Pregnant mom struck by hit-and-run driver as family looks on
SONORA , Calif. - Investigators say a mother who was nine months pregnant was walking down a quiet street when she was rammed by a driver who fled the scene -- a driver who struck her intentionally, reports CBS Sacramento.
The family says the driver also pinned her 10-year-old girl against a parked car, according to the station.
Leaving his grandmother's funeral, Steve Yapel was walking to his car with his 2-year-old daughter in his arms when he says he saw a couple coming way too fast on a country road outside Sonora, reports the station.
"He barreled through the stop sign, came hooking down the road and I yelled at him to slow down," he said.
Then things took an even scarier turn, when Yapel says the driver suddenly slammed on his brakes, threw the car in reverse and floored it toward the father and daughter.
"He locked up his brakes literally and gunned it for us what's the distance 50 feet he was full throttle coming at me," he said. "I was holding my kid in my arms. My wife, my pregnant wife, took the brunt of everything."
Yapel jumped out of the way, but says his wife was hit and thrown 15 feet and knocked unconscious. She is still being treated at a trauma center in Modesto with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, and their third daughter, due in just three weeks, is reportedly doing okay says CBS Sacramento.
Yapel says the driver then backed into a parked car, pinning his 10-year-old daughter between the parked car and some bushes, according to the Sacramento station. She is reportedly scratched up and emotionally scarred.
"I merely yelled at him to slow down 'cause he barreled down the road; sees a family walking down the road, stops his vehicle and aims for us," he said.
Tuolumne County Sheriff's deputies say they found the suspect's car on Saturday at a home less than a mile away covered with a tarp. David Serpa, Jr., 40, is out on bail after his arrest for felony hit-and-run and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the station.
"I'm shaking mad about it because it's frustrating," Yapel said.
He wants the suspect to to feel the full weight of the law. He says his wife, days from delivering their third daughter, could have been killed.
"And I thank God that he didn't, because at that point it would be a whole different ballgame," he said.