JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local man who fears he will never walk again after he was hit by a motorcyclist who was not insured is making a plea to anyone who operates a motor vehicle.
Get insurance, Michael Williams urges, so what he’s going through won’t happen to someone else.
Williams, 61, has endured multiple major surgeries since being struck by a motorcyclist while riding his bicycle on Philips Highway and Emerson Street. That motorcyclist did not have insurance.
“They are not sure if I’m ever going to walk again,” said Williams, who is unemployed and does not have health insurance.
Williams said he was riding his bicycle on May 10 on what was a normal day when he began crossing at the crosswalk of Philips Highway and Emerson Street just before 10 p.m.
According to a Florida Traffic Crash Report, the motorcycle that crashed into Williams shattered, and the motorcyclist was taken to the hospital with leg pain.
Williams had injuries all over his body.
“It flipped me. I cracked my head open,” Williams said.
He spent weeks in the hospital recovering from head-to-toe injuries. Now he’s in rehabilitation and still has more surgeries to go.
Police were able to find Real Time Crime Center footage of the crash; however, since the officer couldn’t determine who had the right of way, the person at fault was undetermined.
But Williams believes he was in the right, and if the motorcyclist had been insured, he wouldn’t be facing tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses on his own.
“I’m kind of like, my life is down the drain,” Williams said. “I was an innocent pedestrian crossing the street legally and my life, I just lost my whole life in a matter of seconds.”
According to the Insurance Information Institute, Florida is No. 6 for the most uninsured drivers on the roadway.
A local insurance agent said approximately 20% to 25% of drivers are on the road every day without insurance.
Williams wants to encourage all drivers to get insurance in case an accident like this happens to someone else. A GoFundMe has been created to help pay for his medical bills.