Police seek driver who hit, injured teen on Bangerter Highway


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WEST JORDAN — Police are looking for the driver of a car involved in what they are calling an unusual auto-pedestrian accident Tuesday morning.

It happened at the intersection fo 9000 South and Bangerter Highway, and the 17-year-old girl who was hit didn't even know she was injured until hours later.

West Jordan police say the teen was on her way to school and tried to cross the street in the crosswalk.

"A car that was turning right to get onto Bangerter struck her," said West Jordan police officer Scott List. "He did get out and talk to her real quick, but then got back in his car and left the scene."

A school bus driver witnessed some part of the crash but didn't get a good look at the car or its driver, List said. The bus driver picked the girl up and took her to Jordan High School.

"The school informed us that she'd been hit," List said.

Kayleen Whitelock said she rushed to the high school when she got the call about her daughter.

"I do have a nursing background, so I wanted to check out my daughter myself," Whitelock said.

Paramedics also took time to assess the girl. She was emotionally shaken, but didn't appear seriously hurt, her mother said.

"She wanted to just go back to school, and so she did. But when she got home from school she was complaining that her hip was hurting," Whitelock said.

A quick trip to the doctor revealed a fractured pelvis.

"They've got her on crutches, and she needs to go back to Primary Children's (Hospital) in a week," Whitelock said.

The girl's mother said she doesn't understand how the man who hit her daughter could just drive away after the crash.

"I've been in an accident," she said. "I've actually had a bicyclist run into me, and it's scary. But you don't just leave."

Now police are hoping the man, or someone who knows him, will see this story and contact them.

"The guy stopped originally, so we're hoping that there was a misunderstanding or something like that," List said. "And it'd be nice if he came forward."

Whitelock said her daughter doesn't remember much about the crash. She knows she was hit by a car — not a truck or an SUV — and she said the driver appeared to be a man in his 50s or 60s, with dark eyes and dark hair that is going gray.

Anyone who saw the crash or knows the driver, is asked to contact the West Jordan Police Department at 801-840-4000.

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