Woman On Mobility Scooter Injured In Lowell Hit-And-Run
LOWELL (CBS) -- A woman is pleading for the driver of a hit-and-run to come out of the shadows after her mother was struck and seriously injured on Middlesex Street in Lowell Tuesday night.
Donna Bettencourt, 46, wasn't far from her home when she was hit by an SUV as she rode her mobility scooter around 10 p.m. Police said the driver of the dark-colored SUV took off.
"My mother needs justice, she doesn't deserve this," said daughter Mariah Martell. "How can you hit somebody and leave, somebody [who is] handicapped already. That's terrible."
The banged-up scooter was left toppled on its side. The impact of the crash enough to leave the front grill from the Mercury SUV strewn in the street.
Bettencourt's leg is so badly injured her daughter told WBZ that doctors do not know if they can save it. Bettencourt has been paralyzed from the waist down by a rare disorder for the past three years. She was only slowly starting to walk again, Martell said. "She still had some balance problems but it was nice to finally see her walk. She just got where she wanted to be and now this happens."
Martell is convinced the driver knew he hit someone. "From the damage that my mother has, he definitely knew. And he was speeding, drinking [and] driving – he or she – something. Because there's no way my mother can have that much damage from somebody just bumping into her," she said.
Friend Noelle Malenfant is giving the driver the benefit of the doubt. "I'd like to think that someone would not be that mean. That they would hit her and know that they hit her and then drive away."
No arrests have been made.