ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A man arrested Tuesday is accused of trying to run after striking a bicyclist with a box truck in Orange County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Troopers were dispatched around 8 p.m. to two scenes, that of the crash itself — near the intersection of U.S. 441 (Orange Blossom Trail) and Woodsmere Avenue — and to mile marker 90A on eastbound Interstate 4, where the box truck driver had been stopped and detained by Orange County sheriff’s deputies, an arrest affidavit states.
The driver, identified as 41-year-old Jose Agustin Batista Grullon of Orlando, was arrested by responding troopers to face a charge of failing to remain at the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury, according to his affidavit.
Witnesses told troopers that they saw a Ryder box truck exit a parking lot or side street when the front of the vehicle struck a person on a bicycle. The truck then allegedly slowed before it continued moving, “causing the bicycle and rider to be dragged underneath the truck into the center of northbound Orange Blossom Trail,” the affidavit states.
At least one witness rendered aid to the bicyclist while another followed the box truck until deputies were able to take over, troopers said.
The bicyclist was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center, according to the affidavit. Troopers said the bicyclist was critical and unstable at the time of this report.