Chicago police said that about 12:15 a.m. in the 3600-block of Clark Street, the bus driver struck two parked cars and then a pedicyclist on the roadway, then fled the scene. They said he was subsequently placed under arrest and charged.
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The pedicyclist was Sarah Yopp, who was on her pedicab outside Wrigley Field when she was run down by the small, mushroom-painted merchandise bus as it plowed through a busy intersection.
"I said 'please,' you can see my hand go out in the video. I was like 'Please, please, please, don't hit me,'" she recalled. "He mouthed 'sorry,' but oh well! And then ran me over."
Video shows people screaming and scrambling to help her up, and the small decorated bus just keeps driving.
"He hit that Prius again and then continued down Addison hitting several parked cars," Yopp said. "He looked me in the eye. I asked him many times, please just give me a second to back up, and he ran me over."
People bolted behind the bus, banging on the sides trying to stop the driver. Not long after that, Chicago police chased him down and charged 40-year-old Bryan Rollins of California with drunk driving, a handful of traffic violations, driving without insurance and failing to give notice of an accident.
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But the badly bruised veteran pedicab driver said it's not nearly enough.
"This wasn't like I was in the way and he was turning. He premeditated ran me over. So to me that's attempted manslaughter," Yopp said.
Pictures don't quite do it justice, but Yopp said her pedicab is now unusable as it is; the brakes are a bust, so is the throttle line, and that's just the tangible damage.
Yopp said she hasn't been able to work since the crash and there's at least $1,000 worth of damage to her pedicab bike. She also wants the driver to face more serious charges.
"This wasn't like I was in the way and he was turning. He premeditated ran me over. So to me that's attempted manslaughter," she said.
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