Bicyclist injured by hit-and-run driver near Dexter thought he would die

"I didn't think I was going to live," he said, "and I wanted to hear my wife's voice again. I didn't think I was going to live because of the way I felt, that everything was draining out of me."

Lummis was losing a lot of blood. A stick had lodged in his hip. When he pulled it out, blood poured out of the wound. 

"As soon as he pulled out the stick, his shorts filled up with blood," his wife, Kathleen Lummis, said. Doctors would later tell them Lummis had lost nearly two quarts of blood.

Police are still seeking the hit-and-run driver.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before others noticed the bike lying on the side of Dexter-Pinckney Road near Fleming Road in Dexter Township. Several people stopped to help. 

Among them was Tanny Casablanca of Saline. She and her fiance, Scott Wynne, pulled their motorcycle over after seeing another car that had stopped to help.

When they found Lummis, not long after he was hit about 9 p.m., he was lying in a pool of blood. "We didn't think he was going to make it," Casablanca said. "He looked up at me and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He said, 'just don't leave me alone to die in the grass on the side of the road.'"

He asked Casablanca to hold his hand. "I said 'you're not going to die,' and he said, 'I know I'm going to die. I've been hit before. I said 'let's think about your son and your wife.' "

Lummis is now home and beginning a long process of recuperation. He and his wife are grateful he didn't have any head injuries. And despite several broken bones in his back and pelvis, he can walk a little bit, and doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

Lummis, however, is angry about the accident and the way drivers often treat him when he's on his bicycle.

He doesn't understand how the driver of the truck couldn't have seen him. Kathleen Lummis said her husband rides with two lights on the front of his body, two on his back and one on the bike. He was also wearing reflective clothing and shoes.

"Someone assaulted me with a deadly weapon, and I survived," Lummis said, "But I could have died. I laid there for like six minutes bleeding." 

If someone hadn't noticed his bike by the road, Lummis said he probably would have died.

Lummis, who regularly bikes from his job at Great Lakes Cycling and Fitness in Ann Arbor to his home in Pinckney, said he was hit earlier this year in Dexter by another driver who also left the scene. He said people have honked at him, swerved their cars at him and thrown things at him while he's been riding.

He doesn't understand why drivers aren't willing to slow down or move over long enough to safely navigate around bikers. "I just want people to know that those people out there are husbands and fathers, sons and daughters," he said. "Would you like someone to take your son or daughter away from you, your parents away from you? That 5 or 10 seconds out of your life, is it worth ruining someone else's life?"

He rides his bike about 300 days a year. As a professional competitive rider, he has to train, and riding back and forth from work allows him to combine training and commuting, thereby allowing him to spend more time with his wife and nearly 4-year-old son. He also said the riding time serves as his meditation time.

"I'm not trying to save the world by riding my bike," he said. "I enjoy it. It makes me happy. I wish people wouldn't keep trying to take it away from me."

Meanwhile, the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department continues to search for the hit-and-run driver. Sheriff's spokesman Derrick Jackson said today that police continue to investigate, but don't have any updates to the case.

The vehicle is believed to be one of the following:

• A 1999 to 2000 Ford Excursion with the passenger side mirror missing
• A 1999 to 2000 Ford F250 pickup, F350 pickup, F450 pickup, or F550 Super Duty truck with the passenger side mirror missing.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Department tip line at 734-973-7711 or Deputy Marcus Kirby at (734) 426-0228.

Kathleen Lummis said the family has received an outpouring of sympathy and help from friends and neighbors.

"We are so appreciative of the surrounding community," she said. "Everyone's made this a lot easier. It's been heartwarming. There's a lot of people who don't have that, and we've been so blessed. It's been breathtaking, it really has."