A 12-year-old on a bicycle was struck by a SUV and left on the side of the road as the vehicle fled the scene. Surveillance footage shows the child turning at an intersection when a red car hits the bike at night on Tuesday, July 14, and speeds off without checking on the boy. Investigators are still searching for the identity of the driver.
Footage shows red SUV hitting the boy and speeding off
Video taken from a surveillance camera at the corner of North Solomon and Toulouse in Mid-City, New Orleans, reveals a SUV striking the back of the bicycle of 12-year-old Asher White Phillips after he made a right turn at the intersection.
The boy rolled through the stop sign, though the vehicle didn’t brake or swerve out of the way to avoid contact with the bike. After the collision, instead of stopping immediately and checking on the boy, the driver ignored the incident and sped off.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” Asher recalled to Fox 8 Live. “I hit the ground and I felt a huge pain in the jaw. My knees were hurting a bit and I just felt all the scrapes and the road rash all over my body.”
Neighbors heard the child screaming for help and called for an ambulance and alerted his parents, Brenna White and Nicholas Phillips, about the incident.
Asher’s parents say he suffered a swollen leg and a broken jaw, which will need to be wired shut when he begins seventh grade. They believe that the boy’s helmet saved him from what might have been a more severe injury.
Phillips, however, is appalled at the driver’s behavior. “I talk to my kids all the time about having high moral character. Doing the right thing,” the father said. “And it’s pretty hard to explain to them how someone truly could be the lowest of the low and do this.”
The family believes the driver could have been a rideshare driver due to a lighted sign in the vehicle’s windshield. The report says the investigation by New Orleans police is still ongoing, with investigators asking anyone in the area with video footage of the SUV or who recognize the vehicle to call the NOPD’s Traffic Division Hit and Run Unit.
