Riverside seeks driver in First Ave. hit and run

Paramedics tend to a Brookfield teenager grazed by the Hyundai as it barreled over the curb and onto the parkway. (Photo courtesy of the Riverside Police Department)

This black Hyundai Elantra ended up on the parkway after the driver avoided a head-on collision with a car that turned left in front of the vehicle at First Avenue and Ridgewood Road on the morning of July 24. (Photo courtesy of the Riverside Police Department)

Riverside police are enlisting the help of the public in identifying a vehicle involved in a hit-and-run at the intersection of First Avenue and Ridgewood Road, in which an 18-year-old Brookfield resident standing on the corner waiting for the light to change was lucky to escape serious injury.

While police were able to obtain surveillance-camera video of the July 24 incident from Riverside-Brookfield High School, police don’t have a particularly complete description of the vehicle or its driver.

Witnesses told police that the vehicle that caused the accident was a silver or gray car, possibly a Chrysler. The driver was described as a woman in her 40s or 50s.

The female victim, who suffered a minor knee injury, was standing with her bicycle on the southwest corner of First and Ridgewood, facing east and waiting at a red light to cross First Avenue.

The gray or silver car was northbound on First Avenue and turned left in front of a black Hyundai Elantra that was southbound, forcing the Elantra to take evasive action, veering right and driving up on the parkway, grazing the teenager on the corner.

The silver or gray vehicle slowed down after making the turn, but continued to drive off westbound on Ridgewood Road.

Anyone with information about the silver or gray vehicle is asked to contact Riverside police at 708-447-2127 or to email the investigator, Officer Josh Teune, at jteune@riverside.il.us.