DETROIT (WXYZ) — Avid bicyclist and Detroit businessman Joseph “JP” O’Grady was run over by a car Tuesday while riding his bike to his company Detroit Hustles Harder in Eastern Market. The driver then fled the scene.
Thirty-eight-year-old O’Grady was riding his bike in the city around 4:30 p.m. near Gratiot Avenue and Chene Street when he fell and a silver vehicle ran him over.
While initially jumping up from the adrenaline after the hit, the injuries he sustained have kept him in a trauma unit at a local hospital for days. The entire ordeal was caught on surveillance video.
"It just makes me really sad that you can't just stop and help a fellow human," O’Grady's mom Kathie Patrico said about the hit. "He has a broken pelvis, a broken sternum. His hip, six ribs are all fractured and he has three compressed discs in his back."
According to Patrico, O’Grady was on his way to his Detroit Hustles Harder location. O’Grady is co-owner and helped start the company out of the love he has for the city of Detroit and his family.
"My dad was a sales person and my dad always had the sign up that said 'What is hustle,'" Patrico said. "It was about working hard and having the perseverance to make things happen."
Despite his injuries, O’Grady is alert and recovering, but Patrico wants to make sure this never happens to another bicyclist ever again.
"I just want to advocate for all the bike riders out there. keep your eyes all the way around," she said. "He did not wear a helmet and he is now advocating for people to wear helmets."
The Detroit Police Department is investigating. Friends have set up a GoFundMe page for O'Grady to help with medical bills, rehabilitation and him not being able to work as he recovers.
