INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD is working to find the person responsible for a hit-and-run crash early Sunday morning that critically injured two people, one of whom is now learning how to live without a leg.
Those who live nearby said N. High School Road is in need of safety measures before more people get hurt.
It all happened in a matter of seconds around 4 a.m. Security camera footage shows a few friends standing next to a parked car waiting for an Uber home, when bright headlights pierce through the darkness. Two people ended up pinned between the cars as another person can be seen trying to get the driver’s attention. But that driver left the scene, more slowly than they arrived.
“It’s crazy to sit there and think that my best friend right there in the front yard just gets crushed by a car. Didn’t even know it,” said Brody Girton, a friend of the victims.
Girton had already gone to bed, assuming his friends had gotten home safely only to find that the opposite was true.
“Dustin’s scarred for life. The rest of his life, he’s going to have to do without a leg,” Girton said.
“I’m reeling from it,” victim Dustin Dove said. “You never know what it’s like to wake up in a hospital room missing a part of your body.”
Dove’s memory cuts out before the crash. But he remembers being given a choice after: for his amputation to begin below or above the knee.
“My whole life just changed the other night,” Dove said. “Like, I still don’t know what it looks like in the future.”
Girton hopes to fill Dove’s future with as much support as he can, raising money at VFW 1587, the local post that first brought the pair of army veterans together.
“That’s how he and I got close, coming here. We both served overseas in the Middle East around the same time,” Girton said. “You feel like you got through all the hard times and then you come home and something like this happens when you’re doing the right thing, just sitting there minding your own business on the side of the road.”
Neighbors say N. High School Road itself is part of the problem.
“We put a cone out by our mailbox so that hopefully they see it. But like I said, they’re going so fast they probably won’t,” Jared Miller said.
With minimal lighting, sharp curves and nothing to stop speeding – it’s a recipe for disaster that has led drivers to flip over on lawns, repeatedly take out mailboxes, and now cause a critical hit-and-run.
“People just go really, really fast around this curve. There’s no guardrail,” Miller said. “It’s sad and it’s really unfortunate that people don’t want to take responsibility for their own actions. You’ve got to watch your speed out here. You could kill somebody.”
“I can’t believe some person could do that,” said Zainalabdeen Hussin, who owns the car that was parked and damaged in the crash. “I can’t imagine that.”
Dove said it will likely be about six weeks before he can stand or move around on his own, and it could take six months to feel comfortable using a prosthetic to walk and drive.
“You just kind of feel helpless but a lot of people have come out and been doing a lot for me, showing me how much people really do care,” Dove added.
Though no one died in this crash, according to IMPD the number of overall fatal hit-and-run crashes this year stands at 19, already surpassing last year’s total of 16.
That’s why this west side neighborhood hopes the city will step in, bringing safety measures to N. High School Road and for whoever is responsible to come forward.
IMPD said the investigation into Sunday’s crash is ongoing. Anyone with information or footage is encouraged to reach out.
