Car Slams Into Women Outside Gloria's Restaurant - Driver Leaves
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
FLOWER MOUND (CBSDFW.COM) – Surveillance video shows a car slamming into two women sitting on a park bench outside of a restaurant in Flower Mound. It happened during the lunch rush on October 15th, and the driver left the scene.
You can see the driver pull into a parking spot outside of Gloria's Latin Cuisine and never hit the brakes. What you don't see are the faces of Carla Howell and Diane Spinuzzi, friends and colleagues who were chatting after their lunch.
"I remember just cringing because I could tell he wasn't on the brake. I could tell his bumper was going to hit the sidewalk," says Diane Spinuzzi.
Carla Howell pushed her friend out of way. "His bumper hit the front of my left leg and pinned it against the bench we were sitting on," says Howell.
"She basically body slams me this direction while she's trying to get out of the way. My hip hit the arm of the bench we were sitting on," says Spinuzzi.
Both women suffered serious bruising, but Spinuzzi believes her friend saved her life.
"It was divine intervention, being able to walk away with cuts and bruises and that's it," says Spinuzzi.
What the two women feel is curious is that they saw the same driver, a stranger, pull into the same spot a few minutes before the hit and run.
"And then he came back and then came in really fast," says Howell.
After the driver returned and hit them, he did stay for a few minutes. The women were inside so never interacted with him. But when he was left alone, he drove away, never leaving any contact information. And that has left his victims - angry.
"We just want him to be held accountable, take responsibility," they say.
The man was driving a newer model Kia Optima. Police say if they find him, he will be charged with felony failure to stop and render aid.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
