A busy Saturday afternoon at the Discovery Foods Plaza in Oyster River north of Black Creek was interrupted by a brazen hit and run.
“It was shocking, shocking to see,” said Dawn Carson who saw two people arguing before the man was hit.
“Yelling and screaming in the parking lot, they were having a good fight,” Carson added.
CHEK News has been told the man and woman walked to a bus stop on Glenmore Road across from the plaza then moments later as they crossed the road again, a silver car, believed to be a four-door Mazda travelling towards Highway 19A appears to have veered directly towards the pair, striking the man.
“At 1:30 yesterday afternoon we were called to an MVA with a pedestrian struck in front of the Discovery Foods store,” said Oyster River Fire Chief Bruce Green. “When I arrived on scene there was a gentleman who was lying on the road in some severe pain and had allegedly been hit by a vehicle that had left the scene.”
The woman was able to get out of the way but the man was hit and tumbled into the air somersaulting over the car. He landed about 15 metres down the road as the car took off.
“From what the bystanders were saying, it sounds like he hit the windshield and went right over the car. He had some severe face lacerations and some bruising on the extremities,” added Green.
First responders at the scene were unsure about any internal injuries the man suffered before being rushed to the hospital and there was no update Sunday.
There is extensive video surveillance at the plaza and it has been viewed by police.
The RCMP Major Crime Unit is now investigating but there have been no arrests. Anyone with information should call the Campbell River RCMP at 250-286-6221.
Dean Stoltz
