‘I pray that everyone’s okay’: Mother, child injured in hit-and-run, Henrico Police searching for driver

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A mother and her child are both recovering after they were struck by a hit-and-run driver on Nine Mile Road in eastern Henrico County Friday morning.

According to the Henrico County Police Division, around 1:15 a.m. on Friday July 5, officers responded to the intersection of Nine Mile Road and Westover Avenue for a report of a crash involving a pedestrian.

When they got to the scene the officers found that a woman and her 21-month-old child had been struck, they were both taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

According to police, the woman was holding her child while walking on the eastbound shoulder of Nine Mile Road when they were both struck by a driver traveling in the right lane. Police said the driver did not stay at the scene.

“I’m devastated. I pray that everyone’s okay,” a neighbor told 8News.

The neighbor said that, with the lack of sidewalks and heavy flow of traffic along Nine Mile Road, he wasn’t shocked to hear what happened.

“The speed limits 40 miles an hour, but the average speed is actually 50,” the neighbor said about Nine Mile Road. “[There are] drivers not paying attention, drivers distracted, drivers going too fast.”

Lt. David Turner of Henrico Police said that investigators have been working to find the driver.

“The suspect vehicle fled the scene in [what was] described as possibly being a silver sedan or coupe,” Turner said.

Both police and community members are hoping for answers soon.

“I hope that whoever hit them will be truthful enough to come forward, because I think they owe it to the victim some closure,” the neighbor said.

The neighbor is also hoping that changes will be made to the busy road soon to protect pedestrians.

“We definitely [need a] sidewalk, also, maybe a speed reduction,” he said.

8News reached out to the county about any future safety improvements to that area of Nine Mile Road. A county spokesperson said the Henrico Department of Public Works worked with the Virginia Department of Transportation to do a study “to look at the feasibility of both pedestrian and cyclist improvements in that area of Nine Mile.”

The county spokesperson and a VDOT spokesperson said the study is done and they are waiting for results.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Henrico Police Crash Team Investigator R. Hostetler at 804-501-5000.

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