LOWELL, MASS. (WHDH) - A woman on a mobility scooter who was struck and seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver in Lowell earlier this week wants the person who fled to answer one question: “How can you be so cruel to take off on someone that you hit?”
Donna Bettencourt, 46, was riding the scooter on Middlesex Street about 10 p.m. Tuesday when she was struck outside of a Dunkin’ Donuts by the driver of a dark-colored Mercury Sable, officials said.
“I’m in severe pain,” Bettencourt told 7News from her hospital bed as she continues to recover from the horrifying crash.
Bettencourt, who struggles with Guillain-Barre syndrome, suffered a broken pelvis and a nearly severed left leg, according to family members.
“I started walking about a year ago. I was paralyzed for about 8 months. I had neuropathy,” she said. “I was walking with a cane, doing the right thing. Then all of a sudden, boom, someone takes your whole world away.”
Her sister, Lisa Collins, said doctors may have to amputate the injured left leg.
“Right now they don’t know. They’re hoping to save the leg,” she said. “She may never walk again.”
Bettencourt is begging that whoever hit her to do the right thing and come forward.
“Please sir, come around and tell the police who you are,” she said. “You shouldn’t be on the road if you’re going to act like that and not even answer who you are.”
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Lowell police at 978-937-3200.
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