CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- A Cape Coral motorcyclist is speaking out after he was hit and badly injured by a careless driver.
The incident happened Friday morning at the intersection of Cultural Park Boulevard and Hancock Bridge Parkway, as Eliezer Serrano was on his way to work. A woman in a pickup truck made a left turn onto Hancock Bridge Parkway, as Serrano was going north. He was going through a green light on Cultural Park Boulevard.
Serrano was thrown off his bike. The impact was so great, his helmet split open. Now he has a broken nose, several fractures in his face as well as other broken bones, and bruises. His motorcycle was also totaled. "I've seen a lot of my friends go down. I've seen a lot of my friends die. 23 years of driving a motorcycle and I just never thought it would happen to me," he said. "The only thing I remember is lights from a silver pickup turning in behind the vehicles in front of me, and cut me off in traffic. If I didn't have the helmet on, I would've been dead."
Serrano does not think he'll ever get on a bike again. He believes drivers in Florida do not respect motorcycles. He said now that season is underway in Cape Coral, he is seeing more accidents every day. "It's like everybody is in a rush because people are taking their time looking around. The people that are normally running around, they want to get around those people from up north."
Serrano told 4 In Your Corner there is no excuse for the reckless driving, and wants people to plan ahead and slow down. "Everyone knows this happens every year," he said.
According to Cape Coral Police, accidents in busy intersections in the Cape, like Hancock Bridge Parkway and Cultural Park Boulevard, happen 1 to 2 times a week. That is 50 to 100 crashes a year, requiring them to do constant traffic enforcement at several city intersections.
The woman involved in the crash was found to be at fault. She was cited for a moving traffic violation.
