{"id":408650,"date":"2026-09-23T21:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/408650\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T21:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T21:42:09","slug":"winter-garden-cyclist-says-helmet-saved-him-in-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/408650\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Garden cyclist says helmet saved him in hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cyclist recovering after hit-and-run in Winter Garden says his helmet saved his life<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wesh.com\/news-team\/d64991c0-57a6-4a97-9fce-a416cb389aaa\" aria-label=\"Kennedy Mason profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790199729_164_d64991c0-57a6-4a97-9fce-a416cb389aaa_1773345650.file.png\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Kennedy Mason\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>WINTER GARDEN, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">A 29-year-old Winter Garden man says his helmet saved his life after he was struck by a vehicle while riding his bicycle in Winter Springs early Thursday morning. The driver fled the scene.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">Josh Lackey exclusively told WESH 2 News he is still recovering from the hit-and-run, which left him with injuries to his arms, knees and hands, as well as a broken nose and a concussion.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">&#8220;I definitely am dealing with post-concussion symptoms,&#8221; Lackey said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">The crash destroyed the back wheel of his bike, leaving it in pieces.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">The Florida Highway Patrol said Lackey was traveling in the bike lane Thursday, Sept. 17, on Tuskawilla Road just south of Windwillow Circle around 6 a.m. when the front of a vehicle hit him and left the scene.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">&#8220;The car and I were traveling the same direction, and the car was behind me and either didn&#8217;t see me, regardless of having lights on the front and back of my bike, or just disregarded me and hit the back wheel,&#8221; Lackey said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">He said he remembers very little about what happened next.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">&#8220;From what the FHP trooper told me, I was just, like, lying in the road for a little bit,&#8221; Lackey said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">While Lackey works to heal, troopers are searching for the driver, though they currently have no vehicle description.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard the statistics about finding hit-and-run drivers and solving those kinds of cases, but it&#8217;s hard to really be intimately involved with that now,&#8221; Lackey said.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">Through it all, Lackey said one thing made the difference in saving his life: his helmet.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"11\">&#8220;The reason that I am the way I am today is because I&#8217;m wearing a helmet,&#8221; Lackey said. &#8220;The fact that I don&#8217;t have further brain damage, the fact I&#8217;m not in a hospital right now, is definitely all a testament to that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"12\">Anyone with information regarding the crash is asked to contact the Florida Highway Patrol or Crimeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cyclist recovering after hit-and-run in Winter Garden says his helmet saved his life WINTER GARDEN, Fla. \u2014 A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[162298,1776,2675,618,4059,89886,5154,162296,31645,1210,139,141,140,725,732,918,162297,8592],"class_list":["post-408650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-back-wheel","tag-crash","tag-driver","tag-florida-highway-patrol","tag-front","tag-helmet","tag-hit-and-run","tag-josh-lackey","tag-knee","tag-life","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-scene","tag-vehicle","tag-wesh","tag-winter-garden-cyclist","tag-winter-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}