KALAMAZOO (WKZO) -- His license plate read “A Country Boy Will Survive”. He will need survival skills where he is going, to prison.

It was the piece of that novelty plate that he left behind after he struck and mangled the legs of a young Kalamazoo man that would lead to his identification after he fled the scene, leaving his victim bleeding on the pavement.

46-year-old Kenneth Lyons was given 2-1/2 to 15 years for striking and badly injuring 20-year-old Julian Watkins and ordered to pay medical restitution. That could be substantial given the multiple surgeries and the rehab services that Watkins has had to endure since he was struck on Kilgore Road in early July.

Lyons pled guilty to operating a motor vehicle without a valid license causing serious injury. In exchange, a charge of leaving the scene of an injury accident was dropped.