MIDWAY, Ky. (LEX 18) — The Versailles Police Department is asking the public for help in identifying a truck involved in a hit-and-run accident that sent a man to the hospital.
67-year-old Gerald Sapp, who lives in Tennessee, was in Kentucky on Tuesday to pick up a recently purchased car.
Sapp’s daughter, Angela Taylor, said her father stopped at a rest area near mile marker 60 on I-64 W around 2:15 p.m. to check his oil when a white semi-truck backed up into him.
The semi-truck pinned Sapp between the vehicles and then drove off.
Taylor said people nearby ran to help Sapp, and she believes that’s what kept him alive until paramedics could arrive.
“I thought my dad was dead,” Taylor said. “I’m trying to hold it together. That’s your dad. And he’s supposed to be invincible, you know what I mean?”
Sapp was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital where he has been in the intensive care unit for six days.
Taylor says the accident left Sapp with internal bruising on vital organs, two broken femurs, a crushed pelvis, and compound fractures on his lower legs.
"I'm his youngest daughter and for him to tell me, 'I'm scared,' it just does something to you. All I can tell him is 'Daddy I'm gonna find him. If I have to not sleep and if I have to stay awake,’” Taylor said.
Since the accident, Taylor has spent her days calling truck companies and posting updates to social media with the hopes her pleas reach the right people so they can find the hit-and-run driver.
Her Facebook post has been shared by more than 82,000 people.
“There are so many people praying and so many people pouring out love. When he wakes up and he’s finally able to see the amount of support he’s getting, I know it’s going to help him through his recovery. I know it’s going to mean the world to him,” Taylor said.
Sapp has undergone approximately 22 hours of surgery to repair his pelvis and broken legs, according to Taylor.
Anyone with information is asked to please call the Versailles Police Department at 859-873-3126
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up for Gerald Sapp in the wake of the accident. To visit the GoFundMe click here.
