PORT ORANGE, Fla. – It’s bad enough to leave the scene of an accident. It’s worse when the person you hit is the county sheriff.
A Florida woman said she was shopping on her phone when her vehicle hit Volusia County’s sheriff, who was riding his bicycle.
Michael Chitwood, 57, who has been Volusia County’s sheriff since January 2017, was injured while riding his bicycle in Port Orange on Thursday, WFTV reported.
Paige Bergman, 20, of Deltona, is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving serious bodily injury, according to Volusia County online records.
Chitwood said he decided to take a 20-mile ride on his bicycle and was outside his subdivision when he was hit.
“Next thing I know, boy, I was hit, and hit hard from the rear,” Chitwood said in a video he posted on Twitter. “I go flying off the bike, and all I can tell you was, it was a burgundy-color car because the mirror was impaled in my back.”
Chitwood, who was off duty at the time, was riding his bicycle at about 4:30 p.m. when he was hit by a maroon Hyundai Sonata, WFTV reported. According to online records, Bergman fled the scene of the accident.
Chitwood was taken to an area hospital, where he was treated for a broken fibula, the television station reported. He also needed several stitches but was back at work on Friday.
“I was hit so hard that she knocked me out of my shoes,” Chitwood told WFTV.
Chitwood said the crash was caught on camera by a Waste Pro truck. The driver of the truck, Allen Ramos, parked to help Chitwood after witnessing the crash.
“The car just swerved to the right and just hit him, and they ended up slowing down and sped up and left the scene,” Ramos told WFTV.
Volusia County deputies located Bergman’s car and conducted a traffic stop at her home at about 11:12 p.m. Thursday, according to online records. Bergman told deputies she was shopping on Amazon on her phone when the crash occurred, Chitwood said.
