Gulf Stream police search for driver responsible for hitting cyclist on A1A Sunday

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - An avid cyclist is battling back from a broken collar bone and a collapsed lung. James Miller went home from Bethesda Hospital East Tuesday, two days after being hit and thrown from his bike in a hit and run.

A 75 mile bike ride on A1A took took a bad turn Sunday as Miller was riding through Gulf Stream. Miller remembers seeing a black SUV pulling a trailer coming up beside him.

"Ironically enough there were mountain bikes sticking out from the trailer and one of the handle bars from a bike hit me in the back and shot me off my bike," says Miller.

He laid there until paramedics arrived, his fellow riders tried to stop the driver.

"They didn't slow down even while people who are fast cyclists went to chase them down," says Miller.

Miller should recover fully, but says this raises the issue about sharing the road. 

Mark Hassell rides with the Bill Bone Racing Club in West Palm Beach. He says many drivers don't realize cyclists are entitled to the road by law.

"It'll take more advocacy, just from this experience with James we can tell we're not getting the message out and we need to educate better than we're doing," says Hassell.

Hassell says the most important rule is that drivers have to give cyclists a 3-foot buffer when driving past them. That clearly wasn't the case for Miller on Sunday. His recovery means he won't be back on two wheels for a while, it's just now sinking in.

"I can't train, I'm off my bike for two months, it didn't hit me until now," says Miller.

Miller's friends did catch part of the drivers license plate 3-5-F. Gulf Stream police have sent that off to the state to try and track the driver. They're looking for a black SUV towing a black trailer.