DPS trooper says man appeared to hit motorcycle on purpose in Granbury crash

A 68-year-old man appeared to purposely cut off a motorcycle carrying a couple this weekend, causing it to crash and leaving the woman hospitalized with a broken arm, according to a criminal complaint released Tuesday.

William Sam Crum was arrested Monday night on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He is accused of swerving his 1996 Mercury sedan into the couple, who were trying to pass him, according to the complaint filed by Robert Bradshaw, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper.

Crum was in the Hood County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bail for each charge, Sheriff Roger Deeds said Tuesday. Though he earlier said he wasn’t going to eat, he was doing so by midafternoon, Deeds confirmed.

Eric Edward Sanders, 37, of Granbury was driving a Kawasaki motorcycle south on Tin Top Highway — a two-lane road — Saturday when he tried to pass Crum in a no-pass zone, the complaint states.

Sanders pulled into the northbound lane and accelerated to pass two vehicles, including Crum’s Mercury, when Crum “swerved over into the northbound lane of travel, causing the Kawasaki to strike the left rear corner of the Mercury,” Bradshaw wrote.

Sanders and his girlfriend, Debra Simpson, 38, were thrown off the motorcycle, he wrote.

The 37-year-old “sustained injury to his torso and his arm” that required stitches, while Simpson was taken to a local hospital and “sustained a severe compound fracture to her arm that required surgery,” Bradshaw wrote.

Simpson was flown to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, where she was in the intensive care unit over the weekend. Trooper Dub Gillum said the woman was out of the ICU Tuesday, though she remained in the hospital.

“Based on my observation of the collision, it appeared the defendant purposely drove his vehicle into the northbound lane of travel to impede or prevent the Kawasaki from passing, and did so in such a manner and in such close proximity to the Kawasaki that the Kawasaki was unable to avoid collision,” Bradshaw wrote.

A criminal history

The incident, caught on camera by Brian Fisher, who was also riding a motorcycle and was videotaping the ride with a camera attached to his helmet, went viral soon after its release, with millions of views.

Crum is seen on the video saying, “I don’t care” after the crash.

On Monday, he told Star-Telegram media partner WFAA that a spider had bit his groin, causing him to swerve in the motorcycle.

In a separate jailhouse interview Tuesday, Crum showed off his leg where the spider supposedly bit him to TV reporters at the Hood County Jail.

He said if Sanders hadn’t been “breaking the law,” the crash wouldn’t have occurred. Sanders was cited for passing in a no-passing zone and for driving with an invalid license.

Crum’s charges are both second-degree felonies, though he is no stranger to breaking the law.

Crum was arrested by Arlington police in 1989 for assault-family violence and was later convicted, according to public records.

In 1993 he was arrested by Hood County sheriff’s deputies for silent or abusive calls to a 911 service, but the case was dismissed, public records indicate.

A year later he was arrested by Somervell County sheriff’s deputies for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, in which he was convicted.

Then in 2007, he was arrested by Somervell County sheriff’s deputies on terroristic-threat and a reckless driving charges in the same instance, in which he was convicted.

His family could not be reached for comment.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 5:34 PM with the headline "DPS trooper says man appeared to hit motorcycle on purpose in Granbury crash."