16-year-old mows down team of cyclists after trying to blow exhaust fumes on them
“He definitely meant to try and scare these people,” says witness
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A teenage truck driver ploughed into a group of Texas cyclists while allegedly attempting to blow smoke on them, and left several hospitalised on Saturday.
According to Waller County Sheriff, six of the Houston area cyclists were hit by the vehicle, four of whom had to be taken to hospital, including two by helicopter.
Chase Ferrell, who was part of the group of cyclists on the highway, told Fox 26: “I thought someone was dead.”
“I heard a lot of crunching. I heard brakes. Tires screeching. People screaming,” he said.
Mr Ferrell told the news outlet that a black diesel pickup truck swerved over into his lane and got within feet of him, before accelerating to blow smoke in his lane. Shortly afterwards, the driver attempted to do the same thing to cyclists in front of Mr Ferrell.
“The reason he couldn’t stop is because he was accelerating to blow more diesel fuel on these cyclists,” said Mr Ferrell. “He ended up hitting three people before his brakes even started.”
The driver of the pickup truck has been identified as a 16-year-old boy, who remained at the scene and spoke to police.
“There was no reason for this to happen,” said Ferrell. “It wasn’t like he was on his phone. [He] definitely meant to try and scare these people [or] intimidate them in some way. [Maybe he then] made a mistake and ran them over.”
As of Sunday evening the driver of the pickup truck had not been arrested, reported a Fox journalist on Twitter.
Sunday evening UPDATE: No arrests have been made in Waller County, TX after a 16-year-old with a pickup truck ran over 6 bicyclists from the Houston area.
— Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) September 27, 2021
Four of the cyclists had to be hospitalized, including 2 air-lifted to treatment. All are expected to survive. #texas pic.twitter.com/6c303KO9B4
“Right now is prime time for cyclists and people for to be outside working out," said Mr Ferrell. “Please, be careful.”