Ron Wingerson’s mind blocks out the attack, but his body still feels the pain.
The 71-year-old Lake Tapps man has been hospitalized since Saturday, when three young adults leaned out of a moving car and beat Wingerson until he crashed his bike along a Puyallup road.
He suffered six broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and severe bruises and abrasions on his face and body.
“I wish they hadn’t done it,” Wingerson said Thursday from his bed at Tacoma General Hospital. “I don’t know what their reason is, but I don’t think it’s one I could justify. It’s sad somebody has to take it out on somebody else.”
Pierce County sheriff’s deputies are searching for a woman and two men who were inside the four-door sedan when it approached Wingerson from behind in the 12800 block of Pioneer Way East just before 3 p.m. Saturday.
Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers is offering up to $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and charges of the suspects.
Wingerson will return home today. His recovery should take six to eight weeks but he’s already moving around a bit and taking short walks through hospital corridors.
He’s achy and uncomfortable but his spirits are high. Wingerson isn’t focused on justice being served as much as getting better.
But neither he nor his partner, Nancy Thorp, understand why someone would randomly assault a cyclist in a bike lane minding his own business.
“It’s pretty sad they can go to this extent and feel OK about it,” Thorp said. “They’re going to have to live with this for the rest of their lives.”
Wingerson has been cycling for a decade. He was training for an organized ride in Oregon the day he was attacked.
He’d left home and was pedaling toward an Orting trailhead when witnesses say two people leaned out the windows of a moving car to punch and push Wingerson.
He recalls riding west.
“The next thing I remember is being picked up and loaded onto a gurney,” Wingerson said.
An off-duty firefighter who had just finished a bike ride with his family nearby saw Wingerson lying in the street and stopped to help. On Thursday, the firefighter brought Wingerson’s bike to the hospital so he could see how minimal the damage is.
The handlebars are scuffed and the rearview mirror needs to be replaced, but it looks to be in good shape.
Wingerson isn’t sure if he’ll get back on his bike after he recovers.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I won’t say no, but I won’t say yes.”
Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653 stacia.glenn @thenewstribune.com
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