The victim of a hit-and-run on a Nova Scotia highway over the weekend said she’s thankful that she and her family are alive after the dramatic crash sent them flying.
“To walk away from it is unreal,” said 38-year-old Robyn Tidd of Truro, N.S., who was driving a Jeep Wrangler along Highway 102 near Miller Lake with her wife and mother-in-law Saturday morning when they were struck by a blue Toyota Echo.
She described the incident as “terrifying.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.”
The driver of the Echo, which was travelling outbound in the inbound lanes, fled into the woods after the crash and remains at large, police say.
A dashcam video submitted to Global News shows the Echo slamming into the rear driver’s side of the Jeep, as Tidd attempted to avoid it. Everything happened very quickly, she said.
“I was able to kind of jerk my wheel to the right and I hit my brakes,” she said, adding that the car still hit the side of the car despite her efforts. “As you can tell in the video, it spun us out and flipped us twice and we ended upside down in the ditch.”
The family, who were all wearing their seatbelts, dangled upside down before they were able to extricate themselves from the Jeep with the help of two men, one of whom was a volunteer firefighter, who stopped to check on them.
“I opened my eyes and there was a guy at the door, trying to get it open to get us out,” said Tidd. “I appreciate them stopping and taking care of my family as we were in probably one of the worst moments of our lives.”
‘We’re alive and that’s what matters’
Tidd and her wife were taken to hospital and discharged later that day with minor injuries. Her mother-in-law continues to recover in hospital, but Tidd is grateful that things didn’t turn out worse.
“Everybody’s as OK as they can be,” she said.
“We’ve got some bumps and bruises and we’re probably going to be hella sore for the next I-don’t-even-know-how-long, but we’re alive and that’s what matters.”
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Police are continuing to search for the driver of the blue Toyota Echo, which bears the licence plate GYT 158.
RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay said Monday that the vehicle had been privately sold recently and the new owner had not yet registered it.
“We’re still looking for him, and we are asking the public to call police or Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers if they have any information in regards to the driver or the collision itself,” he said.
Tremblay said police are following up on tips from the public, including speaking with the vehicle’s original owner.
“There’s a few investigative avenues that we have to follow up on in order to attempt to identify the driver of the vehicle,” he said.
Asked if Tidd had a message for the driver of the vehicle, she said no.
“I didn’t really think about him much, to be honest,” she said. “I am more worried about the recovery of my family.”
She expressed gratitude that she was driving the Jeep Wrangler instead of her usual car, a Honda Civic.
“The doctors, and the paramedics, and the fire department all said if we hadn’t been in that Wrangler, we would’ve been dead,” she said. “If I had been in my Civic, we’d all have been dead. No question.”
Tidd also praised the men who stopped to make sure she and her family were OK.
“I can’t thank the two dudes enough,” she said.
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