GASTON, N.C. — A man in Gaston was riding his bike to a friend’s house on Valentine’s Day when a car hit him and then kept driving.
Hugh Stone II was riding along Highway 74 near Crowder’s Mountain. Police said the driver who hit Stone should have known what happened, but she kept going.
“I see mailboxes flying up behind me and I hear tires screeching,” Stone said.
He said another car behind him nearly ran him over. A witness called the police.
“I still don’t see how somebody could not have a heart, to not stop,” his wife, Delores Blalock, said.
Stone told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon that he spent a week in an induced coma with a brain injury and fractured back.
“It was touch and go,” Blalock said. “It’s altered our lives forever.”
Stone said the pain in his back and head is intense. But what hurts the most is the moments he loses with his daughter.
“I can’t pick up my little girl,” he said. “I can’t pick her up and hold her. I’m scared to death I’m going to fall with her.”
The injuries have kept Stone from his job as a construction worker, he said. And doctors still aren’t sure of the extent of his brain injury.
“I don’t know if I will ever get my full memory back. Or my full abilities back,” Stone said.
A grand jury indicted Kathryn Benton for felony hit and run and causing serious injuries.
It won’t heal the injuries, but Stone said it meant someone would answer for the hurt he feels.
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