‘Everything hurts’: Webster woman shares injuries, details after I-490 hit-and-run crash
WEBSTER, N.Y. – Another victim of the hit-and-run crash on I-490 late Saturday night has come forward with a better description of the truck that took off. The driver of the truck that caused the chain-reaction crash has not been caught.
Mary Kay Hargather had to use a walker to get to her chair Monday morning as she spoke with News10NBC Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean at her kitchen table in Webster.
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Can you run through your injuries for me?”
Mary Kay Hargather, hurt in hit-and-run: “Concussion. My eye is completely swollen shut. I have a small brain bleed. I have a broken nose. I have a fractured right foot. I have three broken ribs. And I’m thinking possibly a broken finger.”
Berkeley Brean: “What part of your body does not hurt right now?”
Mary Kay Hargather: “Um, pretty much everything hurts.”
Saturday, Hargather and her boyfriend were driving from Webster to Gates for dinner. On Route 104 at Five Mile Line Road, they noticed a white Chevy pickup truck with an orange window sticker. It was changing lanes and riding the brakes. They say they remember the truck followed them through the city heading west.
Just before the split with I-390, a car was on the highway on fire.
The car in front of Hargather hit the brakes, so did she.
Mackenzie Ferris, who was driving the car behind Hargather, said, “I would guess that the car that was on fire was closer to where the highway splits.”
That’s when a truck crashed into Ferris’ car, which crashed into Hargather’s car.
Mary Kay Hargather: “Everything, it felt like an explosion almost.”
Hargather was badly hurt. Her boyfriend broke his nose. When they heard it was a white truck that took off, they immediately thought of the truck with the orange sticker on the back window.
Hargather says they couldn’t make out the image
Brean: “But it was obvious on the back window of that truck?”
Mary Kay Hargather: “Correct. It took up pretty much the whole back window.”
Brean: “The sheriff’s office tells me they’ve gone to 580 crashes this year where at least one driver has left the scene. And now you’re part of that.”
Mary Kay Hargather: “Yeah.”
Brean: “And that feeling is what?”
Mary Kay Hargather: “I’m upset. I’m mad. I guess when something happens people panic. Everybody had a different reaction. I’m sure they have their reasons but I feel like you need to own it.”
In addition to the 580 hit-and-runs the sheriff’s office has handled this year, the State Police say it’s had about 300 hit-and-runs in the 10 counties in Troop E, which is our area.
If you have information that can help people like Mary Kay Hargather, call 911 and ask for the sheriff’s office.
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