Wheat Ridge Hit & Run Teen Victim Faces 2-Year Recovery
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - An Arvada teen badly hurt in a hit-and-run talked to CBS4 in hopes that the driver will come forward.
The crash happened Friday afternoon at 29th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard in Wheat Ridge.
Shelby Cavender, 19, had the right-of-way when she was crossing the street in a crosswalk at a green light. A driver turning left onto Wadsworth hit her and left her bleeding in the road.
"I don't know why I got hit even though I took all of these precautions," Cavender said.
Cavender was on her way to visit her mother at work when she got off at the bus stop located at 29th and Wadsworth. When the crosswalk signal came on, she started crossing the street. That's when the driver turning left gave her a glancing blow.
"Knocked her over -- hit her hip, and her face hit the car, and then hit the pavement," Cavender's mother Kelly Stevens said.
The driver didn't stop -- an action Stevens doesn't understand.
"It makes me really, really angry … I just can't fathom injuring another human being and not stopping," she said.
The impact knocked out four of Cavender's teeth, fractured her upper jaw, and left bruises and road rash all over her body. Doctors say she has a 2-year road to recovery, and the scars are not only physical.
"It's been so traumatic for her," Stevens said. "I mean … when we drove past the place where it happened this morning she started crying again."
While several people witnessed the hit-and-run, nobody got the car's license plate number or a good description of the driver.
"I'm hoping they'll at least eventually come forward and admit to what they did," Cavendar said.
The car that hit Cavendar is described as a maroon sedan. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
