Updated: Bicyclist critically injured in hit-and-run crash in Ann Arbor Township

By Lee Higgins Crime and courts reporter

Posted on Wed, Mar 14, 2012 : 10:45 a.m.

This story has been updated with additional information from the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.

An Ann Arbor woman police said critically injured a 60-year-old bicyclist then left the scene was arrested after crashing her car again about half an hour later.

An off-duty sheriff’s reserve officer found the bicyclist after seeing his damaged bicycle on the side of the road about 7:30 p.m. The bicyclist was on Dixboro Road, just south of Joy Road in Ann Arbor Township trying to climb out of the ditch, deputies said. He had been riding south on Dixboro Road when he was struck, said sheriff’s department spokesman Derrick Jackson.

The bicyclist was able to describe the vehicle that hit him, and police sent the information out asking officers throughout the area to be on the lookout for the car.

About half an hour later, a trooper from the Brighton post of the Michigan State Police saw a car matching the description near U.S. 23 near North Territorial Road and arrested the driver, a 44-year-old woman, on suspicion of drunken driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

The vehicle had by that time been involved in another crash in which it ran off the road, police said. It had damage consistent with the crash involving the bicycle, they said. The driver was taken to the Washtenaw County Jail, where she is expected to be arraigned Thursday on criminal charges.

The bicyclist, also of Ann Arbor, was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Superior Township, where he was listed in critical condition, Jackson said.