A retired captain with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office and a champion weightlifter is recovering from serious injuries after a crash.
Mike Ferrantelli’s wife and two daughters were also hurt in what he believes is a case of hit-and-run.
“I wasn’t worrying about me. I was worrying about my two daughters. I was worrying about my wife,” he said.
Laid up in a Hudson hospital bed with his wife Kelly, Ferrantelli told us about the fear and pain that followed after a driver smashed into his motorcycle Sunday.
His daughter Alexis was riding on it too. Both flew through the air like rag dolls.
“I heard screaming next to me and my 14 year old was screaming for me to help her. I couldn’t get to her. And I was like daddy’s right here,” he said.
Kelly was following on her motorcycle, with 9-year-old Samantha on board.
To avoid getting hit herself, she laid down her bike and went into super mom mode.
“It’s all slow motion. When I went to lay it down. I don’t know how I did it. God had to do this,” she said.
“As she took her hands off the handlebars, she reached back and grabbed Samantha off the back of the motorcycle and put on her on chest, so she wouldn’t get hurt. I was absolutely amazing,” said Ferrantelli.
Mike got the worst of it.
He suffered a broken leg, collapsed lung, and broken ribs.
Kelly has a broken knee.
Alexis has a broken ankle.
And Samantha escaped with just road rash.
“In one fell swoop, 60 percent of my family was almost gone,” he said.
Ferrantelli hopes to get out of the hospital soon. But as for his weightlifting career. He doesn’t know if it’s over.
He just benched pressed his all-time best in April, 623 pounds, at the World Championships in Denmark.
“We are just going to try and take it day by day. I walked 50 feet today which was awesome,” he said.
“I know him and I know he’s going to come back bigger and stronger than before,” said his wife.
The Florida Highway Patrol charged the woman who hit them with failure to yield to oncoming traffic.
Witnesses said she left the scene and they had to chase the woman down to bring her back.
“You have almost an entire family lying there and you don’t know if they are dying or not. How could you do that,” he said.
FHP said witnesses didn’t tell the investigating trooper that the driver initially left the scene. He was told about it later at the hospital.
At this point no additional charges have been filed.
