PLACER COUNTY, Calif. — An 18-year-old suspect was arrested Thursday, nearly a month after allegedly hitting a well-known cyclist with his car and taking off from the scene in Placer County.
Derek Teel, the Roseville native hit by the car, is an enthusiastic cyclist who turned his passion into his life work — providing strength training for cyclists.
He would ride his bike five times a week and on Jan. 30, he was severely injured.
“(It was a) very regular ride, I mean, honestly, as… uneventful as it gets,” said Teel.
California Highway Patrol says the crash happened on southbound Crosby Herold Road near Wise Road around 1:32 p.m.
Officials say he was thrown off his bike and had “major life threatening injuries.” CHP officers announced Abraham Aguirre-Escobar’s arrest in the case Thursday. He’s now in the Placer County Jail and will appear in court soon.
“No one should blow through a stop sign at 65 miles an hour. Period,” said Teel.
As the car drove off, Teel tried to get out of the road but found he couldn’t.
“My femur was moving around in my leg, so I couldn't crawl. I just laid on my back and I just started waving my hands in hopes that the truck saw me and stopped. And thankfully, they did,” said Teel.
His left leg was severely injured with a broken femur, several fractures along the knee, a broken pelvis, torn colon and collapsed lung.
“I thought I was going to die. So I just thought about my wife and my kids,” said Teel.
Over the next few days, he was in and out of surgeries — something he said was made a little easier due to his optimistic personality and love from his family and friends.
Just four days after the crash, Teel stood up for the first time and was walking with the aid of a walker a few weeks later.
He says he considers himself to be lucky since an off duty nurse was only a minute away from the crash.
“This type of intersection could go five or 10 minutes without a car going through the just country roads,” he said. “The fact that within a minute, I had someone there who knew how to stop severe bleeding. It just saved my life.”
Through prayer, he is touched by the amazing people helping with his recovery three weeks after the crash and can’t wait for what the future holds.
“(It) has reminded me just really how good most people are when it comes down to needing to help somebody. So it's been super powerful. And it's just this weird, weird experience where it's so bad, but there's so much good coming from it,” said Teel.
