SEBASTIAN − An 18-year-old standing alongside a road with her dog near her home was struck by a speeding truck traveling in the wrong lane that drove away after it hit her in mid-June, Sebastian police stated in records about the incident.
Tina Batres, 52, of Sebastian, was arrested Friday on a warrant charging her with failing to stop or remain at a crash involving serious bodily injury, following a roughly monthlong investigation.
The injured teen was found by a passerby who called 911 to report a semi-conscious person lying in the roadway just before 11 a.m. on June 12, according to court records released Monday. The dog was uninjured.
The girl was taken to Health First's Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne where she was hospitalized for two days with what were described in police records as serious injuries including a concussion, internal injuries and a broken rib.
Detectives who questioned her after she was released from the hospital outlined the events she said happened, in a warrant for Batres' arrest approved by a judge July 11.
How the girl was injured
The teen told police she was walking her dog home along Gilson Avenue, when she saw the truck turn and approach her traveling west off Dolores Street.
According to the affidavit, “the truck was traveling at a high rate of speed on the wrong side of the road the whole way until it hit her on the soft dirt shoulder of the roadway.”
Detectives state in records they found the area of impact and “where the vehicle had left the roadway, (and) re-entered the roadway” as it traveled south on Lance Street at Gilson Avenue.
Police responding to the call about a girl struck by a vehicle in the roadway said in the report she was semi-conscious when she was taken to a hospital.
Police make an arrest
Police found homes in the area with street-facing cameras, and two days after the crash, reviewed surveillance footage from a Lance Street home that captured a southbound Ford F-150 pass “at a high rate of speed.” It was the only vehicle captured by the camera traveling on the road just prior to the 911 call, according to the affidavit.
Police went to Batres' 100 block of Mabry Street residence on June 15 and found a tan and gray 2009 Ford F-150 truck described as being the same truck seen in the footage.
While questioning Batres, detectives reported seeing narcotics inside her purse while she gave them keys to the truck. The substances tested positive for cocaine and fentanyl.
She was arrested June 15 on drug and paraphernalia possession charges.
Law enforcement authorities state in police records Batres “has a history of hit-and-run collisions along Lance Street…”, and that crash data from the truck’s “event data recorder” could not be obtained by state troopers “due to the amount of damage on the vehicle from prior collisions.”
She told police she “probably” drove the truck that day and had parked it behind the home.
Sheriff’s Office detectives searched her phone and found that afternoon searches and calls to defense attorneys, police radio broadcasts, crime-related local news, plane tickets to Boston, and searches asking what to do after hitting someone with a vehicle.
Batres requested an attorney and refused to speak with police.
In her first appearance in court she was assigned a $75,000 bail along with pre-trial release conditions.
Law enforcement records show she was released from the Indian River County Jail July 14.
Corey Arwood is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers. Follow @coreyarwood on X, email corey.arwood@tcpalm.com or call 772-978-2246.
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