human being - whether intentionally or not - left another for dead. As I rode home from the scene of Mike's incident I though to myself that whoever hit him was probably not a hardened criminal but was probably someone with a regular day job and more than likely a family, maybe some kids. I imagine they were the kind of person who might be your neighbor - and that should make us all a little sick inside. I wondered what Mike's assailant was doing as we rode back to the shop, stopping often to answer our cell phones and trying to get information to his family. I wondered how that person spent their day as others went to the hospital to check on Mike, stopped by our bike shop to get more information, zinged updates out on Facebook, and drove up and down River Road looking for a Toyota with a missing headlight.
I was also sickened by the comments I heard from a few of the responders, things such as "Well, it's not the guy's fault, but why would you be out here alone?" and even "I think they should take you guys off the roads and put you on the levee." It pissed me off to no end for someone to suggest that an experienced rider on a 20 pound bike was somehow to blame for being waylaid by someone in a 3-ton vehicle doing 60-plus miles per hour. Never did I hear emergency responders say something resembling "I can't believe that one human being would treat another in such a way."
The bottom line is what I happened to Mike today was, at best criminal negligence and at worst attempted murder. I hope whoever was at fault has the good sense to come clean about what happened and face the consequences, and if not I hope that they're caught anyway and punished to the fullest extent of the law. The public needs to know that a driver's license is not a license to assault your fellow humans, and that just because you have the bigger vehicle does not mean you can do whatever you want on the road with impunity.
Above all, the public needs to know that we will not tolerate any kind of disregard for the safety and well-being of others.
State Police tell us the model of the car that fled the scene is believed to be a 2005-2006 model Toyota Tundra or 2005-2007 Sequoia. The truck is missing a right front headlight, bug deflector and probably has some body damage to the vehicle. If you have any information that can help solve this case, call Louisiana State Police at 754-8500 and press option 1.
