OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) - From her hospital bed, an Oceanside woman seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver made a plea for tips.
Just before 8 p.m. Sunday, Holly Owen had just gotten off work and was on her bike, headed to see her son at his father's home. A block from that home, she at a four-way stop, on the sidewalk on S. Ditmar Street, about to cross Cassidy Street.
“I saw a big black truck. He was about half a block away, approaching the stop sign. I had already been waiting so it was my right of way, so I went,” said Owen.
She was nearly to the curb when she was hit.
“And the next thing I know, there was …. big pair of truck headlights coming right at me … impact, flying through the air, hitting the ground, having the wind knocked out of me and then just hearing a bunch of people shouting, and then looking up … a bunch of people standing over me,” said Owen.
Among the eventual crowd, her 11-year-old son, who ran out of his home.
“Heartbroken for my son. No child have to see their parent lying bloodied in the street, thinking they are dead,” said Owen.
Owen was rushed to a hospital. The truck that struck her was long gone. Surveillance video shows a black truck headed from the scene, toward the I-5 on-ramp. Witnesses say it never stopped and sped off.
“It's disgusting. How can you hit a human being and leave them to die bleeding out in the street?” asked Owen.
At the hospital, Owen diagnosed with a host of injuries, including two spinal fractures, three broken ribs, road rash, and countless bruises. Her back fractures will require her to be in a body brace for six weeks.
As she begins her recovery, she made an appeal for clues from her hospital bed.
“I want people to turn him in or himself to turn himself in. I want justice,” said Owen.
Oceanside Police believes the truck is a black, Dodge Ram lifted pickup. Anyone with tips is asked to call Oceanside Police at 760-435-4900.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help with Owen's expenses.
