Hit-and-run shows good, bad in people

Colleen Brehm remembers being blinded by headlights and raising her arm to shield her eyes from the glare, but not much else. And that's probably for the best.

"I remember getting in the ambulance and that's about it," Brehm said. "I'm kind of glad about that. Who'd want to remember being a hood ornament?"

A little more than six weeks ago, on the evening of Dec. 8, she was struck by a vehicle near Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University while walking to her car after work. She works on campus for Aramark Campus Dining Service.

The ferocious swelling and angry bruises that discolored her face have faded and are mostly gone. The pins that hold her right wrist together are not. They're permanent.

So, too, is the troubling thought that whoever hit her left the scene and the suspicion that the driver will never be held accountable.

"I called to thank the witness who did stop," Brehm said. "I asked him 'Do you think they knew it was a person they hit?' He said 'Yeah. They stopped before they took off.'"

Long road ahead

The wreck report — signed by Officer J.D. Rierson of the campus police department — is both clinical in its simple, just-the-facts narrative and frightening at the same time:

"The impact caused Ms. Brehm to land on the hood of the hit and run vehicle. The hit and run vehicle turned left on Wake Forest Rd. throwing Ms. Brehm from the hood onto the side of the road. Ms. Brehm traveled 31 ft. on the hood from the initial impact, before being thrown from the hood."

The witness, junior Nick Reichert, told police that the vehicle appeared to be a white SUV, possibly a BMW or Volkswagen, and that two or three females were inside.

"The light came on (inside the car)," Reichert said last week. "Everyone in the car seemed to be freaking out. … If I could go back, I would have stood in front of it so they couldn't leave."

Brehm's face was bashed, either by the vehicle or the pavement when she fell, and her right wrist mangled. She was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, held overnight and released the next morning.

She faces a long rehabilitation, will be out of work for three to six months and has a mountain of paperwork with insurance and short-term disability claims. She was denied workers' compensation.

"I'm overwhelmed right now," she said.

The (lack of) humanity

Six-plus weeks removed from the wreck, Brehm just wants to get better. She'd like to avoid formal rehabilitation; she prefers to do the exercises her doctor recommended on her own.

She doesn't want to be critical of anyone, not the police nor the driver, whom she believes might just be scared. She's disappointed, of course, that the driver chose to flee and that none of the passengers have stepped forward, either.

Instead, Brehm is trying to focus on the positive. She's grateful she didn't lose an eye — doctors initially thought it possible — and that she didn't break any teeth. She is also thankful that one kid (Reichert) was raised the right way and stopped to help.

"I'm trying to turn it around and be appreciative," said Brehm, who lives in Lewisville.

Still, the incident raises a few questions in my mind. Primary among them is why campus police didn't turn the matter over to the Winston-Salem Police Department. That department has an entire unit for investigating such crimes and almost certainly more experience and expertise in doing so.

"I don't know the specifics but I do know (university police) consulted the Winston-Salem police," said Kevin Cox, a spokesman for the university. "Ultimately it's still the university police department's investigation."

The incident happened just before Christmas break, so time was imperative. If the driver was a student, she (or he) could have hit the road or gone to a body shop the next morning. Damage from a collision with a "deer" could be repaired in a matter of days.

"At this point, they haven't determined who is responsible yet," Cox said. "Nobody has been identified as a suspect."

The thought that the driver could have been a fellow student who would just leave the scene of a crime doesn't sit well with the young man who did the right thing.

"It really is a sad state of affairs," Reichert said. "The school's motto is 'Pro Humanitate,' which means 'For Humanity.' They were obviously looking after their own skin.

"College kids," he said, "have to realize that this not only goes against the school's philosophy but against plain human decency."