Runner in fair condition after being struck by vehicle near AF marathon entrance

RIVERSIDE — UPDATE @ 4:30 a.m: Ryan Creager is in fair condition at Miami Valley Hospital after he was hit by a pickup truck while preparing to check-in for the Air Force Marathon last week, according to a hospital representative.

Riverside police cruiser camera video just released, shows rescue crews responding to the scene and taking 48-year-old Creager to the hospital.

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Creager, who was to run the full 26-mile marathon, was struck by a hit-and-run driver on Sept. 17 around 6:40 a.m.

“The intersection of Airway and Spinning at the entrance of the Air Force Marathon, someone was just hit by a truck,” a 911 caller told dispatchers. “It was someone in a silver truck. They just drove off.”

It happened in front of Creager’s girlfriend, Mandy Harris, who was with his mother. They had just let him out of the car to cross Airway Road, said Harris, who believes Creager had the pedestrian light to cross.

“We heard a big thump and seen him landing on the ground,” Harris said. “We seen him laying on the ground, everybody screaming and running. We just completely panicked. I went to the ground. They had to help me up.”

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The police cruiser videos show officers pulling up to help the fallen runner, then a little later, firefighters and ambulance crews make their way to him.

The image of him on the ground, Harris said, is stuck in her head. “We didn’t think he was alive.”

Creager, who was undergoing more surgery, suffered two fractures to both legs and also has a broken foot and collar bone. A deep cash in the back of his head required staples.

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No one has been arrested for the striking Creager.

Harris said she believes the pickup driver went around other cars that had stopped at the traffic light.

“You would think somebody would have chased him,” she said of the truck that hit Creager.

She has this message for the truck driver: “Turn yourself in, you conscience will get you eventually. You can’t hide forever, people talk.”

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