Woman accused of hit-and-run that seriously injured man along state Route 512
Prosecutors have charged a woman who allegedly hit and seriously injured a man Monday along state Route 512 and left the scene.
The 58-year-old woman pleaded not guilty at arraignment Thursday to a charge of hit-and-run and was released on her own recognizance.
Charging papers give this account of what happened:
The woman hit the man when he stepped out of his vehicle, which pushed him to the shoulder of state Route 512 near Canyon Road. She kept driving west on Route 512.
Troopers arrived when they got a report of an unresponsive person and disabled vehicle.
A State Patrol detective got an update Wednesday that the man was in the Intensive Care Unit and was going to have surgery.
Investigators found broken pieces of the vehicle thought to have hit the man, including what looked like parts of a headlight.
Surveillance video in the area showed a vehicle with a missing headlight that stopped in a nearby parking lot. A woman was driving and a man got out and used a flashlight to inspect the damage. About 15 minutes later they drove off.
A license plate check showed the vehicle was registered the 58-year-old woman. A police officer recognized the woman in the video, and an anonymous tip also included the woman’s name.
She was taken into custody.
“Family members said the defendant told them she thought she hit a deer, because that’s what her passenger said it was,” the declaration for determination of probable cause said. “The family members stated they are hunters their whole lives and both immediately recognized that the damage to the vehicle was not from an animal.”
The woman allegedly told a detective that she thought she’d hit a person and started to slow down, and that her passenger told her not to and convinced her she hit a deer.
