Left to die on the road, cyclist urges hit-and-run driver to 'do the right thing'
.jpg "Jorge Rouco was struck by a hit-and-run driver while riding his bicycle on the Rickenbacker Causeway near Key Biscayne at 7 p.m. April 2. Left for dead, he is recovering from serious injuries and urging the driver to come forward.")
A Sunny Isles Beach cyclist has one message for the driver who left him for dead on the side of the road:
"Do the right thing. Come forward," Jorge Rouco told WPLG-Local 10 on Tuesday.
Rouco is speaking out to help Miami-Dade police track down the driver who rammed into him when he was riding his bike on the Rickenbacker Causeway around 7 p.m. on Monday, April 2.
Rouco, 50, who lives in Sunny Isles Beach, was riding his bike west on the causeway when he felt something slam into his lower back region.
His liver was cut, his spleen ruptured, and a collapsed lung bled internally. He's able to speak out more than a week later, albeit from a bed at Jackson Memorial Hospital. As he lay crumpled on the ground, attended to by a motorist who stopped to help and other cyclists, few could have expected a recovery.
Rouco told the station he still doesn't think he'll ever fully recover from the injuries.
What he remembers most is the sudden impact.
"I got violently taken off my bicycle — ripped off my bicycle," he told WPLG. "It's the best way I can describe it."
Rouco is one of several cyclists who've been hit by drivers on the Rickenbacker.
In 2012, Aaron Cohen, a triathlete and father to two young children, died after being hit by a car when riding his bike on the Rickenbacker Causeway's William Powell Bridge. His hit-and-run death resulted in lawmakers passing the Aaron Cohen Act, which requires a mandatory minimum prison sentences of four years for drivers convicted of leaving the scene of a fatal crash.
Walter Reyes, a former CFO of real-estate firm Keyes Company, was killed in 2015 by a hit-and-run driver as he biked on Crandon Boulevard in the marked bike lane where the road curves toward the village of Key Biscayne. He was training for the Dolphins Cycling Challenge.
Police need the public's help as they continue to investigate the crash that injured Rouco. So far, they have little to go on.
"It's incredible that somebody can be OK morally with themselves and not do the right thing," he told WPLG.
Have information on the driver, or even the car? Call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers at 305-471-8477.
Follow @HowardCohen on Twitter.
This story was originally published April 11, 2018 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Left to die on the road, cyclist urges hit-and-run driver to 'do the right thing'."