MUSCATINE, Iowa — A Muscatine man is on the mend after a hit-and-run driver injured him while he was pedaling home from work. But his recumbent bike wasn’t so lucky.

Randall Carey, 54, was struck Tuesday as he started the 3.6-mile ride home on his recumbent bike after his shift at HON’s Geneva plant ended at 1:30 p.m.

Now, he is driving his Jeep to work during what some people observe as national Bike to Work Week. The week is meant to encourage more people to follow Carey’s example.

 “I’m going to miss not having my bike to ride,” Carey said Wednesday.

He started pedaling to work four years ago when he started as an upholsterer at HON.

“It’s the only exercise I get, and now it’s destroyed,” he said.

The driver of a dark blue conversion van, possibly with a high roof, ran over the front tire on Carey’s bike, cutting his arm and bruising his hand.

“It felt like someone hit me in the back of the arm with a sledgehammer and threw me forward,” he said.

Carey refused an ambulance, but later saw a doctor to make sure his injuries were not serious.

Josh Dahnke, who was delivering parts to HON for White Distribution and Supply, stopped to help Carey, who was “a little dazed” after the accident and needed help untangling himself from his bike.

Dahnke, 27, of Muscatine, said he recognized Carey as a bicyclist he sees frequently on Iowa Highway 22.

“He has a special bike that’s like a lay-down bicycle, so I knew exactly who it was,” Dahnke said.

“He was on the edge of the highway,” Dahnke said. “His left side was just out far enough to get clipped.”

Carey said, “I ride on the shoulder every chance I get,” but the section near Geneva Hills Road does not have a paved shoulder.

The van swiped him about 10 seconds after Carey pulled his bike onto the road.

“I left him plenty of time to see

me,” said Carey, who had attached two U.S. flags to his bike’s seat.

But Dahnke said the van “didn’t swerve, didn’t hit the brakes — nothing.”

After the collision, the van pulled to the side of the road, Dahnke said.

“I figured the van was going to stop,” he said. But “I looked up and that guy was totally gone.”

Dahnke called 911, but said he feels bad he didn’t write down the van’s license plate number.

“After it was leaving, I had to make a hard choice to either chase it or stay with him,” he said.

Carey said Wednesday he felt sore, but lucky to be alive.

“They knew they hit me,” he said. “I hope the person has a conscience and turns themselves in.”

Anyone with information can call the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office at 563-263-6055.