Victim of life-threatening hit and run urges drivers to 'pay attention'

Alexandra Bonilla doesn't remember much before waking up in the hospital.

On the evening of Aug. 31, a driver hit Bonilla while she was longboarding near her Alberta Avenue home. They didn't stay to help, and they've never been found.

"It takes a different kind of person just to leave somebody for dead on the road," Bonilla said. "If he had just driven away and nobody had come to do anything, I'd probably be done.

"I really do hope they think about that for the rest of their lives, because I know I'm going to."

Bonilla is one of around 187 Edmonton pedestrians who were hit by a driver in 2023. According to the City of Edmonton, 21 of those people died.

While Bonilla survived, her injuries were life-altering.

Her femur and pelvis were broken in multiple spots. Her hips were fractured, and all but two ribs were broken. She also had fractures in several vertebrae in her neck, collarbone and wrist.

Alexandra Bonilla has been in the ICU since being hit by a car in August. The driver left the scene, and police are asking anyone with information to contact them. (Source: Julia Gevenich)"I remember hallucinating a lot because of the drugs that I was on. It was a really traumatic experience," she said. "I was just always in pain.

"It was a really hard time and I don't ever want to go to the hospital again."

After spending two weeks in the ICU, undergoing multiple surgeries and spending two months immobilized in a hospital bed, 24-year-old Bonilla had to relearn how to walk.

An active person before being hit, she now walks with a limp and is easily fatigued.

"I have to kind of pick and choose what I do during the day. If I want to clean my house then I can't do much else," she said. "I can't sit in the car for very long. Sitting in chairs, standing up – everything's a lot more difficult."

"But I'm getting stronger every day. I'm trying to work through this and not let it hinder me and my life," she added.

'PAY ATTENTION'

It was around 9 p.m. the night Bonilla was hit.

At the time, police said they were looking for a silver car. A few weeks later, they updated the description to a dark grey pickup truck or SUV.

Beyond that, Bonilla doesn't know much about the investigation. She said she hasn't heard from police since she was hit, and she's not hopeful that the driver will be found.

"[Police] contacted me once through text," she added. "I don't have anything from them, they don't have anything from me, so I've kind of given up on that part."

What she does know, she said, is that whoever hit her that day couldn't have been paying attention to the road.

"This isn't a super dark intersection, he would have seen me. I was pretty much halfway across the road when he hit me," she said. "He must have been speeding, drunk, distracted – whatever it was, it just happened."

Bonilla urges anyone on the road, whether drivers or other road users, to put down the phone, shoulder check and stay within the speed limit. She said those simple steps can save someone's life.

"Pay attention," she said, adding that if you do hit someone, you have to stop.

"Like, no matter the circumstance," she said. "You might have taken somebody's life and you don't you wouldn't even know.

The City of Edmonton said the number of reported crashes and fatalities involving pedestrians will be updated when the EPS 2023 crash reports are received by the city.

Anyone with any information about the hit and run is asked to contact police at 780-423-4567 or #377 from a cell phone.

Anonymous information can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.p3tips.com/250.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny