Two drivers sought after horrific hit-and-run in Scarborough
The pedestrian was hit by a cargo van and then run over by an SUV – and neither vehicle remained at the scene
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A Scarborough man says he’s “traumatized” after witnessing a woman being struck by two vehicles and killed Thursday night.
Lawrence Clementes, who lives on Birchmount Rd. a couple of blocks north of St. Clair Ave. E., can’t get the sight and sound of the horrific collision out of his mind.
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“It’s heartbreaking you know. You just hit someone and (they) decided to run,” Clementes said near the scene of the fatality on Friday. “That’s a crime, you know.”
“The person just left and that was it. It was unbelievable, to just leave a person like that in the street.” he added.
Clementes and a work partner were sitting in his partner’s truck in his driveway around 9:30 p.m. when they saw the unidentified woman walking about in the northbound lanes of Birchmount Rd., just north of Anaconda Ave. – along the west side of Pine Hills Cemetery – when a white cargo Transit-style van approached and struck the woman sending her flying through the air up the roadway for about 50 feet.
The cargo van kept on driving.
“Sad to say he hit the lady,” said Clementes, explaining a second vehicle driving southbound then ran over the pedestrian.
The second vehicle that hit the woman – believed to be a dark-coloured SUV – also failed to stop at the scene.
At that point, Clementes and his friend, who both work for a non-emergency medical transport company, jumped from the truck, grabbed their “trauma bag” kit and went into the roadway to stop traffic and “assess the situation and what was the course of action” to help the gravely injured woman.
“I talked to my (work) partner and said this person isn’t going to make it. Because, well, from the damage,” he said. “It was really bad, it was traumatizing.”
Clemente said his friend started medical compressions on her chest and checked for a pulse at which time another motorist, an off-duty female Toronto Fire Fighter, stopped and tried to render medical assistance before police and EMS arrived on the scene.
Just before the deadly collision occurred, Clementes could see the woman meandering about in the lanes from a distance and he called 911 to alert police of the potentially dangerous situation.
Mohammed Hossain, who also lives nearby, captured video footage on his home security camera of the woman wandering into the northbound lanes before she was run down.
The video shows at least six vehicles, in about a 30-second span, driving north trying to slow down to avoid hitting her and two of the vehicles swerving around her into the oncoming southbound lanes before she disappeared from the footage.
About 30 seconds after the woman disappeared from the camera’s view, what looks to be the white cargo van could be seen driving north on Birchmount Rd. But the video didn’t capture the catastrophic chain of events that followed.
Hossain said it was “very sad what happened to the lady.”
Toronto Police were at the scene going door-to-door on the west side of Birchmount Rd. on Friday afternoon, looking for video footage and potential witnesses.
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