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Redondo Beach teen dragged by hit-and-run driver
Fifteen-year-old LeBron was riding home on the bicycle when a truck ran the stop sign, hitting him squarely and then trapping him and his bike under the front bumper. How you can help him on his road to recovery: https://bit.ly/3faakWy
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. - Fifteen-year-old LeBron was riding home on the bicycle he had just saved up to purchase this summer. He was wearing his helmet, and being careful, since it was nighttime. On the corner of Rindge and Marshallfield lanes in Redondo Beach, he slowed for the stop sign and started to cross when a truck ran the stop sign, hitting him squarely, and trapping him and his bike under the front bumper.
"I felt my hands on the cement, burning as he dragged me for at least half a block," LeBron said, explaining he was trying to keep his head up, as his helmet flew off his head, thinking if his head hit the ground, "I’d be dead."
The truck, caught on ring video, came to a stop. That’s where you see LeBron getting up. The driver backs up enough to dislodge the bike and proceeds to drive away. "He never asked if I was ok, or anything else" said LeBron, who was taken by neighbors to his home and ended up in a hospital. The skin has been taken off most of his back, his legs, and his hands.
"It’s a miracle he’s alive" said his mother, Christina, who is taking time off from work to take care of him at home. She is a single mom of two, and can not afford the bills coming in for LeBron’s care, which is why neighbors and friends have put together a GoFundMe page asking for some help.
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More than anything, though, she wants the driver caught. "Why would he just drive away? Who does that," she said. Redondo Beach Police want to know the same thing. They said the driver looks to be Hispanic, between 35-40 years old. The truck is a Dodge, possibly from 1987 or 1989. Anyone with information is asked to give them a call at 310-379-2477.
LeBron said the man didn’t say anything, but appeared to be "out of it" as if drunk, but again, didn’t the driver didn't say anything to him. LeBron won't be riding his bike for some time as he has to heal from injuries that may end up taking him to a skin specialist. His new bike is trashed, and the helmet is bent, but he knows, as his mom said, "in the scheme of things, he is very lucky, as it could have been worse." It may be, said his mom, if "this driver is not arrested and taken off the streets, the next kid may not be so lucky."