APD: Driver who hit cyclist fled the scene
CBS 42 Reporter: Katherine Stolp
Last Update: 1:53 pm [7/1/09]
Austin police are searching for the driver they say hit and injured a cyclist in Downtown Austin last month and then fled the scene.

The accident happened on the corner of Fifth and Lavaca Streets on June 23.  Detectives said they have no leads.

KEYE's Katherine Stolp spoke exclusively to the victim after the suspected taxi cab hit him.

At 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, 27-year-old Jarrod Marfin left a friend's birthday party downtown and headed north on Lavaca. Marfin says a car clipped the back of his tire, sent him flying over the handlebars and into the street. Witnesses told him a taxi cab driver struck the bike and then sped off.

Marfin, who has to speak through a wired shut, broken jaw says, "I hit the concrete here, chin split like this." He says, there was "blood everywhere," as he painfully recounts a driver hitting him while on his bike and then fleeing the scene.

"It's aggravating, people hit you and run, with no care for life," Marfin says.

Two witnesses ran to help but then left when a friend arrived to pick him up.

In all the chaos, the victim's friend didn't gather any information from them and left the scene. Marfin says, "It's aggravating, wish you could have gotten the information."

When Marfin filed a police report from the hospital the next day, he feared it was too late.

Police say there are no witnesses and no surveillance video. Police do have a lot of cases that go unsolved because they just don't get the right information.

Now Marfin and his mother are pleading for the public's help, "I don't think people realize what their actions do to people and the victim," says Marfin.

Marfin also says he's, "just amazed someone would drive off."