A retired doctor is recovering after he and another bicyclist were struck by a suspected drunk driver near DFW Airport in a crash caught on video.
Tom Geppert, 69, suffered injuries including a concussion, a broken rib and road rash, he told KTVT-TV.
The video, circulating on social media, shows a speeding driver in a white SUV hitting the two cyclists from behind and then appearing to stop for about half a second as Geppert’s helmeted head hits the ground before driving forward again and over Geppert’s thigh runs.
“It was fortunate that it happened to be my femur, and I think the engine took the car to the next level a little bit,” Geppert told KDFW.
Geppert was released from the hospital on Monday evening. He said he could not remember what happened after the initial collision, but has since seen the video.
“When I look at the video, I’m so angry,” he told KXAS. “It looked like he could have stopped before rolling over me, but then he sped up and went right over me.”
DFW Airport police said Benjamin Hylander, a 31-year-old man who works for American Airlines’ cargo team, was the driver of the SUV.
Hylander had six empty beer cans in his car and a test showed his blood alcohol level was above 0.15, police said. He is charged with, among other things, drunkenness, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, an accident with injuries and driving under the influence.
Both injured cyclists, part of a group riding together on North Airfield Drive Monday around 6 p.m., were using one lane, which is legal in Texas. Vehicles must share the road with cyclists.
Skip Rice wrote in a Facebook post that he was part of the Grapevine Chain Gang group that was biking together.
“The man was followed by our cyclists, who found him in hiding, and without being violent, caused him to return to the scene. The police did not chase him or find him, we did,” Rice wrote. “Soda bottles, a can of green beans, rocks, a knife and other objects were thrown at me. I’ve swerved and checked my brakes more times than I can remember.”
Rice said the group rode around DFW Airport because it is an area known to have cyclists around that time, when traffic is usually light. It was his birthday and they were taking a shorter ride than their normal 25 miles.
Rice said he might not normally post about something like this because everyone survived and the driver was arrested and is facing charges. But he thought he had to, because another cyclist was hit on the same road on Wednesday.
“That’s three people living in Grapevine in three days,” Rice wrote. “Again from behind, and they were seriously injured, requiring surgery, plates, screws and hospitalization to stabilize her body, and again it could have been much worse.”
Rice said that while most people seem nice and courteous, there are some who celebrate violence against cyclists.
“While most people are good and decent, there is a whole group of people who sickeningly celebrated the videotaped incident,” Rice wrote. “It’s enough to turn your stomach and make you deeply concerned about the state of humanity.”
At the same time, he said there has been an “outpouring of sympathy” and asked people to remember that cyclists are allowed to ride on the streets as long as they obey traffic rules and are effectively discouraged from riding on sidewalks intended for pedestrians. Riding on the sidewalk can endanger not only cyclists, but also people walking.
He wrote that even many cycle paths along the road are less safe than cycling on the street. In his experience, those lanes are usually poorly maintained and even littered with trash and debris, which can make them dangerous to navigate.
