WALLER COUNTY – Waller Police are conducting an investigation half a dozen cyclists say they were struck by a 16-year-old driving a pick-up truck.
It happened Saturday morning after 10:30 on Business 290 in Waller County.
Chase Ferrell was traveling behind the cyclist when the crash happened and says it could have been a lot worse. He says the driver should be held accountable.
“When I pulled up on the scene, I thought I was going to be pulling up to people that were dead,” Ferrell said.
Chase Ferrell says he and several other cyclists were training for the Ironman Marathon.
“A kid in a black truck attempted to ‘roll coal’ us where they accelerate past blowing diesel exhaust on cyclist,” he said.
KPRC2 found several videos of “rolling coal” on YouTube. In the videos, you can see thick, black smoke blowing on cyclist after drivers sped up.
Ferrell said the same thing happened to the group he was training with, and the driver wouldn’t stop doing it.
“It made me mad, so I accelerated to try to catch up to him, so I could take a picture of his truck, take a picture of him or his license plate or something,” he said.
Before Chase knew it, the driver of the truck identified as a 16-year-old hit 6 cyclists. They were taken to the hospital with shoulder, back and neck injuries.
“It’s senseless. It doesn’t make any sense for anybody to do that to any cyclist…it’s pointless,” he said.
Chase says the teen pulled over and spoke to officers, but he was never arrested. While he’s grateful his friends are alive, he says something needs to be done.
“I don’t understand if it was me who had struck someone else, I would be in jail. I don’t understand how it’s come to this point where there are no consequences this far,” Ferrell said.
Police in Waller say no arrest have been made and the case is still under investigation.
Chase says the 6 cyclists are back at home waiting on surgery.
A GoFundMe me page has been set up to help them. If you would like to help, click here.