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Jeffersonville police have suspect in hit-and-run

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) - A warrant will be issued for a suspect in a hit-and-run crash that injured a woman and her niece in an area where speeding motorists are posing a recurring threat to users of a pedestrian bridge, police said.

A crash Wednesday afternoon near the Big Four Bridge over the Ohio River left a woman in stable condition following surgery. Her 13-year-old niece also is in stable condition. Both were being treated at hospitals in Louisville, Kentucky.

Witnesses told police the driver of an SUV ran a stop sign and was travelling at a high rate of speed when the vehicle struck the two while they tried to cross a street.

Investigators reviewed surveillance video and identified the vehicle involved, police said. They spoke with the vehicle's owner, who told them a family member was driving at the time.

Police have not named the suspect and say they'll issue a warrant for his arrest on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident causing serious bodily injury.

Case Kuiper, who also was walking nearby, said he watched as the driver kept going.

"People were screaming, hollering at the vehicle, trying to chase it down," he told WLKY-TV.

He said the woman was pinned against a telephone pole and the girl was thrown into the air.

"The screeching of the brakes and then seeing one of the two victims literally flying and tumbling in the air before they hit the street, that's probably the thing I'm never going to forget," he said.

Several nearby residents said drivers use the streets around the bridge as a thoroughfare. They said they've seen narrow misses at intersections around the pedestrian bridge.

"I just felt like it was going to be a matter of time because of the lack of traffic control down here," Mike Wathen told WHAS-TV.

The Jeffersonville Police Department was awarded a state grant earlier this month to improve safety around the bridge. The grant will help fund measures including new signage and added patrols.

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