Nakia Wright was straggling behind the others, so the car hit her first. It flipped her into the air, and when she came down her head cracked the right headlight.

It struck Jermaine Washington, 20, next, gashing open his big toe. The passenger-side mirror then caught Hettie Franklin’s elbow, and in the fall, she fractured her ankle.

“I spun around and hit the doggone ditch,” said Franklin, 20. “It felt like I was doing a skip-hop.”

Instead of stopping to help, the driver of the white Chevrolet Caprice sped south on 12th Street in Longview. Another driver stopped and called 911, and Franklin, Washington and Wright were taken to a local hospital.

Two weeks later, Franklin and Wright say they are struggling with medical bills. They tried tracking down the driver who hit them from behind the night of July 25 as they were walking to a friend’s house, but none of the witnesses have come forward.

“If you live on 12th Street, nobody tells nothing because you don’t want people to think you’re a snitch,” Franklin said.
Police urge anyone with information to contact Officer Steve “Radar” Burnett at (903) 237-1199.

A friend of Franklin’s told her the driver was a man who lived on 12th Street south of Birdsong and that he’s been driving his parents’ car since the accident. He was on drugs when he hit them, she heard, and she passed along the information to police. They told her she’d need a last name, address or license plate number for them to act, she said.

Wright received a concussion and injured her right eye when her face hit the headlight. She said she’s having trouble seeing, but there’s nothing she can do.

“I can’t even call for an appointment because I can’t afford to pay it,” she said.