Pedicab driver struck by alleged drunken driver outside Wrigley Field says man should be facing more serious charges

A woman who says she was hurt after an allegedly drunken driver crashed into her pedicab outside Wrigley Field last weekend wants to know why the man isn’t facing more serious charges.

Video of the crash captured by a bystander shows a bus decorated with painted mushrooms stopped outside the ballpark’s iconic red marquee following Saturday’s Dead & Company concert. At the intersection, pedicab driver Sarah Yopp’s cycle rickshaw rolls to a stop.

Then the bus driver accelerates forward. The bus plows through Yopp’s pedicab, hitting another car and knocking Yopp hard to the side, and drives on. Bystanders scream. Some chase after the bus.

“Hey, you good? Baby girl?” shouts Marìsol Santos, who filmed the crash and shared her video with the Tribune. “Someone needs to call 911!”

According to police, the driver fled the scene but was later detained a mile away. Police charged Bryan Michael Rollins, 40, of California, with two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of alcohol. Rollins was also charged with multiple traffic citations for failing to stay in a lane, not reporting an accident, not carrying a driver’s license, and driving an uninsured vehicle.

Another driver followed and detained Rollins, who hit a 2016 Chevy Malibu and a 2012 Toyota Prius stopped on Clark Street before crashing into Yopp, according to a police crash report. Police saw open alcohol in the bus, and Rollins told officers he had been drinking, the crash report said. Police released him later Sunday.

Yopp, who is not identified in the police report, declined medical care at the scene. She biked home, disoriented and fearful of getting stuck with costly hospital bills and losing the expensive pedicab she needs for work, she told the Tribune on Tuesday.

She said over a dozen witnesses have reached out to her since she posted video of the crash to fan pages for Dead & Company, the band including John Mayer and former Grateful Dead members.

The pedicab driver said she had been trying to assist the driver of a Prius who was calling out for help after the person’s car was repeatedly hit by the bus. She had no passengers at the time. She said she believes the driver was under the influence of drugs when he hit her.

“Before he hit me, I looked him in the eye and he had the most crazed look. He looked like he didn’t care what he did; he was going to get out of there,” she said.

He mouthed “sorry” as he sped through the intersection and crashed into her, she said. She put her hand out to urge him to stop. Her head slammed into the cement after she was struck. She would’ve been killed if she hadn’t been on her bike, which fell to the side instead of flattening under the bus when it was hit, she said.

“It was obvious. He didn’t care about killing people or harming anybody,” said Santos, who checked on Yopp after capturing the video.

Yopp went to the emergency room Monday night with what she believes is a brain injury. She said she waited seven hours for care before ultimately going home. She suspects she fractured several ribs in the crash and suffered a concussion. She also said she’s experiencing severe back pain and got a gash on her back.

“Today, I actually feel like I was hit by a van,” Yopp said. She returned to the hospital Tuesday.

The crash isn’t Yopp’s first. In 1998, she was hit by a drunken driver while riding on a motorcycle with a friend in Arizona. The violent crash left her friend with lasting mental handicaps. Yopp said she couldn’t walk for two years. That crash still affects her memory and left her with tens of thousands of dollars of medical debt, despite successful lawsuits, she added.

Following the crash shortly after midnight Sunday, police and firefighters did little to support her, Yopp said. They told her she looked fine, and no one checked to see if her eyes had dilated, she said. One first responder straightened her pedicab’s wheel a bit, and she went home. According to the crash report, Yopp refused medical treatment and left the scene before authorities could learn who she was.

Yopp said the lack of immediate support and the absence of more serious charges against the driver have made her feel unsupported by the city.

“I’m probably never going to work Wrigley again. I don’t feel safe up there,” she said. “I just feel like my life didn’t matter … because the police don’t seem to want to charge him with the real charges of what he actually did.”

Yopp used to drive her pedicab while dressed up as Wonder Woman. The Floridian has come to Chicago to work during summers for years. During the pandemic, she said some people would come downtown just to take rides in her carriage. It felt good to lift spirits, she said.

Despite rules making work difficult for pedicab drivers, like a ban on Navy Pier pickups after 6 p.m., the drivers are part of Chicago’s fabric, she said. But now, Yopp isn’t sure if she’ll come back to the city.

She’s heard that the driver, whom she believes follows the band’s concerts, has moved on to Ohio for the tour’s next stop. Her pedicab, which she said costs around $20,000, needs a few thousands dollars in repairs. She expects aggravated injuries from her past crash will cost her even more, in part because the driver who hit her is uninsured.

Yopp’s work night was cut short by the crash, and she hasn’t been able to resume cabbing since. She’s unsure when she’ll able to, physically. She’s not sure if she can get back on the bike mentally either, but she hopes to start biking people around again soon.

A GoFundMe started by Yopp’s sister has raised over $6,000. Many Dead & Company fans have sent money, Yopp said.

Late Tuesday, Yopp said authorities in Ohio called her to tell her they were searching for Rollins, the alleged driver. Chicago police had advised the Ohio authorities to find him, she said. She heard the man had parted from the bus, but somebody outside the next Dead & Company concert he attended had shared his location, she added.

The Tribune unsuccessfully attempted to contact Rollins through his phone, email and social media accounts.

jsheridan@chicagotribune.com