Police in Great Bend, Kansas are on the lookout for a driver who struck and injured a bicyclist last weekend, then drove off without stopping.
According to the Great Bend Tribune:
Tessla Adams was headed to her job at Wal-Mart last Saturday morning, when a red truck pulling out of McDonald’s restaurant knocked her off her bicycle.
The driver didn’t stop. In fact, no one stopped as the stunned 19-year-old woman crawled across 10th St. to the Dollar Tree store, where her mother was working.
“We’re just amazed nobody stopped,” Gina Adams said. Her daughter Tessla had recently struck out on her own but has moved back home while she recovers from injuries that Gina Adams say include a badly sprained ankle and internal bruising. “She’s in a lot of pain,” her mother said, and unable to work.
Even though no one stopped that morning, Gina Adams thinks someone may have seen something that could help police find the hit-and-run driver. She’s hoping anyone with information with call the Great Bend Police Department, 793-4120, or Crime Stoppers, 792-1300. The toll-free number for Crime Stoppers is 1-888-305-1300.
According to the accident report, Tessla Adams was riding her bike west on the sidewalk at 8:20 a.m. Saturday when she was hit by a vehicle pulling out of McDonald’s. She fell off the bicycle and crawled across the street; her mother called 911 at 8:30 a.m.
Miss Adams told police said the vehicle was a red truck and the driver was a white male with a mustache.
She was transported to Central Kansas Medical Center by Great Bend Fire Department Ambulance. [read more]
If you know anything about this incident, please call the Great Bend police department.
Tessla, hope you recover quickly, and hope your bike survived the collision. If it needs work, I’m sure the fine folks at Golden Belt Bicycle Company can help you out.
And while you’re there, have them tell you about why it’s safer to ride on the street rather than on the sidewalk.
They can also explain about Great Bend’s city ordinance that prohibits riding a bicycle on the sidewalk: “No person shall ride any bicycle upon a sidewalk in a business district or residential district of the city or upon walks reserved exclusively for pedestrians in the parks or public grounds of the city, provided, that nothing in this chapter shall prohibit the use of designated hike and bike paths by bicycles.”
