WATCH ABOVE: The driver suspected in a hit and run involving a pedestrian Wednesday night in Temple has turned himself in. A mother of two that was hit is expected to live, but given the amount of hit and runs this week prevention is a popular topic. Global’s Stefan Keyes reports.
CALGARY – Police are in the process of interviewing a person who tuned themselves into police in connection to the city’s third hit and run this week.
It happened in the northeast community of Temple around 8 p.m.
Police say the 38-year-old mother was using a crosswalk in the intersection of Temple Drive N.E. and 56 Street N.E. when she was struck. Pedestrian lights were flashing at the time.
Witnesses report seeing the mother push her two children to safety; she was thrown about 15 metres after being hit.
“She did ride on the vehicle for a short distance… on the hood, windshield area… and then she was flung from vehicle, and then the vehicle sped off,” explained Sgt. Jeff Leimer with the Calgary Police Service Traffic Unit.
Paramedics rushed the woman to the Foothills Medical Centre in serious but stable condition. Her children – a two-year-old boy and four-year-old girl – were taken to the Alberta Children’s Hospital as a precaution, but were released shortly after.
The driver fled the scene in a white Honda.
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Three hit and run collisions this week
Thursday’s hit and run was the third reported this week.
On Monday, 33-year-old Farida Abdurahman was killed in a hit and run in the intersection of Centre Street North and 43 Avenue just after 11 p.m.
She was using a marked crosswalk at the time.
Police later charged 58-year-old Robert Mark Varley with one count of hit and run causing death.
That same night, another woman was struck in a hit and run in the intersection of Martindale Drive and Saddletowne Circle N.E.
The victim suffered minor injuries and was able to get up and walk to a nearby CTrain station to call for help.
A group called Safer Calgary is working with the city on a pedestrian strategy called “Step Forward.”
“The difficulty is that when it comes to making changes, there are really three places you can go,” said program director Greg Hart. “One is enforcement, one is education, and the third one is engineering or design.”
Hart said the engineering/design aspect makes the biggest impact, but is also the most expensive.
“It protects us from our inability to think properly in the moment, whether we’re the driver or the person walking,” he said.
“The question is, do the people of Calgary and do the politicians in Calgary have the political will to reprioritize spending so that we can start to get at some of these problems? … Are we willing to spend the money or are we willing to just stay with things the way they are?”
– With files from Jenna Freeman and Stefan Keyes
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