Geezers shouldn't get away with this!

As a bicyclist, I think geezers should drive smaller vehicles so they know they hit a bicyclist!

Sheriff says elderly man didn't know he struck bicyclist

Associated Press


BALSAM LAKE, Wis. - An elderly motorist accused of striking a Minnesota bicyclist and then leaving the scene apparently thought he hit a deer, the Polk County sheriff said.

Maria Pia Sass, 40, of Minneapolis, suffered critical head injuries when she was struck while riding her bike along a rural road June 18.

Investigators focused on the man as a suspect two days ago after deputies saw his sports utility vehicle had damage to its front.

Sheriff Ann Hraychuck said Thursday the 88-year-old man from Luck has poor vision and should not have been driving. His license was last renewed about two years ago.

"He thought he hit a deer. We don't have any reason to disbelieve him," she said.

Hraychuck said the hood of the man's sports utility vehicle popped up down the road from where Sass was struck. He stopped to close it, realized he struck something, backed up to look, but didn't see anything.

The sheriff said the man was not being held in jail. The department will turn the case over to prosecutors for possible charges once the investigation concludes.

Sass, an assistant public defender from Hennepin County, Minn., was in Wisconsin visiting relatives. She's hospitalized in St. Paul, Minn.