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Motorcycle rider claims hit-and-run driver left him for dead

NORTH BEAVER TOWNSHIP, Pa — A motorcycle rider told Channel 11 he’s lucky to be alive after being the victim of a hit-and-run crash.

Dean Friend was driving on Route 18 in North Beaver Township on Monday morning when he says he noticed a truck tailgating him.

“This truck out of nowhere kept coming up behind me, kept running up on my rear end.  I noticed he was texting,” Friend said. “The last time he came up on me, I guess too fast, and the next thing I know I'm sliding down the road.”

Friend told Channel 11 he was enjoying a 6 a.m. ride on his new motorcycle when the Chevy Silverado clipped him.

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“I looked right at him and I collapsed. And he just left me, left me laying in the middle of the road,” Friend said.

The crash happened in front of Magistrate Nicholson’s office, and Friend said there’s surveillance video of it.

“I just don't know what kind of human being can just hit somebody and leaving (sic) them laying in the road,” he said.

The driver did stop for a brief second, Friend told Channel 11, but then took off.

Friend said he was taken by ambulance to Jameson Hospital in New Castle, then flown to UPMC 
Presbyterian Hospital. He's thankful for the protective gear, which he says saved his live.

“I don't know what was going through my mind except, ‘I'm going to die,” he said.