Driver Sentenced For Hit-And-Run Crash That Left Cyclist Disabled

BOULDER, CO — A driver was sentenced to two years in prison Friday after he struck Boulder cyclist Andrew Bernstein in 2019 and left him permanently disabled.

Stephen Thomas Grattan, 49, pleaded guilty Friday to leaving the scene of an accident, careless driving and criminal attempt to leave the scene of an accident.

It took Colorado State Patrol more than a year to find Grattan after the crash.

Bernstein, then 34 years old and an accomplished athlete, was biking on Arapahoe Road near Legion Park in July 2019 when he was struck from behind by a van and left in a ditch.

A passing driver spotted Bernstein around 30 minutes later and called 911. The cyclist was taken to Boulder Community Health's Foothills Hospital with critical injuries, and he was later airlifted to Denver Health.

Bernstein suffered 35 broken bones, spinal cord damage, a concussion, collapsed lungs, internal bleeding and massive blood loss. He went through 10 surgeries, but the damage to his spinal cord is permanent.

"I am now a very different person than I was on July 20, 2019," Bernstein told the court Friday.

Grattan apologized to Bernstein in court, but the cyclist said he believes "the punishment doesn't fit the crime."

Bernstein explained to the court how the crash has caused him chronic and severe pain, and a permanent disability. He has a partially paralyzed leg and some of his vital organs are paralyzed, leaving him reliant on catheters and a complicated regimen of medication management.

"The financial burden imposed on me by this man is much more clear: His actions have cost me tens of thousands of dollars in the last two and a half years," Bernstein said. "Assuming I’m able to maintain private insurance, this injury will continue to cost me tens of thousands of dollars each year for the rest of my life."

If he is not able to maintain insurance for any reason, Bernstein said he will be bankrupt.

"This financial burden will greatly impact the kind of life I can hope to achieve and potentially offer to a family."

Bernstein said he hopes that drivers who hear about his case "will remember their duty to be responsible on the road, and to look out for others on the road."

"Given that the sentence fails to truly and fairly mete out justice for me, I hope that it at least keeps someone else from suffering as I have."