Wednesday, August 11, 1999
Driver hits 4, speeds away
BY ERIN GIBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Rescuers tend to a victim of the hit-and-run in front of the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
(Glenn Hartong photo)
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A single running shoe marked the spot downtown Tuesday where a driver struck three teens and critically injured an elderly man before speeding away in his car.
The elderly man, who was carrying no identification, remained in critical condition at University Hospital late Tuesday. The three teens were taken to Children's Hospital Medical Center, where 15-year-old Sheila Mayborg of Sayler Park was in serious condition. Courtney Geiger, 15, of North Fairmount and 14-year-old Nick Luers of Westwood were treated and released.
The driver had not been identified or caught by Tuesday evening, Cincinnati police said. Bystanders described him as a young male. Neither he nor his passenger got out of the car to check on the victims they left lying on the pavement.
Cincinnati Police Sgt. John Day said the driver sped out of the College Street alley between Race and Vine streets — across from the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Sixth Street — about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Traveling fast — 45 mph or more, according to bystanders — he struck the two teen-age girls and the teen-age boy who were crossing the alley.
The teens landed on the car's hood, and as it crossed Sixth toward the hotel, they were propelled off into the Plaza's circular driveway. The impact knocked off one of their shoes — a white and blue running shoe — which fell near the alley's entrance.
The driver didn't stop, striking the elderly man and circling the driveway past hotel customers and valet parking attendants. He stopped briefly as he drove out onto Sixth Street — apparently confused about how to get around traffic.
He sideswiped another car and then sped west on Sixth Street. He was out of sight within seconds.
“He just took off,” said Leon Carpenter, a witness who works at the nearby Cincinnatian Hotel. “People were screaming, "Get his license plates!'”
No one could. The car, a primer-gray, four-door Chevrolet Celebrity, had a tempo rary license plate in its rear window. The passenger pulled it down as the driver sped away, Mr. Carpenter said.
With the driver gone, Mr. Carpenter ran to the elderly man, who lay twisted and unconscious on the pavement.
“I was trying to get his attention, seeing if he would respond to me, and he didn't,” Mr. Carpenter said.
Seante Bullock, a waitress at Cafe Cin/Cin next to the Crowne Plaza, heard the accident and ran outside. She saw the man who had been struck.
“He was so hurt, it almost made me cry,” she said.
Anyone with information on the hit-skip vehicle or the identity of the elderly pedestrian is asked to contact the Cincinnati Police Division's Traffic Unit at 352-2514.
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