Hit-and-run driver who injured cyclists arrested

MIAMI (WSVN) -- Police have arrested the driver who allegedly struck two cyclists and fled the scene.

On Thursday, police charged Michele Traverso, 25, with leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury and driving with a suspended license.

Investigators discovered the driver's badly damaged car in a parking lot on Wednesday night. The windshield sustained serious damage and the hood was caved in. The passenger side mirror was also missing.

"Somebody did this and didn't stop to see if we were OK," said Enda Walsh, one of the cyclists injured in the accident.

According to police, Traverso struck Walsh and his friend, Aaron Cohen, 36, as they were biking across the Rickenbacker Causeway to Key Biscayne Wednesday morning. Traverso fled the scene, leaving Walsh with a broken ankle and Cohen in critical condition.

"The surgeon told us, and these were his words, 'This is a very grave situation,'" said Walsh.

Cohen is at Jackson Memorial Hospital with a serious head injury. Doctors removed his spleen and doctors performed surgery to relieve some of the swelling in his brain.

"It is with total disbelief that something like this would happen to someone who is so good, so honest and such a loving father," Stephen Cohen said about his son. "He's given me the greatest pleasures of my life and I can't express what tremendous concern and hurt this is to me and all of the members of our family."

"He's in critical condition," said Patty Cohen, the victim's wife. "We won't know for awhile."

Last year another cyclist was hit by a car and killed on the Rickenbacker Causeway. That driver fled the scene and was later found to have been drunk.

Cohen's friends gathered at the hospital and are praying for the best.

"There's no reason for a cyclist to get hit on Key Biscayne, unless the driver is not paying attention or there is something wrong with the driver."

Detectives are still investigating this incident and hope to get more information out of the driver.

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