Fifty-one-year-old Emilia Abila does not remember the afternoon she was struck and nearly killed as she was crossing Martin Grove and Belfield Road in Toronto just blocks from the company where she works.
Abila, a single mother to an eight-year-old girl, said she was heading to the bus stop on Sept. 17 around 3:45 pm after finishing her shift at National Logistic Services when she was hit by a pickup truck that fled the scene, leaving her lying on the street.
Abila said a friend who was walking behind her called 911 for an ambulance.
When police arrived, they realized that Abila had been struck in a fail to remain collision, and began an investigation in an effort to identify a suspect vehicle and the driver.
On Monday, 26-year-old Jason Gomes of Mississauga surrendered to Toronto Police Traffic Services with a lawyer.
Det. Const. Sameer Patil said investigators had contacted Gomes a few days earlier and suggested he turn himself in.
They had allegedly gathered enough evidence to suggest that Gomes was behind the wheel of a white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck that was caught on video surveillance that afternoon, last seen heading onto Highway 409.
Patil would not get into details of the investigation except to say that detectives had managed to narrow down the list of Tacomas.
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“You can imagine, there’s thousands in the province that matched that description so it was a painstaking investigation,” Patil told Global News.
Abila said she’s angry that the driver left her there on the road that afternoon and remembered when she woke up in hospital, all she could think about was her daughter.
“The doctor told me I’m lucky I’m alive. It’s a miracle, that’s what they said,” recalled Abila.
Abila spent two months in Sunnybrook Hospital and St. John’s Rehab after the collision having suffered a broken ankle, knee, pelvis and clavicle. She also had a head injury.
Even after four operations and ongoing rehab, she questions if she will ever be able to work again.
She relies on her mother to make meals and her sister to clean and wonders what would have happened if she had died.
“I think of my daughter, no one will take care of you (sic),” Abila said choking back tears.
Gomes is expected in court on Feb. 26, 2021.
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