NEW ORLEANS- Watching the video is chilling.
"It's a really good thing I had a helmet on," Rebekah Abernathy said.
It's probably the main reason Abernathy's life was spared that day.
"He was so far away from the lane that he was supposed to be in. He clearly wasn't looking at the road at all," Abernathy said.
Abernathy was on her way to work on September 12, 2016, riding from the Marigny to Uptown on Magazine Street when in a flash, her crash occurred.
"I remember getting slammed from behind and it feeling like a kind of a jerk," Abernathy said.
The White Dodge Magnum rammed into Abernathy's back wheel, sending her flying and tumbling to the ground.
"A bunch of people came over and some people were running after the car and yelling. And alot of people just sat with me until the ambulance came," she said. "I didn't think the person wasn't going to come back. So, as I was lying there and heard people kind of chasing after the car, they were saying 'Oh, he's not slowing down."
The Good Samaritans stayed with her until paramedics arrived.
"I had a concussion. I had vestibular damage to my inner ear. I had a fractured sacrum, and I had a really large hematoma on my back and a lot of road rashes," Abernathy said.
Abernathy say the man, Michael Foley, eventually turned himself in. He was charged with driving with an expired license and hit and run driving. Right now however, Abernathy says he's out free. She was there when he was in court.
"Michael Foley was there. I was sitting just in the room behind him. I don't think he saw me there. And they called his name, and he went in the back. And my lawyer went in the back. And they were out in less than 5 minutes and it was done. And they dismissed all of the fines," Abernathy said.
Abernathy, like many hit and run survivors feel oftentimes, their cases aren't taken as seriously as fatal cases.
"He walked out of the whole think smirking and so smug because nothing happened. That was the first time I got really angry," Abernathy said.
Right now the NOPD's Traffic Division Hit Unit only responds to hit and run incidents involving vehicles impacting vehicles or vehicles hitting victims in non fatal situations.
Deadly accidents are investigated by the NOPD's Traffice Fatality Unit, which has one sergeant and five investigators handling a mountain of cases.
"In the city the size of New Orleans or cities like New Orleans. There will be anywhere from several hundreds to several thousands hit and run cases a year. When people need the police service, they're really not interested in the staffing equation," Serpas said.
"From what I understand, a lot of cyclists don't even report things cause they know the NOPD's not gonna care. At this point, the problem lies with the judicial system, cause they're the ones that really have let me down," Abernathy said.
Eyewitness News reached out to the NOPD for an on camera interview. A public information officer told us no one would be available, both Thursday and Friday.
We also asked the NOPD if they could provide information on how many officers make up their hit and run unit. They would not give us a number, saying they would need more time.
Eyewitness News also asked them how many hit and run incidents have occurred so far this year, as well as last year. We are still waiting on a response.