Paige Bergman told police she thought she had hit a mailbox. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood suffered a fractured fibula and bruising in the collision.
A Florida woman was allegedly online-shopping on her phone when she struck a man on a bicycle that turned out to be the local sheriff, according to authorities. Paige Bergman, 20, was charged with leaving the scene an accident with serious bodily injury.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood tells Inside Edition he suffered a fractured fibula and a nasty bruise on his back in the incident, which was captured on dashcam.
“There’s stitches in my back and I keep suffering from massive headaches. This could have been a lot worse,” Chitwood said.
Hours later, using traffic surveillance cameras, police tracked down the alleged driver. When approached by police, Bergman told officers that she thought she hit a mailbox. Her grandparents came outside to see what was going on.
“She did not hit a mailbox. Do you want to know what she hit?” an officer is heard asking them in body cam footage of the arrest. “Mike Chitwood — the sheriff.”
Police say Bergman told them she was shopping on Amazon while driving.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for us as a society to say that this is unacceptable — that people are losing their lives or they’re suffering life-altering injuries all because of this,” Chitwood said.
Bergman was released after posting $2,500 bail.
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