Tony Quinones had just shook the hand of another cyclist, wishing him good luck for this weekend’s road race in a mountain town in Arizona, when a truck driver sped up and rammed into the group of cyclists.
He would suddenly see “bodies on the hood, bodies being thrown left and right” about six minutes after the competition started, Quinones said in an interview Sunday.
The sounds of things breaking or being crushed as the vehicle swept past cyclists on Saturday were quickly replaced by his cries of pain, including those of the cyclist Quinones had just met.
Authorities in the small town of Show Low said the suspect, an unidentified 35-year-old man, fled in the van and was injured by police shortly thereafter.
Of the seven hospitalized cyclists, six are in critical condition and one is stable, police said in a statement. The suspect, a local resident, is in stable condition, police said.
Quinones, 55, said that like him, the man he had just met was originally from New Mexico, and that after being hit by the truck, he began to bleed from his head and nose.
“He suffered a compound fracture, and all I would say to him was, ‘Hey buddy, keep breathing, keep breathing. Help is on the way. Friend, you’re going to be fine, ‘”Quinones said. “It is foolish. And it wasn’t just one. There were about six, seven, eight guys who were doing the same thing ”.
Authorities were trying to determine the reason the driver rammed into the group of participants in the annual 53-mile (93-kilometer) Bike the Bluff race, which drew hundreds of participants. Police shot the suspect outside a hardware store in Show Low, a town about a three-hour drive northeast of Phoenix.
“We do not know his motives,” said Show Low municipal spokeswoman Grace Payne.
Quinones said some of the cyclists initially wondered if the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. But Quinones said he saw the man accelerate towards the cyclists.
“It went straight to us,” he said.
Witnesses said wrecked helmets, shoes and bicycles were left on the street after the accident, and a tire ended up stuck in the grill of the truck that struck the cyclists around 7:25 a.m. Saturday in the center of Show. Low.
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