A Weinberg senior was still in the hospital Monday after being the victim of a hit-and-run accident Thursday morning.
Archana Sriram suffered facial fractures, a broken jaw, a hip fracture and a broken leg after she was hit by a yellow Hummer at the intersection of Lake Street and Sherman Avenue, she said from the hospital Monday.
She was listed in good condition at St. Francis Hospital, 355 Ridge Ave., Monday night, hospital spokeswoman Christine Rybicki said.
Sriram was riding on her bike north on Sherman Avenue at about 9:30 a.m., Officer Russ Brown of Evanston Police Department Traffic Bureau said. A witness told police a yellow Hummer heading west drove through the four-way intersection without stopping, Brown said.
Sriram, who was biking to campus from her Rogers Park home, was wearing a bike helmet. She said she flew 10 to 15 feet after being hit.
The driver continued to drive after Sriram was struck, according to the witness.
“(The witness) said that after (the driver) hit me, he just slammed the gas pedal and fled,” Sriram said.
Sriram underwent jaw surgery for five hours Thursday night, Sriram’s sister Aparna Sriram said. The Sriram family wasn’t notified of the accident until Sriram was in surgery, she said.
“At 9:30, I got the phone call from her friend,” Aparna Sriram said. “We were totally in the dark. It was unbelievable the way we found out.”
When the accident occurred, Sriram wasn’t carrying her cell phone and her Maryland identification card showed the old address of her parents, who recently moved to Houston. Archana Sriram gave authorities the name of a neighbor in Rogers Park, who later got Sriram’s cell phone from her apartment and contacted her family.
Sriram will have surgery on her leg today. Titanium plates were put in her jaw Thursday and her jaw is wired shut, she said.
Doctors told Sriram she won’t be able to bear weight on her leg for three months after the surgery, Sriram said. She will complete two weeks of rehab in Evanston before returning to Houston, where her parents live. She will complete rehab in Houston and will not return for the rest of the school year, she said.
“Everybody’s been saying that I’ve been really positive,” she said. “What else can you do?”
Sriram said she and her family are frustrated with EPD’s handling of the investigation, saying it is too passive. She said her father went out and talked to witnesses on his own Monday.
“EPD says they can’t look up registered yellow Hummers in the area, only license plates,” Sriram said. “Hopefully people can keep their eyes out.”
Her sister said she contacted University President Henry Bienen and Dean of Students Mary Desler on Friday. Desler said she would put pressure on EPD to help, Aparna Sriram said.
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