Woman hit by dirt bike trying to find driver

Freeport Road scene of Jan. 20 hit-and-run

Struck by a dirt bike and left for dead, Janet Jai refuses to be a victim any more.

Ms. Jai, 71, of Highland Park, was walking across Freeport Road in O’Hara on Jan. 20 to go to a Rite Aid when a red dirt bike struck her. Witnesses say the vehicle was in the wrong lane, traveling in the wrong direction.

Ms. Jai says she never saw it coming.

She also says enough enough.

As a childhood victim of physical and sexual abuse, she no longer wants to be a victim and is taking steps to find the driver who struck her, offering a $100 reward for information leading to the person’s identification.

“It’s more important for women not to be a victim than for men,” she said. “Women are often made to feel they don’t have a say in such things. It’s important for me to take action.”

Ms. Jai does not remember being struck. Witnesses gave this account. is It was about 6:30 p.m., and Ms. Jai and her longtime partner, Richard Krepski, 65, of Highland Park, had just finished dinner at Tai Pei Restaurant on Freeport Road, which is across from the Rite Aid. He was in his car, getting ready to pick her up at the drugstore when he heard a sound that may have been the screeching of brakes or the actual impact.

He looked up and immediately thought, that’s her. He crossed the street and saw the dirt bike driver, who appeared to be male.

“I was screaming at him,” Mr. Krepski said. “He backed up, but then he gunned it.” He drove into the parking lot at Fox Chapel Plaza and disappeared behind the stores.

Nick Barker, 34, of Butler County, was driving his truck when he saw that a person had been struck. He could see the dirt bike tracks on the road. He dialed 911 and handed his phone to a doctor at the scene so that he could describe Ms. Jai’s condition.

Tim Martin, 42, a general practitioner who lives in Indiana Township, had been picking up takeout food at the restaurant when he heard the revving of the dirt bike. He then saw Ms. Jai lying on the road, illuminated by the headlights of a car stopped on Freeport. Other