CYCLIST HIT BY MERCEDES: Cyclist left battered after Mercedes slams into him, drives off

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A cyclist was left bleeding and seriously hurt over the weekend after a Mercedes slammed into him and drove off, witnesses said.

The crash happened around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, near the U.S. National Whitewater Center off Belmeade Drive.

Witnesses told Channel 9 that a black Mercedes was traveling in the right lane when it hit 24-year-old Robert Lyew from behind. Lyew was tossed from his mangled bike and landed in bushes filled with thorns.

“It felt like a sledgehammer hit me in the back,” Lyew said.

Lyew, who lives in Hartsville, South Carolina, suffered a severe laceration to his face, three broken ribs, and a punctured lung.

"I'm not really at a state where I want to bring this guy to justice, Lyew said. “I'm feeling more thankful that I'm not paralyzed or dead."

Lee Flythe, a witness who was traveling in a car in the opposite direction, told Channel 9 reporter Gina Esposito he stopped to check on Lyew while his girlfriend called 911.

Flythe said the Mercedes involved never stopped or slowed down after the crash.

“The car basically just takes the bike from under him,” Flythe said. “The bike explodes into the air. The cyclist flies backward on the windshield and then himself is thrown into the air, and thrown into the ditch on the side of the road.”

Police are investigating the crash as a hit-and-run and are searching for the Mercedes’ driver.

“This was the absolute, most brutal and remorseless thing I’ve ever witnessed in my life,” Flythe said.

Flythe is a member of the Charlotte cycling community and has taken his bike down the same road many times.

He said drivers should know to share the road.

“The car is expected to move around the cyclists when its safe,” Flythe said. “This car actually moved farther onto the shoulder and hit the cyclist squarely.”

Flythe is hoping the driver turns himself in.

“It's just mindboggling that someone could do that to another person,” Flythe said.

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