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SCOTTSDALE, Az. (KPHO/KTVK) — A Phoenix man was walking to work in Scottsdale when a driver hit him as he was crossing the street in the crosswalk. The driver then took off.
Tim Foley was struck around 6:30 a.m. Friday morning at the intersection of 68th Street and Thomas Road.
“I remember my hands shielding me from my head hitting his windshield. My head would’ve hit his windshield because when I came forward, I very distinctly remember the dash of his car was this close to me, I was looking right at it,” Foley said.
Foley said he got off of one bus and needed to cross the street to catch the next. He waited for the signal to change and got about seven feet into the intersection when the driver started to make a left turn from 68th Street to Thomas.
“The next thing I know I’m down on the ground alongside his car and I’m facing the other way, it was like I had been spun around,” Foley explained. “I got myself up, he stayed there for a second, he did not get out of his car, he did not roll down his window to say anything to me. As I was looking at him in his car, I told him, ‘come here, come here I need to talk to you,'” Foley motioned with his hands.
After about 30 seconds, the driver took off.
“I’m 400lbs, I know he knows he hit me. Maybe if he hit me and didn’t realize he hit me and kept going, but he stayed there. He stayed there in his car for enough time to know that he had hit me, that I was standing there and I was beckoning for him to come forward and he made that decision to put his foot on the gas pedal and leave,” Foley said.
Foley said no other cars stopped to help him, but several cars went in the direction of the suspect vehicle.
Foley has bad road rash on his legs and several bruises, but he knows he’s lucky to be alive.
“The doctors at the hospital even said if I have not put my hands up my head would’ve hit the windshield and we’d be dealing with a very different situation right now,” said Foley.
He wants other pedestrians to think twice before they step in a crosswalk.
“Be careful. Just because you are in the crosswalk and you are on the green, you’re not safe.”
As for the driver, he’s hoping someone caught the license plate number. He believes it was a silver or white hatchback.
“Being that I’m 6’6″, I’m 400lbs, I know his hood is damaged. It has to be. It absolutely has to be.”
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