Hit-and-run supect confesses to crash in Manor

Image 1 of 2

Photo Courtesy: Rebecca Gaspar

The suspect in a Manor hit-and-run crash has turned himself in to authorities. This comes just days after FOX 7 spoke with the victim's family, who begged for the driver to come forward.

The motorcyclist who was seriously injured in that crash is speaking with FOX 7. He believes our news coverage helped the driver make the right decision.

We visited Michael in the hospital on Tuesday. He is doing well after undergoing three surgeries but still has a long road to recovery. Even in his hospital bed though, he is thinking of others - warning drivers to share the road.

Life can change in the blink of an eye, 35-year-old Michael Lang knows that all too well.

"I know I'm going to get out of here but I don't know if I'll ever be the same. I don't know if I'll ever walk the same, talk the same," says Michael Lang, hit-and-run victim.

From now on, he says he will never take anything for granted - even the smallest of things.

"I'll never ride another motorcycle again because it's too much to put my family through. I've got an 18-month-old daughter, she just turned 18 months on the 26th. I can't even tell her happy 18 months because im laying here. I just thank God I'm alive though," says Lang.

His family is his motivation to get stronger. It was Saturday, January 16th when DPS responded to a hit-and-run crash on FM973 and SH45 in Manor.

Lang told us what he remembers from that day. He was riding his motorcycle, going through a traffic light that had just turned green. All of a sudden, another vehicle reportedly ran the red light and slammed into him.

"I've always positioned myself where people can see me. I would ask him, 'why did you turn right in front of me? why did you think that you turning down the road, before I made it through, was going to be any faster for getting you to where you're going?'"

He says the driver fled the scene and left him for dead. Now, after more than a week has passed, the driver has come back. It's exactly what Rebecca was hoping for when she spoke with FOX 7 last Tuesday.

"I feel like the news helped me to get this person to come forward. I feel that the pressure set in, the guilt then set in," says Rebecca Gaspar, wife of victim.

DPS tells us 19-year-old Louis Eric Coronado visited with authorities on Monday, giving them information about the crash. On Tuesday, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

"He just took off and went to live his life. Maybe he turned himself in because you guys put it on the news and he saw that thinking, 'they're going to find me. They're searching cameras and have witnesses and my vehicle, they're going to find me regardless,'" says Lang.

During that time, Lang has had multiple surgeries on his spine, neck, shoulder and wrist.  A blood clot was also found in his lung, which he is being treated for. Now, doctors are trying to figure out why he is having excessive pain and numbness on his right side.

"I'm in so much pain. Today has been one of the roughest days. I feel like I can feel every screw and bolt they put in my body. My neck and my fingers are still broken," says Lang.

Through that pain, his wife Rebecca has been there every step of the way. She is keeping her vow "in sickness and in health."

"I know that there's hope and I know that he's going to come home. Our life is going to be different, it's not going to be the same but we're going to get through it."

One day at a time. Once Lang leaves the hospital, his recovery is still not over. He will then have to check into a rehab facility.

To help the family: https://www.gofundme.com/euk7avpw