KILLEEN, Texas — A Central Texas motorcyclist says he is lucky to be alive all thanks to a random bystander who witnessed how he was struck by a car at high speeds while parked on the side of the road earlier this month.
Khalir Chacon was headed to work from Killeen to Temple on July 7 when he noticed his bike emergency shut off sensor went off. The biker immediately pulled over into the emergency lane and turned on his emergency signals.
After he called his girlfriend to pick him up and informed his work he was running late, Chacon was struck by someone crossing over to merge from US 190 into I-35 in Belton at 90 mph, according to a GoFundMe.
"My shoes flew off, my helmet hit the hood," Chacon recalled. "My leg was pinched between the bumper of his vehicle and the front of my motorcycle. I instantly started bleeding out."
Though Chacon remembers very little about what happened that day, he said he remembers Daniel Seamons.
"I saw that there was a man lying on the ground," Seamons said.
Seamons' military training kicked in and he rushed to help Chacon as he noticed his right leg bleeding out.
"I took off my belt and I wrapped it around, probably about mid-thigh to his, the injured leg that was there, his right leg, and essentially just held it there cinched down as tight as I can get it," Seamons recalled.
Chacon was rushed to Baylor Scott and White in Temple where he lost his leg. He was later transferred to Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Waco. He also ended up fracturing his arm during the incident.
From riding in the ambulance and checking up on Chacon's recovery status, Seamons was right by his side through it all.
Seamons said, "I still couldn't stop thinking, you know, Is he okay? Did he make it? Did he not make it?"
"I'm so grateful to Daniel," Chacon said. "Just the heroism and kindness to, you know, pull over and decide, 'Hey, I'm going to try and do whatever I can for this person, regardless of my situation, means the world to me.'"
"Some of his family considered me a hero or a savior, I don't see it that way," Seamons said. "I'm just a man that knew what to do and did it."
His sister, Valeria Lugo, created a GoFundMe to try and raise $11,000 to help in her brother's prosthetic and medical bills, as well as raise awareness of motorcycle accidents and deaths.
"I hope that any other motorcyclists or motorcycle enthusiasts will continue to be safe as they ride and also consider the statistics that 80% of motorcycle accidents end in death compared to the 20% of car accidents that do," Lugo wrote.
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