SIOUX CITY, IA.—Jared Fenstermacher spent his 32nd birthday in a Sioux City hospital bed unable to move anything below his waist.
The Pennsylvania cyclist's cross-countryride to raise money for a cancer foundation ended Aug. 11 when he was struck from behind by a distracted driver just 23 miles into Iowa.
Fenstermacher broke bones in both his arms. He suffered a concussion and sustained a serious spinal cord injury that has left him in a wheelchair.
The driver received a traffic citation for following too close to a bicycle and a fine for driving while uninsured. He faces a maximum penalty of $750.
Fenstermacher's family is outraged by Iowa's lack of rules protecting cyclists.
“He wasn’t following my son too closely, he ran him over,” Bob Fenstermacher said last week sitting near his son's hospital bed at Mercy Medical Center of Sioux City.
The Mohrsville, Pa., father said he was dumbfounded when the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office told him there were no other charges it could file against the driver who hit his son.
“Something else has to fit here," he said.
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