A 65-year-old man is speaking out after surviving a hit-and-run in Pittsburg. Jodi Hernandez reports.
A 65-year-old man is speaking out after surviving a hit-and-run in Pittsburg.
Rene Cisneros described the terrifying moment he saw a car driving straight at him. Cisneros had just left his lawnmower repair shop on Buchanan Road in Pittsburg.
"She was on the phone or she was with her hand like this and the other hand in the steering wheel. I said, 'Hey, watch out! watch out!'" he said.
Cisneros said he stepped out of his car to lock the gate when a woman in a Mercedes hit him, driving over his feet and knocking him back into his car. But instead of stopping, the driver just kept going.
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“When you have a car, it’s a weapon you have in your hand. Because this lady, she didn’t care, why don’t stop?” he said.
Cisneros was knocked unconscious. He was airlifted to a hospital but his injuries were not serious.
“My feet hurt. My stomach hurt, my shoulder hurt,” he said.
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A few hours later, thanks to automated license plate readers, police tracked the driver down at her home in Walnut Creek and arrested her. The 36-year-old woman now faces felony hit-and-run charges.
“The worst thing you can do is leave," said Pittsburg police Capt. Phil Galer. "That compounds when there’s an injury. Obviously, leaving the scene of an accident is never the right thing to do. But if somebody’s injured and you leave that scene, you’ve just created an absolute criminal mess for yourself."
Cisneros told NBC Bay Area he wants the woman to face serious consequences and added he’s grateful to have survived such a scary situation.
“I feel lucky, really," he said. "I think God will always be with me because this thing happened and I’d be dead already."
