CBS4 Exclusive: Chicago tourist struck by hit-and-run driver leaves hospital
MIAMI - For the first time, we are seeing and hearing from a Chicago tourist who was struck and injured by a hit-and-driver last week on Miami Beach.
Police say that same driver also struck and nearly killed another man just moments later on Collins Avenue. They say that driver, 31-year-old Hanee Julieth Ramirez of West MIami-Dade, was arrested this past weekend.
CBS4's Peter D'Oench caught up exclusively with the victim, 61-year-old Lena Chiang, as she left Jackson Memorial Hospital in a wheelchair on Monday. She had been at the hospital since the accident on Thursday afternoon and left the Ryder Trauma Center with her husband Chin, and son and daughter-in-law. Her son drove to Miami from the Chicago area to pick them up at the hospital.
Chiang said "I feel a lot better but I am sore. I have a fractured collarbone and my pinky toe was fractured and my lung was bruised and my artery right here by neck has a problem so I can't fly home. I have to drive home."
She will not forget what happened just before 4 p.m. last Thursday as she and her husband were on the sidewalk at 44th St. and Collins Avenue. She and her husband had just arrived in Miami less than 5 hours before that and were preparing to go on a cruise on Saturday.
"My husband was in front of me and I was on the lookout for a CVS store," she said. "I looked down and I looked at my phone and saw the car coming really fast and then I saw my husband jump and he jumped away and I saw the car coming towards me. I thought she was going to stop and she didn't."
Chiang said "This is horrible. I came here on vacation and I missed my cruise. We were supposed to be going on a 7-day cruise. I was lucky. They refunded our money. But this was horrible. I just can't imagine this happening."
Chiang's husband Chin says he runs a restaurant south of Chicago and says they were really looking forward to this vacation. They had not taken a vacation in a long time. Now, they will be returning to Illinois in the next few days.
Miami Beach police arrested Ramirez. She came before a judge in bond court on Sunday and is charged with leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury and reckless driving and bond was set at $15,000.
Moments after Chiang was hit, police say Ramirez drove northbound in her black 4-door sedan with tinted windows and struck and critically injured a man at 57th St. and Collins Avenue. He is being treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
A check of records shows Ramirez has been cited in the past for improper passing on the right, careless driving and driving on the wrong side of the road. Records show she has also been charged with disobeying police, resisting an officer and battery.
Chiang said "I am a Christian. I pray for her. I don't hate her but she should pay for what she has done. She needs to be punished. After they release her from jail, she should get medical treatment."
Chiang said she is trying to remain optimistic, despite her ordeal.
She said, "I am so lucky I am alive and that she didn't hit both of us. It was me and my husband. If she had hit both of us, I don't know what I would have done. It's terrible. I am glad I am alive and I am ok. That is all that matters."
