WICKER PARK — A cyclist who was hit on the head in a collision with a rider on video has launched a GoFundMe for his recovery.
His cyclist, Trajan Vivens, 23, was hit after locking out the rear window of his van in an escalating line that began Sunday night.
In a post on his GoFundMe fundraising website, Vivens wrote that he needed a tooth fixed and that his insurance would only cover part of the cost.
Vivens has raised $335 as of Tuesday morning, but he needs $4,000 to cover the cost of the braces, he wrote :
“Due to a racist a—— smacking me upside the head with a drum, I am now in need of braces,” Vivens wrote. “My insurance does not cover all of [that], and I only need $4,000 to cover the rest of the surgery.
“Help me get my face back, please.”
Vivens said he was pushed off his bike by a van driver near Presence St. Mary’s Hospital at 2233 W. Division St.
Vivens, who lives in Pilsen, was about to leave the hospital emergency room after visiting his friend when he was hit by a southbound van with his bicycle as he was about to turn into Leavitt Street. said.
“He clipped me as I was coming out of the hospital. I went up to him and told him that he clipped me,” Vivens told DNAinfo Chicago. The driver then swore at him and used the n-word, he said.
“That term has a lot behind it. It was straight anger. That was what I was feeling,” said Vivens.
The short video of the incident begins with the two arguing and cursing each other. Vivens can be heard calling the van driver the n-word, which, he said in the interview,
“I used it back on him because I was angry.”
The two separated, and after the driver got back into his van, Vivens ran up, broke the back window of the driver’s van and ran to his bike.
In response to being called a racial slur, Vivens said, “I busted his window with my U-Lock.”
The video shows the driver exiting through the driver’s side front door, opening the van’s hatch and removing what appears to be a drum. The rider chased Vivens and hit him in the head from behind, knocking Vivens off his bike.
The video, which ends with the driver returning to the van and putting the drum back into the back of the car, was posted to Facebook by him late Sunday and has garnered more than 4 million views.
Mr Vivens went to the hospital after regaining consciousness and found that the fight had left him with a broken jaw, a cleft lip and a few teeth loose.
A police report on the incident was not immediately available. The attack occurred at the 1200 block of North Levitt Street.
Vivens said he did not know who recorded the incident.
“I ride my bike all day, every day”
said Vivens, a kitchen worker at the Pilsen brewery, who had to take time off from work because of his injury.
“I can’t even speak. I can’t even chew. I am stuck eating liquids for the next six months,” he said.
