A Maryland man is facing charges after allegedly running over a Fairfax County cyclist with his ice cream truck on Bike to Work Day, May 18.

According to police and witnesses, Brendan Markham, 24, of Burke was riding his bicycle home from his Tysons Corner office west on Route 236 around 7 p.m..

He was traveling on the sidewalk when an ice cream truck driven by Impha Gassama, 52, of New Carrollton, Md., struck and dragged him a short distance near the Fairfax Square Apartment complex in Fairfax City.

“The truck pulled out from a side street near Burke Station Road without seeing him. We were first on the scene before the ambulance arrived and it was terrible,” said Fairfax City resident Kelly Ojala, who was heading to dinner with his wife. Both witnessed the accident.

“The cyclist was screaming in pain from the tire tracks on his back, and we tried to keep him still. There were bits of his purple bike to work shirt rubbed into the pavement,” he said.

Sgt. Daniel Grimm of the Fairfax City Police Department said Markham’s injuries were not life-threatening, and Gassama had been charged with failing to yield the right of way from a private drive.

Neither Gassama nor Markham were able to be reached for comment, but Markham’s father, Bill Markham, said his son suffered broken bones and was recovering at his parents’ residence.

“We are a whole family of active cyclists,” Bill Markham said. “We practice bicycle safety, but the driving public generally has little concern for cyclists.”

Ojala, who witnessed the accident, said it has deterred him from his own biking activities.

“It scared the [heck] out of me and it was beyond sobering,” he said. “I have contemplated biking to work many times before, but now I’m frightened. As a civil engineer, I am going to renew my efforts to create safe bike lanes, and hopefully I can still find the courage to get out there on my own bike.”

Bill Markham said he did not anticipate any litigation arising from the incident.

“I just want Brendan to recover and then use this experience to get out there and speak up to make drivers more aware of cyclists,” he said.

gmacdonald@fairfax times.com