CHICAGO (CBS) — Battered, bruised and months of recovery ahead. After being seriously injured by a driver fleeing police, a hit-and-run victim shares his recovery story.
Elias Martinez doesn’t remember much of that night when a driver fleeing North Riverside police hit him from behind.
Just by looking at Elias, it’s clear he’s in pain. His left leg was broken in three places and his skull was fractured.
He is finally back home after five weeks in hospital and rehabilitation.
“They showed me how to walk, little by little, like a baby,” he said.
On September 4, Elias, his wife Maria and their 5-year-old daughter were walking in Berwyn, near North Riverside Mall, when a carjacking suspect fleeing North Riverside police jumped the sidewalk and struck him.
The driver abandoned his car and ran away. Police say he carjacked someone in a minivan down the road. The crash left Martinez in the hospital for days, unable to speak.
“God gave me another chance to stay here with my family,” he said.
The Martinez family is grateful he is there, but many questions remain about that evening.
“I understand he was running from the police. He could have easily prevented this,” said his son Jesus.
“This is not an accident, this is just wrong,” Elias said.
The suspect who caused the crash was on the run until last week, when the Martinez family received a call from police.
“They have captured the person who did it,” Jesus said.
However, the family is now experiencing financial problems. Friends have started a GoFundMe because Martinez can’t work and medical bills are mounting.
‘I can’t withdraw money. I’m going to lose everything,” Elias said.
As Martinez slowly recovers, his family is concerned but thinks about what the doctors told them.
“Based on how he was hit from behind… most people don’t survive and can’t walk,” Jesus said.
North Riverside police declined to comment on the case Tuesday.
Police in Berwyn, where the crash and carjacking occurred, said that with the help of U.S. Marshals, they arrested Terrance Whitely of Chicago, who has been charged with six felonies in the crash.
