A motorcyclist is fighting for his life and possibly facing the loss of his leg after a hit-and-run incident last Wednesday on Interstate 95 in Dania Beach. Jorge Juan Rivera, originally from Colombia, was standing on the shoulder of I-95 near his broken-down motorcycle when he was struck by a car. The driver responsible fled the scene, leaving Rivera severely injured, according to a report by NBC Miami.
Rivera, who has been hospitalized at Broward Health Medical Center, was unable to identify the vehicle that hit him. The impact caused a catastrophic injury to his leg. Doctors have since indicated that there is a high likelihood he will lose his limb. “They said there is not much they can do, nine chances out of 10 they’re going to have to cut the leg,” Ramiro Rivera, Jorge's cousin, told NBC Miami in an interview.
Ramiro shared that he was on a phone call with Jorge at the precise moment the accident occurred. The line went dead, and moments later, he received a photo showing his cousin's destroyed leg. “The phone shut down at the moment when I was on the call and one minute later he sent a picture, his leg was destroyed, and he’s crying, asking for help,” he recounted in a statement obtained by NBC Miami. The family is vigorously seeking public assistance to help track down the driver responsible.
In a plea for compassion, Ramiro Rivera highlights the desperate need for information that could lead to the driver being apprehended and brought to justice. "Please have mercy. First of all, as a human, you don’t do that to a person. If you know you did something bad, my cousin could’ve died in that single moment if no one came to rescue him,” Ramiro said according to NBC Miami. He also expressed gratitude to the anonymous person who stopped to call an ambulance for his injured cousin.
As Jorge Juan Rivera faces a precarious future with the potential of more surgeries, his family continues to make appeals to the conscience of the community, urging anyone with information about the incident to come forward. Their story also resonates on BNN Breaking, where they shared their hope that the public's assistance will lead to justice for Jorge. Florida Highway Patrol is accepting any leads that may help in the investigation of this hit-and-run accident.
