**Warning: Photos are graphic and some may find them to be disturbing.**
The family of a man badly injured in a truck crash is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who can identify the horse that caused it, as his medical bills continue to mount.
Christopher Fears is still recovering from the April 4 crash. He fractured part of his spine and has lacerations on his face and chest.
“It was devastating. It was the worst sight I ever saw,” Christopher’s mother Marilyn said as she described seeing him at the hospital.
PHOTOS: Semi-truck crash caused by horse, family hoping to identify
Fears was driving on State Road 33 North of Polk City around 4 a.m. when a horse walked in front of a semi-truck going in the opposite direction. In-dash camera video from Fears’ truck, you can see that driver hit the horse, sending it flying toward Fears’ semi-truck.
The impact of the horse caused the truck to flip off of the road. Fears was sent through the windshield and had to be taken to the hospital by helicopter.
“When I turn around and look at this truck, it’s very difficult,” Marilyn Fears said. “I don’t know how he made it out alive.”
Fears, who does not have health insurance, is racking up medical bills that will likely exceed $100,000, his parents said. He and his parents believe the owner of the horse that was able to walk into the busy road should be responsible for at least some of that cost.
“We’re angry. We’re upset,” Marilyn Fears said. “We want them to take ownership.”
According to state law, the owner of livestock is liable in damages for injury and property damage sustained by any person if they intentionally, willfully, carelessly, or negligently suffers or permits such livestock to run at large upon or stray upon the public roads in Florida.
The Fears are hoping someone knows whose horse it is and comes forward to collect the reward.
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