ORANGE PARK, Fla. – An Orange Park man is recovering in the hospital after being seriously injured in a hit-and-run crash while riding his bicycle on Blanding Boulevard Halloween night.
Mike McArdle was traveling on his bicycle through the intersection in front of the Orange Park Walmart Monday evening when he was hit, cracking the driver's car windshield before the driver apparently drove off.
"I don't really remember a whole lot. I was coming down the sidewalk off of Blanding. I got to the crosswalk at Walmart and the only thing I remember doing is looking at the crosswalk sign and checking the street signs and they were all red. And I went through it," McArdle said. "The next thing I know, I'm sitting on the sidewalk with EMTs (emergency medical technicians) and I'm bleeding out the side of my face and my bike's mangled and they say I just got hit by a car."
As of Wednesday, McArdle was still in the hospital. He was recently transferred out of the trauma unit.
McArdle told News4Jax that he has a fracture skull and was bleeding from the brain.
"It's pretty incredible. I wouldn't have thought I would be walking already or anything like that and it's pretty amazing. I didn't really break anything," McArdle said. "I do have fractures in my skull, but I guess that's what happens when you use your head to go through a windshield."
Charissa Dionne, McArdle's sister, said she was ready to take her children trick or treating when got the call informing her that her brother was involved in a crash.
"My grandmother told me my brother was in accident where he was hit by a car on his bicycle," Dionne said.
Dionne said she hopes that investigators can find the driver, especially after a conversation she had at the hospital.
"From what I heard from the nurses at the hospital, the trauma center, this is happening all the time. And it's something that needs to stop," Dionne said. "I'm a mother of three kids and these people are still on the road driving. (There have been) multiple hit-and-runs this month and this needs to stop."
Investigators continue to look for the driver. The dark-colored hatchback sedan would have had major damage to its windshield, according to deputies.
Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call the Clay County Sheriff's Office.