'Turn Yourself In:' Search Continues For Hit-And-Run Driver Who Backed Over Woman In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The search continues for a hit-and-run driver who struck a woman more than a month ago in the Bronx.
The NYPD released new surveillance video in the investigation Wednesday.
Police said 50-year-old Lisbeth Arce was crossing Pitman Avenue between Gunther and Wickman avenues shortly before 8 p.m. on Sept. 22 in the Wakefield section.
She was struck by a dark-colored pickup truck that was driving in reverse.
Arce was run over by the truck's rear tires and suffered trauma to both of her legs.
She is still in the hospital, where she told CBS2's Scott Rapoport she thought she was going to die that night.
"Like road kill, I guess. It was horrifying," Arce said in an exclusive interview. "I thought I lost my legs."
The mother of three and eighth grade English teacher was leaving her late mother's house when she was hit.
"I kept screaming and screaming, and I said, 'you hit me!'" she said. "There's no doubt that the vehicle saw that he hit a person. Wasn't an animal, wasn't a thing, he saw a person."
In perhaps the cruelest irony, Arce's mother Hilda was killed by a hit-and-run driver in that exact spot two years ago.
"Turn yourself in," she urged the driver who struck her. "In 30 seconds you changed my life and the life of my children."
Investigators say the truck had an after-market cap installed on its bed.
Arce is scheduled for one more surgery and hopes to leave the hospital in two weeks. After that, she'll face physical therapy.
Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website, by Tweeting @NYPDTips or by texting a tip to 274637.
