5 days ago
Reporter Halts Live Broadcast to Help Cyclist Who Flipped Over Handlebars in 'Big Wipeout'
A TV reporter in Chicago left his coworkers puzzled when he abruptly halted his segment and ducked out of the frame.
Thankfully, Christian Piekos and his crew from ABC affiliate WLS were okay — the journalist was reporting on extreme heat when he jumped to help a cyclist who had collided with a runner on the trail by DuSable Harbor, he explained.
The moment took place in the early morning on Wednesday, July 23, when Piekos was in the middle of his segment.
"All eyes right now are on that extreme heat watch for much—" Piekos began to say, before exclaiming, "Oh, shoot."
He then appeared to drop his microphone and ran out of the frame, which lingered on a shot of the trail for a moment before the report cut back to the studio, where one of the surprised anchors said, "Christian Piekos, out there live this morning. We'll check back soon."
When the studio cut back to Piekos just moments later, he explained, "We're just fine."
"Literally, as we were talking with you guys a few minutes ago, a runner and a cyclist collided on the trail," he said. "Big wipeout for the cyclist. He went over his handlebars, his helmet actually broke, so we ran right over to make sure that he was doing okay."
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Piekos said the biker was "up and moving around" after the incident, which left him with some scrapes and a "badly damaged" bike.
While he brought over a med kit, the biker declined assistance. Piekos described the ordeal as "a scary situation," cautioning viewers, "You've got to be careful out here on the trail with so many people running and cycling at the same time."
He added, "Long story short, that's why we ran over. We're all good. The crew and I are doing just fine, but obviously thinking about our buddy over here who had a pretty bad wipeout."
Read the original article on People
