MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Mo. — A martial arts instructor waited 13 hours for help last week after he said he jumped 22 feet from a bridge to avoid being struck by an SUV.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is investigating the May 29 crash as a hit-and-run and working to find the vehicle involved.
It happened at around 8 p.m. on the Loutre River bridge along Highway 19, near Hermann.
Jeremiah Koch, who is recovering at a hospital in Columbia, said he had just returned from a friend's burial and decided to take an evening ride on the Katy Trail before heading home to celebrate his birthday.
Koch has been training for the RAGBRAI, Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, next month. However, he never returned home that night.
His wife, Wendy Koch, relayed his 13 hours of survival in a post on Facebook, as she waited hours to hear from her husband.
Koch said he was riding his bike southbound when a gray SUV veered onto the shoulder and headed toward him.
"Jeremiah says they looked right at each other and this guy was out to run him over," she said. "He had a split-second decision to make the jump or be hit by an SUV. He jumped over a concrete barrier and tried to hang onto the wall but lost his grip."
Exactly a week after the hit-and-run incident, 5 On Your Side headed to Columbia and met with Koch at his University Hospital room.
He said he remembers the car getting closer and closer.
"He was obvious he was out to hurt somebody. He got super close, it was a gray SUV and we locked eyes," he added. "I had a choice, I can jump on the car, maybe it’ll fling me off the edge, or if I dip in between the cars and I’d spin up or I can take my chance and take the lunge."
The pressure squeezed Koch, forcing him into a decision. It was a leap of faith for the martial arts instructor.
Koch, who owns Hapkido Plus Martial Arts in Warrenton, said he performed a movement known as a breakfall to lessen his injuries, which he credited with saving his life.
He hit the ground below. The SUV left the scene.
"I remember reaching for (the ledge) and it wasn’t there. They say it's 22 feet, but it felt like an eternity to be quite honest," Koch said.
He remembers the intense impact. Koch said he crawled slowly under the bridge.
"I'm yelling for help but I'm under Highway 19, under a bridge, no one is going to hear you on a Wednesday night," Koch added.
Unable to walk, Koch said he stopped yelling at some point in the night when he heard coyotes getting close. Later in the night, he heard two people stop on the bridge to steal his bike, and they left without checking if anyone needed help. He spent two hours dragging himself 20 feet to a puddle so he could drink from it.
He said his phone was ejected and he had limited food and water. Koch was committed, though.
When daylight hit, Koch started screaming for two hours to no avail.
He realized he needed to move to a more visible area for pedestrians to notice him.
"I had to make a final push and make a decision. Either you’re going to do this and do a last stand or sit here in comfort and die. I had no choice," Koch added.
He set small goals and moved three feet at a time. He finally reached a tree and could see the bridge above where pedestrians or bikers pass by.
His calls for help were finally heard by two pedestrians, who called 911.
Koch shared, "It paid off, that last push. If I stayed under the bridge, I would've been done."
Wendy Koch said she and her two children had been searching for Jeremiah for hours and were getting ready to call the sheriff's department when she learned he was alive and headed to the hospital.
Koch broke his back, sacrum, knee, ankle and several ribs. His wife said he had screws placed in his sacrum this week and is awaiting ankle surgery and possible knee surgery. He was able to walk with assistance on Monday.
"(The SUV driver) left him for 13 hours to die," Wendy Koch said. "I have a few things I'd like to discuss with him."
Koch is expected to stay in the hospital for another 10 days. Recovery could be a few months.
He said he'll go back to teaching classes as soon as possible and he's ready to go back on a bike.
He said the lesson he's used to teaching became a practice he used to survive.
"The mental fortitude, the emotional stability, don't panic, stay calm. What's the next thing? Survivability, that's where it is. That's what we teach all the time," he said.
While nothing prepares you for this moment, his practice became a protector.
Patience and perspective is the foundation to his lessons and now, the foundation for his fight.
"You have to stay calm and chunk through your problem in order to survive," Koch shared.
Koch told 5 On Your Side he's grateful for the amount of support he's receiving and the care he's received from hospital staff.
A GoFundMe page set up to help the Koch family had reached $9,000 in donations as of Tuesday afternoon.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office asked anyone with information to call them at 573-564-3378.