DAVIE, FLA. (WSVN) - A woman is sharing her story days after, she said, a driver hit her and her boyfriend as they were walking out of a store in Davie.
Dramatic surveillance video captured the vehicle as it suddenly accelerated moments after the driver had parked outside of the America Latina Market, a food store and restaurant along Davie Road, at around 8:20 p.m., Wednesday.
Speaking with 7News Monday night, Maura Schrews said she and her boyfriend Jonathan had stopped at the food store on the night before Thanksgiving. Moments before impact, she said, a clerk convinced the couple to swap out the warm soft drink they were buying for a cold one.
“We should have just stuck with the warm one,” she said.
The woman behind the wheel, 23-year-old Michaele Joseph, told investigators she had hit the gas instead of the brake.
Schrews said she froze when she saw the car.
“I saw it coming, but it was right in that moment where it’s like, you can’t even move, because it’s so sudden,” she said.
The car jumped the curb, plummeted into the business and hit the victims.
Schrews said Jonathan jumped up immediately, she believes, fueled by adrenaline, but she was not so lucky.
“Everything’s dark. My head’s bleeding, like, I’m bleeding, I don’t know where I’m bleeding from,” she said. “I just had a lot of glass, like all over my body.”
Joseph told police she immediately backed out and checked on the victims.
Schrews suffered a head contusion, bruising and a laceration to her finger. Her boyfriend suffered a cut to his elbow.
Davie Fire Rescue transported the victims to HCA Florida University Hospital for treatment. Fortunately, they only spent a few hours at the hospital and were released early Thursday morning.
Since the crash, Schrews said, she has continued to wonder what would have happened if she hadn’t spent those extra seconds at the register grabbing that cold drink.
“I mean, It’s still something I think about. It happened a few days ago, but I think about it every day,” she said. “It’s crazy how everything happened.”
Joseph was not hurt. She was cited for failure to use due care.
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