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Injured motorcyclist wants driver to come forward after hit-and-run

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Aaron Sanders was riding his motorcycle on Wednesday from his daughter's house on Highway 7 near the Belmont Drive Inn when a car crossed the center line and snagged his foot, nearly severing it.

A witness stopped and rushed over to make sure Sanders, a volunteer fireman, wasn't crushed under the weight of his bike.

The driver of the car that hit him stopped momentarily, but didn't stop to help Sanders.

Sanders, 30, called his brother.

"He said, 'Help me, help me. I'm on the side of the road and my foot is missing,'" Kenny Buchanan said. "And I said, 'This is a terrible joke.'"

An ambulance took Sanders to the hospital.

His family said he is not angry at the driver who left him in the road. 

"Please come forward," Buchanan said. "We need all the information we can get."

Sanders also knows that the accident could have been worse.

"He said if it (had) just been 6 inches over, he wouldn't be here today," Sanders' sister-in-law, Jaren Buchanan, said.

Sanders, who is waiting to learn if he will lose his foot, wants to know why it happened.

"He wants answers," Jaren Buchanan said. "He wants them to at least try to apologize and do the right thing. He wants to make sure this doesn't happen to anybody else."

Troopers are investigating the hit-and-run and doctors said they will have a better idea on Monday if they can save his foot.

His family was able to connect with the driver who stopped to help him and plans to personally thank him.

Witnesses said the car that caused the crash appeared to be a late 1990s or early 2000 dark-blue or black Mitsubishi Diamanté with damage on driver's side.

Call police if you have any information.

A GoFundMe account was set up to help out with medical bills.

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