Cyclist's life saved thanks to helmet -- and smoking ban

As he desperately gripped the moving SUV's front fender, David Murray wondered who was shouting.

"I heard people screaming and yelling and I had no idea why," the Glendale Heights man said Monday.

Within seconds, a Friday night ride on his motorcycle turned into a life-or-death situation. A rear-end collision left Murray trying to prevent himself from being run over -- his helmet bumping against a spinning tire.

Fortunately for Murray, Tom Genge was there -- pushing against the vehicle to try to stop it. Staring into the driver's eyes, Genge pounded and hollered as if his life depended on it. In fact, that life was Murray's.

If not for Genge and other witnesses who jumped to his aid -- and a helmet he wore for the first time this year -- Murray knows he'd be dead.

Oddly enough, the state's smoking ban also played a starring role. Many of the people who leapt in to save him were standing outside the Avalanche Pub in Glendale Heights grabbing a smoke when Murray's life flashed before their eyes.

The chain of events started around 6 p.m. when Murray slowed down for a turning truck along northbound Bloomingdale Road. He hit the brakes, but his motorcycle didn't stop.

"I thought the bike was taking off on me. Then I realized I was being hit," the 47-year-old man said.

Genge, who was driving in front of Murray, looked in his rearview mirror to make sure the motorcycle had slowed as he made his own turn.

What he saw shocked him into slamming on the brakes.

"This guy plowed into him like he wasn't even there," Genge said. The motorcycle did a "360, back over front end," with Murray in tow.

Murray sailed through the air, onto the pavement and beneath the front bumper of the moving SUV, Genge said.

"It was happening in slow motion," Murray said. "I thought the guy didn't realize I was under the car."

As his helmet scraped along the ground and bumped against the tire, Murray's legs bounced against the other tire on the opposite side. He was struggling to hang on to the fender and stop falling further beneath the vehicle.

"I heard the crash at first and thought 'Oh my God, that truck just hit the motorcycle'," said witness Matt Corbin, who was standing outside the Avalanche. "I saw the individual still being dragged under the vehicle, and I went in and asked them to call 911."

Then he ran, with others, toward the SUV.

Genge, who was trying to stop the SUV, said he felt the vehicle accelerate and leapt onto the hood, screaming, swearing and pounding his fists on the windshield in an attempt to get the driver to stop. Others arrived to stand in front and slow it down.

"I somehow kept on jumping ahead of the wheel," Murray said of his below-the-scenes ordeal, which dragged him for at least 15 feet.

Genge said the driver and passenger then jumped out and started running -- but left the vehicle in gear. While some of the witnesses went after the two men, Genge and others stopped the SUV. And not a minute too soon.

"He was very, very close to being pinned to the curb," Corbin said.

Genge had one foot pushing against the curb, fighting to keep it apart from Murray.

"I couldn't believe in my heart this man was doing this," he said. "I don't know if he knew this guy was under the truck."

Corbin had his own struggles.

"(I) saw the guy getting out of the truck and was fortunate enough to tackle him," he said, adding he held onto the man until police arrived.

Officers eventually arrested Omera Perez Roman, 25, of 272 N. Swift Road, Addison, on charges of obstruction of justice, felony aggravated driving while intoxicated, driving while intoxicated while license revoked and driving while intoxicated without insurance. He is being held in DuPage County jail on $300,000 bond.

Murray was lifted from beneath the SUV and sat on the curb -- all moving parts seemingly in working order.

"The thing that astonished me the most, but didn't surprise me, was the way people came together to get this guy out of there and stop these guys from getting away," Corbin said.

Murray spent two days in the hospital with severe bruising to his hip. He has road rash on his back where the pavement wore through his leather jacket, and tire marks on one leg.

Yes, he'll forevermore wear a helmet.

He doesn't know the names of the 20 or so people who helped him, but he said he's thankful to every one of them. In the minutes after the crash, he was still in such shock, he didn't realize everything they'd done to help him.

"It took me a little while to realize these people saved my life by standing in front of the (truck)," he said.

Perhaps not surprisingly, it took the other participants a little while to recover from the shock of what they had done as well.

"It was one of those adrenaline scenarios," Corbin said, "where everyone was out to do the right thing and no one was thinking about themselves."