Mother, Baby In Stroller Nearly Killed By Hit And Run Driver
NEW IPSWICH, NH (CBS) - A New Hampshire woman is speaking out about the hit and run accident that nearly killed her and her 19-month-old daughter as they were walking near their New Ipswich, New Hampshire home on Wednesday.
Speaking with WBZ-TV from her hospital bed at UMass Medical Center in Worcester, 24-year-old Crystal Hazelton says she was crossing the road to take her daughter to the park when she heard a car accelerating. "I could hear a car speeding up with loud exhaust and I tried to move as fast as I could," she said.
But it wasn't fast enough. Hazelton was struck on the left side and thrown twenty feet. Her daughter Alexis tipped over in her stroller. "Between the adrenaline and not knowing how she was, I tried to inch my way over. I was in a lot of pain but I had to make sure she was OK," she said.
When she heard her daughter call her name, Hazelton says she was able to turn and see the car speed away without stopping. She says it was black with two distinguishing yellow bumper stickers on either side of the rear license plate.
Her fiancee Austin Heywood says, "To think anybody in broad daylight could hit a mother and not stop." He calls it a miracle his daughter survived, strapped into a mangled stroller. "The fact that she could have died being so small. The five point harness that she was buckled into is probably what saved her," he said.
Hazelton suffered two slipped discs, fractured vertebrae and a bruised hip. "I don't want the person to get away with this. If you're heartless you deserve to pay for what you've done," she said.
Police have gone door to door looking for witnesses and checking computer records for cars in the area that match the description. Without insurance, they've set up a fund at the local TD Banknorth. It'll be a few days before Hazelton is able to return home, with a long recovery ahead.
