ILLINOIS MEDICAL DISTRICT — From his hospital bed, Scott Jacobson has replayed the three sentences he remembers screaming at the driver of the beat-up SUV that tried to run him over Monday.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Why won’t you put on your brakes?”
“You’re killing me.”
Since Monday night, when emergency workers pulled the 47-year-old McKinley Park man and his 1970s Motobecane bicycle from underneath a 2000 Dodge Durango near 35th and Lowe, Jacobson has been in Stroger Hospital's intensive care unit.
Around 11 a.m. Friday, nurses put fresh bandages on his hands and right shoulder. His road rash was so bad after the accident you could see muscle and bone.
Metal pins and screws now hold together his pelvis, broken in three places when the Durango came to a stop, trapping Jacobson under the SUV’s oil pan.
“It was really just very strange,” Jacobson said, feeling loopy from pain medication. “I keep hearing the line in my head, pleading with somebody to not run me over.”
The accident happened around 6 p.m. Monday. After dropping off his two sons at De La Salle for wrestling practice, Jacobson was riding home.
Rolling west down 35th Street, Jacobson watched 26-year-old Joshua Thomas, of Parkway Gardens, pull the black Durango to the side of the road. It looked like he was trying to park.
Jacobson tried to pass near Lowe, but the SUV “erratically” whipped on the road.
The Durango plowed into Jacobson.
“My bicycle wedged under the back portion by the rear differential, and my body balled up and lifted the the front of the car up by the oil pan,” Jacobson said. “I had the full weight of the engine on top of my body.”
Jacobson screamed for Thomas to stop.
“The car kept dragging me and dragging me and dragging me,” Jacobson said. “I thought I was dead.”
Thomas finally stopped the SUV in front of the firehouse at 35th and Lowe. All the yelling and screaming caught the attention of some nearby firefighters.
Bystanders ran to Jacobson, still pinned beneath the SUV’s oil pan.
“Get this car off me,” Jacobson remembers saying. “Get it off me.”
Chicago firefighters help Scott Jacobson. [Submitted]
Freed from the Durango, Jacobson felt the pain surge through his body, covered in blood and cuts. A tree branch even pierced his arm.
Police arrested Thomas, who now stands charged with reckless driving, making an improper U-turn and failing to be cautious around pedestrian in the roadway. He was released on bond Tuesday.
Thomas was also driving with a revoked license — a detail that makes Jacobson think the driver tried to run him over to get away.
“It felt so personal,” Jacobson said. “I felt the insanity of someone doing something directly to me knowing that they were controlling that thing that was destroying me.”
Joshua Thomas, 26, stands charged with reckless driving and driving on a revoked license . [Chicago Police]
Doctors expect Jacobson to recover from his injuries within the next six months.
Following the accident, Bridgeport residents launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for Jacobson’s medical treatment. As of Friday afternoon, the campaign has raised over $21,000.
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