Biker paralyzed in 2013 NY highway incident doesn't blame driver

Reuters
Attorney Gloria Allred (R) helps Dayana Mejia hold up a laptop showing a photograph of her hospitalized partner Edwin Mieses, during a news conference in New York, October 4, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Segar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A motorcyclist who was paralyzed when an SUV driver ran over his bike in a daytime incident on New York City's West Side Highway last fall told NBC News on Wednesday that he doesn't blame the driver for his condition. "I don't blame him," biker Edwin Mieses told NBC's Today show. "Because at the end of the day, I'm not him to know what was going through his mind." Fellow bikers surrounded driver Alexian Lien's SUV last fall after the vehicle and a motorcycle bumped. Lien, who was traveling with his wife and young child, accelerated through the crowd of cyclists, striking Mieses. Lien's wife later said in a statement that the couple were forced to flee a life-threatening situation. Much of the incident and subsequent chase was captured in a video that went viral on the Internet. Motorcyclists chased the SUV for several miles, surrounded it and dragged Lien out and beat him. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's office charged 11 bikers, including an undercover New York City detective, with varying degrees of assault. All have pleaded not guilty. Neither Lien nor Mieses has been charged with a crime. (Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Scott Malone and Gunna Dickson)