Two months ago, 70-year-old Theresa Swiercynski was living on her own, driving and had complete independence. Now, her life is very different.
Her daughter, Eva Strecheniuk said her mom was leaving the Namao Save-On Foods in Edmonton on July 14th around 3 p.m., when a car backed into Swiercynski, knocking her to the ground.
The driver drove away, and her mom suffered a broken left hip and right knee cap.
Strecheniuk said not many witnesses came forward, and Swiercynski can only remember a four-door grey sedan and one letter from the license plate.
Edmonton Police said there is no clear video surveillance from the parking to help find a suspect.
“(The driver) was pulling away slowly, like normal. It leads us to believe, even my mom thinks, that maybe (the driver) didn’t see her. She might have been in their blind spot,” Strechenuik said.
Swiercynski wasn’t feeling up to doing an interview, but wants her story told. Strechenuik said her mom wants to know who did this.
“She wants reassurance that maybe there’s good people still out there that will admit that it was an accident — she wants to forgive them as well, she has a good heart,” Strechenuik said.
“She’s been having a lot of nightmares, waking up thinking it’s real, and it’s happening all over again.”
Strechenuik said her mom is walking with a walker now, but the incident has accelerated some of her other health conditions.
“It could cause her dementia to get worse.
“This has caused so many other complications, this has really deteriorated mom’s quality of life,” Strechenuik said.
“The doctor told me, her base prior to the accident may never be the same after the accident.”
Statistics from Edmonton Police show in 2019, there were five serious pedestrian hit and run crashes in Edmonton, four of those resulted in charges.
Vision Zero Edmonton is a goal from the City of Edmonton to see no traffic related deaths or serious injuries. Their stats show one of the top crash causes is drivers not yielding to a pedestrian.
“People are seriously impacted even if it’s a near crash, almost getting hit by a car, all the way to the most serious of tragedies, and it’s totally preventable and something we can get rid of,” City of Edmonton traffic director Jessica Lamarre said.
While Vision Zero focuses on public streets, Lamarre hopes their efforts for safety will transfer to private properties too,
“When we look at how we set up our roads for safety we really have to consider those who aren’t in a vehicle and design it to protect them from the errors that humans are ought to make,” Lamarre said.