Motorcyclists Hold Vigil For Rider Injured During Incident On West Side Highway

Members of the city’s biker community came out Wednesday night to support a rider injured in Sunday’s incident on the West Side Highway and tell their side of the story. NY1′s Dean Meminger filed the following report.

Motorcycle riders rolled up to St. Luke’s Hospital Wednesday to pray for Edwin “Jay” Mieses and send a message to everyone.

“We’re not savages. We’re not animals,” said “Luminous,” a motorcycle rider. “We are just regular average citizens that just love to ride, and we come here to support our fellow rider that went down.”

Mieses was critically injured on Sunday when dozens of bikers got into an altercation with the driver of a SUV on the West Side Highway.

In the melee, the rider was run over by the Range Rover.

His wife didn’t want to speak on camera, but said that her husband, who’s from Massachusetts, might be paralyzed for the rest of his life. She thanked everyone for their prayers.

Riders are outraged that bikers have been charged and questioned by police but the SUV driver, Alexian Lien, has not been arrested.

Lexie Filpo said she was there on Sunday, and she said that the SUV driver was reckless.

“When you enter the highway, all the cars were stopped. They were letting all the bikers pass by,” Filpo said. “He seemed in a rush. He wanted to get in regardless. So instead of slowing down or easily ease into the highway, he was going at full speed, as if, ‘I don’t care if anybody is on the highway. I’m going on.’”

“I don’t see how someone could go over a human being and say it’s OK,” said “Peazy,” a motorcycle rider. “I don’t see that, regardless of what the circumstances may be.”

Riders like “Chukii” said that they often try to slow or stop cars so they can ride as large groups on the highway.

“When we ride in big events like that, we try to stop traffic, mainly because it’s a safety issue for us, because some drivers get nervous, and then, they want to get across the lane to an exit,” she said. “So that’s the main reason why the biker was trying to slow him down, so that all the other bikes could just pass him.”

The bikers said they are praying for their fellow rider’s recovery and trying raise money for his wife and children.

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