Police: Help us find driver who intentionally hit bicyclist in Piedmont Heights
Monday evening crash left Greg Germani in hospital
- Wikimedia Commons/Rudolf Stricker
- Police are looking for the driver of a red Dodge Nitro, an example of which is shown above, with front-end damage
Atlanta Police want the public’s help finding the driver whom they think intentionally struck Greg Germani, a popular bicyclist and creator of the Atlanta Time Machine website.
APD says a motorist on Monday evening struck and seriously injured Germani, 50, while he was pedaling in northeast Atlanta’s Piedmont Heights neighborhood. Police think Germani was struck by the vehicle after he and the driver had a verbal altercation. Germani is now in stable condition at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Police are working with few details. According to Decaturish, the APD thinks the suspect is a black male under the age of 30 who was driving a red sports utility vehicle, most likely a Dodge Nitro. Investigators think the vehicle likely has front-end damage. At a press conference yesterday in Buckhead about the case, Decaturish says, police said investigators might have some video of the incident but are “having some issues” with the recording equipment.
On Tuesday, we referred to the incident as a hit-and-run. But APD are calling what happened on Monday evening to be aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. The difference being, APD spokesman Kim Jones told CL is yesterday, that a hit-and-run (or “leaving the scene of an accident”) involves, well, an accident. When there’s intent, Jones says, it’s aggravated assault with a motor vehicle.
Rebecca Serna of the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition, the city’s leading advocacy group for two-wheelers, said on Tuesday night that the nonprofit was keeping Germani, a coalition member, in its thoughts.
“Leaving the scene of a crash, regardless of what caused it, aside from being cowardly, delays getting treatment for the crash victim,” Serna said in an email.
The ABC also called on Atlanta Police to release more information about the number of hit-and-runs that involve bicyclists, “so we can raise awareness of this life or death issue,” Serna said. Efforts to receive numbers in the past have been difficult, she said.
As CL went to press this morning, we were waiting to hear from APD if the department kept statistics on hit and runs involving bicyclists.