Driver In Hit-And-Run Bike Accident Held For Trial
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A man accused of plowing into a bicyclist in Highland Park and driving off will stand trial.
Mark McCluskey, 26, waived his preliminary hearing after he was charged with hitting 76-year-old David Wood and leaving the scene last week.
Wood is still in the hospital.
A witness was prepared to testify about what happened on September 4.
"I heard a loud, like metallic crunching noise off to my left, turned in time to see a grey Dodge Stratus just plow over a couple of road signs," Greg Brown, of Highland Park, said. "Stop sign was snapped right off at the base."
Brown says he watched McCluskey smoke a cigarette as he left the scene. Initially, even he wasn't aware that an injured man was lying on the road in need of immediate medical care.
"I didn't immediately realize that that flash that I'd seen in my peripheral vision was not another sign or a post or something, but a person had been struck.
"That noise I heard was – I rushed over there to see what had been damaged and I see a mangled back bicycle tire, an old man lying on his back on the ground, his helmet and backpack a couple feet ahead of him on the sidewalk, looked like his bicycle had been rear-ended."
McCluskey, charged with an accident involving damage to a vehicle and reckless driving, was released from jail Tuesday.
He was ordered to stay away from drugs and alcohol, give up his driver's license and stay away from the victim and the victim's family.
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