High School Student Critically Hurt In Stockton Hit-And-Run
STOCKTON (CBS13) – A Stockton teen was critically injured during an early morning hit-and-run accident on Monday.
The incident happened on East Washington Street at around 6:30 a.m., according to CHP investigators. The 17-year-old girl, identified later Monday as Luz Cano Bustos, was walking to school when she was hit by a late model white Ford Mustang. She was flown via helicopter to the hospital with major injuries.
The Franklin High School junior was in critical condition Monday night.
"She's was in bad shape, a lot of blood out of here," neighbor Cassandra Ferretti said. "Her backpack was away from her body, one shoe where it started and one shoe in front of her."
CHP investigators was on the hunt for the person behind the wheel who is accused of hitting the teen, slamming into a mail box and taking off.
"We did an extensive grid search of this entire area where the officers went street to street, block by block, looking for the suspect vehicle," Officer Bryan Marshall said.
But there was still no sign of the driver's late model Ford Mustang.
"He just took off," said neighbor Deoborah Mosqueda. "He just left her in the middle of the street. Thank god response around her was fast, but not fast enough."
Neighbors stopped traffic and protected the girl until help arrived. Rescuers airlifted the teen to a local trauma center.
Monday night, Luz was fighting to survive at a Modesto hospital.
"She's very sick, very, very sick," her father, Alfonso Cano said.
Alfonso Cano was almost unable to speak, still trying to comprehend what happened to his daughter.
Witnesses report seeing the sports car blowing stop signs before hitting the teen.
"She was laying on the (road), she wasn't moving at all, her shoes were flung somewhere else," one witness said.
Alfonso Cano can't believe the driver kept going.
"I don't know why they don't stop and call to an ambulance or something," Cano said. "I want the police to find them, because they are a bad, bad person, because maybe they could kill somebody else. My daughter's not dead, but I don't know what's going to happen."
Luz's father says her injuries are so great that they have to wait for her to stabilize before they can perform surgery to repair her injuries.
Neighbors spoke out about safety concerns in the area. There are no sidewalks and children walking to school come dangerously close to traffic.
"People do drive crazy," Mosqueda said. "They think because it's not a main city road, it's OK to drive really fast and do donuts and ridiculous things out here."
