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Bullock lucky to escape injury, but shocked by hit-and-run driver’s exit

SALT LAKE CITY – Reggie Bullock knows he was lucky to escape serious injury. He knows he’s fortunate that he’s in position to buy another car substantial enough to withstand the level of impact he felt from Sunday’s crash on his way to Pistons practice.

But he remains baffled as to why the driver of the car that smashed into his on Adams Road was asking about exchanging insurance information one second and the next was fleeing the scene with a badly damaged car.

“He asked me for insurance information. He’s sitting in the middle of the street with his hazard lights on,” Bullock said after finishing up some shooting drills but sitting our practice on Monday at the University of Utah. “The next thing I know, he’s gone. He just left. It was just more shocking to me that the guy left me in there. I could have had my son. I could’ve been with family members or anything, but it was real shocking that he actually left me out there.”

Bullock isn’t ruled out for Tuesday’s game at Utah, where the Pistons open a six-game road trip. But he banged his knee on the steering wheel and is experiencing general back tightness, he said. He was examined by Pistons team doctors at a facility near the crash site and had X-rays taken, he said.

“Shouldn’t be long,” he said. “I should be right back out there to go pretty soon.”

Bullock said he was traveling between 40 and 45 mph, headed north on Adams at the Long Lake intersection when the driver turned left in front of him. The impact was to Bullock’s left front side of his Jeep and his tire wound up on top of the other car, which he described as a brown Buick.

“When I first hit him, I saw the hood of the car dent in bad and then when my tire went over his car I saw more dents to his car,” Bullock said. “When I’m backing up, you could hear all the crackling.”

Troy police investigated the accident and Bullock was complimentary of the officer who responded at the scene.

“The officer was kind with me,” he said. “He stayed there with me until the towing people came. He knew that we were about to go on the road. He cooperated with me well and it was good to actually have him there in my company.”

If Bullock can’t play against the Jazz, whose current 18-2 streak began with a Jan. 24 overtime win at Little Caesars Arena over the Pistons, Stan Van Gundy hopes to have Stanley Johnson available. Johnson, who missed the last two games with back spasms, practiced both Sunday and Monday.

Reggie Jackson, as he did on Sunday, participated in the non-contact portion of Monday’s practice, consisting of shooting and defensive drills.