Surveillance video shows the moment a driver slammed into a Fort Lauderdale man, tossing him in the air then onto the sidewalk.
“I just heard a rev and saw lights come at me,” Matthew Masters said.
The crash happened on Jan. 16. Masters was walking his bike near NW 16th Street and 7th Avenue.
“All of a sudden, I flew in the air,” Masters said. “My legs flew in the air. I landed in the side of the road and just woke up there.”
The impact knocked him unconscious.
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A sanitation truck driver passing by spotted him and called for help.
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“The pain was excruciating,” he said. “I couldn’t get up, couldn’t move. I’m just lucky and blessed that I wasn’t hurt more than I was.”
It’s a blessing he still feels, despite a long list of injuries -- a fractured pelvis and knee, cuts on his foot and leg, and back pain.
He says he also has mental scars.
“I’m afraid to go out in the street,” Masters said. “I’m afraid to go into the parking lot. I’m afraid this person is going to hurt someone else.”
His bicycle was also left mangled. The only evidence left after the driver took off are broken pieces of the suspect’s car, which he believes was a white Nissan Sentra.
He has a strong message for whoever was behind the wheel.
“Please, just turn yourself in,” he said.
