A retired physician is “lucky to be alive” and credits his bike for saving his life after he and another cyclist were mowed down in a brazen hit-and-run near a Texas airport on Monday.
Benjamin Hylander, a 31-year-old cargo team member at American Airlines, is accused of running over cyclists Tom Geppert, 69, and Deborah Eads, 65, who were part of a group of bikers riding around Dallas-Fort Worth International Aiport at 6 p.m.
Hylander was seen rapidly approaching the riders in his white Subaru Forested, initially striking Eads before clipping Geppert’s back tire, which launched him into the left lane until he fell to the road.
“All of a sudden, something pushes me from behind,” Geppert told KDFW. “Then I could feel myself falling from the right, and then that’s pretty much the last thing I remember.”
Geppert said he lost consciousness for a few minutes in the horrifying crash.
Doctors performed a CT scan on Geppert’s brain and diagnosed him with a concussion.
“I don’t feel that I am mentally a hundred percent. An injury to (the left) hamstring, a fractured rib on the backside,” he told the outlet.
“I was unconscious for a number of minutes,” he said. “I guess some people thought I wasn’t breathing.”
Hylander is captured on footage allegedly driving over the motionless Geppert’s legs.
“Just so lucky it happened to be my thigh, and I think the bike kind of elevated the car a little bit,” he added.
Geppert was rushed to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine, five miles west of the crash, where he was treated for a severe laceration, according to CBS News Texas.
Geppert, who has since been released from the hospital, said he is “just overall amazingly lucky that I’m still alive,” and plans to continue riding.
Eads was treated at the scene for a severe laceration.
Several cyclists chased after Hylander to a Shell gas station telling him to return to the crash scene.
Hylander attempted to speak to one of the injured cyclists shouting “I’m sorry” but was pulled away by an officer on scene.
Investigators found six empty cans of Voodoo Ranger Juice Force IPA in a backpack in Hylander’s car and two cans of Coors Light in the grass near the parked SUV.
Hylander failed a field sobriety and breathalyzer test, according to Fox 4, citing police.
While talking to the officers, Hylander allegedly mentioned he was drinking beer an hour before the crash in Grapevine, but the number of drinks changed throughout the interview.
Hylander was charged with two counts of Intoxication Assault with a Vehicle causing Serious bodily injury, Accident involving injury and Driving while intoxicated with a Blood Alcohol Concentration greater than 0.15, according to jail records viewed by The Post.
He is being held at the Tarrant County Corrections Center on a $36,000 bond.
American Airlines told KTVT that Hylander is being withheld from service.
