POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward Sheriff’s Office has again come to the aid of a woman who was struck by a hit-and-run driver last year.
Collette Nichols is still recovering from the hit-and-run that happened when she was riding her bike home from work in Pompano Beach, last September. As she rode along Southwest 26th Avenue and Third Street, a vehicle struck her.
“I was just riding my bike home from work and just, you know, regular life getting off from work,” Nichols said. “All of a sudden, I got hit by a car or a truck. I’m not even sure.”
The driver left Collette seriously injured on the street.
“I had a fractured skull, a fractured C-7 of my neck, laceration on my left leg, bumps and bruises, that sort of thing,” Nichols said.
BSO deputies came to her aid, and now they’re helping her return to work.
BSO Victims Advocate Rosemary Evans Baker presented a check to her. “This check for Dr. Berket, which has afforded you the opportunity to go to the doctor so you can get back to work, compliments of the services of the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Victim’s Services Unit, this is what we do,” she said. “This has been paid in full.”
The program paid her doctor’s bill, which had to be taken care of before she could return to work. The program also took care of how she will travel to work.
“Since your ultimate mode of transportation has been totally destroyed in your accident, we have this for you,” Evans Baker said, as her colleagues rolled out two bikes. “You have choices, you can’t have both. You get one or the other.”
Nichols said she was grateful for the assistance. “And now I get another bicycle, so that’s really nice, I greatly appreciate it,” Nichols said.
“She did everything she was supposed to do, never asking for anything. This is why this is all a surprise for her,” said Evans Baker.
As for the driver who hit her, Nichols said she isn’t angry.
“I’m not angry about it,” she said. “If anything, disappointed, but maybe, hopefully, for the next situation, they become involved with in their life, maybe they’ll think about it. Because, maybe, it won’t turn out as positively as it did today.”
Collette admitted she wasn’t wearing a helmet when she was knocked from her bike. She said that will never happen again.
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