WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. – A good Samaritan may have saved the life of a man run over on a motorcycle.
On Sunday at Highway 192 and Dairy Road, police said hit-and-run driver Rebekah Tate, 23, left the injured motorcyclist in the intersection as she drove away with his bike still stuck to her car.
Before the first responders could get there, Billy Leblanc told News 6 reporter James Sparvero he was able to get the man to breathe again after doing chest compressions.
“He was laying there motionless, kind of face down in the ground,” Leblanc remembered. “As I got closer, I noticed that there was a helmet in the road and just debris everywhere. No motorcycle, no car, I didn’t see anything as far as that goes, but just kind of could assess that it was obviously a hit-and-run.”
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Leblanc said he was making deliveries for DoorDash when he happened to drive upon the scene and rushed to help.
“I would hope that anybody would do that who came across something like that, and I think most people would,” he said. “It’s just sad that somebody would actually leave them there like that, motionless, and not help them.”
According to police, Tate tried hiding at the Hyundai dealership at the intersection where she also tried removing the motorcycle from her car before someone came to pick her up.
On Thursday, she appeared in court at the Brevard County jail on the hit-and-run charges.
Judge Kelly Ingram assigned Tate a $17,500 bond.
“She was obviously scared but still, just call 911 at the bare minimum,” Leblanc said. “I’m just glad I was there at the right time and I was able to help him.”
Leblanc said he would tell the victim in the hospital to continue to be strong.
“Like I told him at the scene, he wasn’t conscious, but I was just telling him just hang in there, ambulance is on the way, and just be strong,” he said. “He’s fighting and he’s doing good from what I hear, or he’s doing better.”
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