Mother from Ukraine, 38, injured in hit-and-run

Orange SUV speeds away after striking woman crossing street with her daughter

A mother from Ukraine was treated in hospital for serious injuries after a Monday hit-and-run crash on Whyte Avenue that has police turning to the public for tips.

Police responding to the 8:12 a.m. scene found that the 38-yearold woman and her six-year-old daughter were walking southbound on the marked crosswalk at Whyte Avenue and 97 Street when an orange SUV approached eastbound along the avenue. The woman was able to get the child out of the path of the vehicle before she was struck down, police said in a news release Monday afternoon.

Police said the SUV fled the scene while knocking over a stop sign.

“I was texting my sister on my balcony, and when I looked up, the lady got hit and was launched in the air,” said Nicole Morgan, a neighbour who lives in the Whyte Oaks apartments on Whyte Avenue near 97 Street.

“She landed on her face in the intersection, closer to the bus stop. Her little girl was on the road crying as the vehicle just took off.”

Morgan said she could not make out the make or model of the vehicle, as “it all happened in a blur.”

Although she did not know the victim's name, Morgan said she had met the victim and her family at a church they both attend. They had recently moved to the neighbourhood this past September, but said they were originally from Ukraine.

Morgan said that despite a yield light placed on that crosswalk, it is a notoriously dangerous crossing where she's “had to pause” multiple times before crossing due to speeding drivers.

Emergency medical services transported the woman to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The six-year-old girl was not injured.

The SUV is described as a 2011 or 2012 orange Dodge Journey with extensive front-end damage, including a missing fog light and front quarter panel, and a broken grill.

Investigators ask anyone with tips or dashcam footage to contact police at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a mobile phone. Anonymous info can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.p3tips.com/250.

GREG SOUTHAM Police collect evidence near a crosswalk on Whyte Avenue and 97 Street where a woman was hit by an orange SUV that fled the scene Monday. A witness said the woman was walking her young child across the street to the bus stop. The child was not hit by the car.