JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local man is recovering in the hospital after he said he was hit on the side of the road while changing a tire on a work trailer.
Bryan Hahn, 32, said he was working underneath the trailer when a truck swerved off the road into caution cones he had set up. He was bent over on his knees and elbows when the trailer from the truck hit him from behind.
Another worker, who saw the accident happen, said the truck drove off but was seen pulling into a gas station less than a mile up the road.
Hahn, who works for Manos Pool Construction, said a tire blew on his work trailer on Wednesday at New Kings Road near Pitts Road.
He said he followed proper protocol by setting up safety cones. He was off to the side of the road and there was a bike lane, emergency lane and several feet between Hahn and the road.
Unfortunately, none of that helped him. He said he doesn't remember much but said it was terrifying.
"I remember just an impact," Hahn said from his hospital bed. "I remember being thrown against the trailer I was working on and screaming to my coworkers to call 911."
Hahn said the accident has given him a new appreciation for life.
"It's obvious to me now that God's got his hands on everything," Hahn said. "It's just obvious. I thought when I felt that impact that I was gone. Just don't take life for granted."
After surgery, a broken tailbone and having screws inserted to hold his bones together, Hahn is miraculously recovering at UF Health.
Hahn said right now he is unsure about his recovery process and doesn't even know how long he will be in the hospital. But he said he is working with physical therapists, and they said it could be anywhere from three to six months for him to make a full recovery, and there is a chance he could have trouble walking in the future.
Hahn said his boss and his wife are determined to find who was driving that truck that hit him, because the driver didn't stop.
Amanda Pike, Hahn's friend and co-worker, took a picture from surveillance video from a business blocks away from the crash (pictured below).
"It's just hard to accept that somebody did this to another person and left them, didn't even bother to stop, and we need the public's help," Pike said. "Anyone that day that drove by or the local businesses we've talked to personally, we need your help."
Hahn and his wife have three children, and he said his family has never meant so much to him.
"At the end of the day I'm alive," Hahn said. "It's a miracle from God. It could have been 2 or 3 inches over to the right or left, and it wouldn't have been such a miracle."
Hahn's boss and his wife said they have not heard much from police on the investigation.
They said they can't get a copy of the surveillance video, due to policy restrictions and that the other businesses in the area don't have surveillance that shows the road, so they say right now, they don't have a lot to go by.
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.