Driver who admitted hitting motorcycle speaks out
GRANBURY, Texas - A driver who veered into a motorcycle, knocking two people off a rural North Texas road, is now facing two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The whole incident was caught on a GoPro camera.
Eric Sanders, the driver of the motorcycle, contends the car's driver swerved intentionally. He suffered abrasions in the collision that left his girlfriend in a Fort Worth hospital with a broken wrist and deep arm lacerations.
Sanders said the crash happened Saturday afternoon on a two-lane county road about five miles north of Granbury. The GoPro video shows the motorcycle passing a car, which then veers left over a double yellow center line, upsetting the motorcycle and sending the riders into the roadway.
Sanders' friend, who was wearing the camera, confronted the car's driver, William Crum. At first he said, "I don't care." Then, he claimed he was stung by something that caused him to swerve.
On Monday, 68-year-old Crum was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. His bond was set at $75,000 for each charge.
Crum spoke with FOX 4 from jail on Tuesday.
“I’m pissed off, just to put it bluntly,” said Crum. “The other guy didn't get charged with anything and his own video incriminates him."
Sanders was ticketed for passing in a no passing zone.
“There is remorse for anybody who gets hurt,” said Crum. “I don't want anyone to get hurt, but I choose not to apologize to him ‘cause if he hadn't been there, it wouldn't have happened."
Sanders believes Crum intentionally hit him.
Crum now says he swerved because a spider bit him.
“At first you said it was a bee or a wasp?” said FOX 4’s Lori Brown.
“I said that because it stang so much,” said Crum. “I've never had a, what I believe to be spider at this time.”
Crum says he later found the spider in his bathtub that night.
“If I would have seen him coming, I would have hit my brakes, but…this spider bite, which is getting infected now, maybe it will rot half my leg off and they'll believe I actually was bit."
Crum showed FOX 4 the area where he says was bit.
It was difficult to see if there was a bite.
“After the crash, you said you didn't care,” said FOX 4’s Lori Brown. “Why did you say that?”
“OK, this guy had just chewed me out,” said Crum. “I thought when I looked down and seen the motorcycle when it was beside the car before I could come to a stop, that he was one of these turds that was doing something wrong, and I'd hit him, or he'd hit me or whatever. It happened so fast, I didn't know.”
"He would have continued to slow down until I went around him and when I went around him, he would have hit me,” said Sanders. “It doesn't matter whether it would have been on a striped passing zone or a double yellow line, non-passing zone. I'd have still gotten hit.”
And regarding the refusal by Crum to apologize to Sanders?
"He didn't care about running me off the road and I can't really say, I can’t,” said Sanders. “He needs to be thrown underneath the jail.”
Another man says Crum has lashed out in anger before.
"My heart just stopped because I knew exactly who it was,” said Fisher Rinderknecht when he saw the viral video of Crum swerving into a motorcycle. “I knew that obviously, he didn't learn his lesson.”
Rinderknecht says Crum, who was his neighbor eight years ago, flew into a rage when Rinderknecht and his friends were riding their golf carts up and down the street.
"He chased us back home with a shotgun hanging out of the window, saying that he's gonna shoot us for waking him up from his nap because my golf cart was too loud, and he was waiting at the end of my driveway for my dad to come confront him,” said Rinderknecht.
Eventually, Crum was arrested and later convicted of making a terroristic threat.
DPS investigators now confirm to FOX 4 that another motorcycle rider has accused Crum of chasing him down as recently as this past Friday -- a claim that detectives are looking into.
A GoFundMe account for Sanders has been set up at https://www.gofundme.com/5q6mbheg
WARNING: These videos contains strong language. Mobile users can click here to watch the two-part clip.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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