A 22-year-old Kent woman remained in serious condition Wednesday after she was hit by a car early Tuesday morning while crossing the Benson Highway in the Panther Lake area of unincorporated Kent.
Narmada Timsina was reportedly trying to cross the street at about 5:09 a.m. Tuesday from near her apartment to catch a bus, said Trooper Dan McDonald, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol. McDonald said there are no crosswalks in that area and that it was extremely dark at the time of the accident.
As of Wednesday, detectives were still trying to determine the details of the accident and whether more than one vehicle may have struck Timsina.
The driver of the car that initially struck Timsina turned himself in to police Tuesday. That driver, a 41-year-old Kent man, reportedly left the scene after the accident.
“We are talking with him and trying to figure out what happened,” McDonald said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We are getting conflicting stories that he stopped and when another car stopped and someone got out and attended to the woman, he left. But another story is that he didn’t stop.”
McDonald said it has been harder to obtain details about the accident because neither Timsina nor the driver of the car that reportedly struck her speaks English. McDonald said an interpreter will try to help get more accurate information about the case.
Detectives are looking for help from anyone who may have seen the accident or from drivers who hit debris near the 22400 block of the Benson Highway, where the accident occurred. The road also is known as State Route 515 and 108th Avenue Southeast.
Troopers responded to the accident and found Timsina lying in the middle of the northbound lanes. The woman tried crossing the five-lane highway from the west to the east when she was hit in the northbound lanes. She may have been struck several times.
“We don’t know how many other cars, but there may have been another car,” McDonald said. “By looking at the accident scene and the woman’s injuries, it indicates she may have been hit more than once.”
Paramedics transported the woman by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious injuries.
The woman was knocked an estimated 150 to 200 feet by the car, according to a Kent Fire Department media release. The woman’s purse was found another 200 feet beyond where firefighters found the woman in the street.
The northbound lanes of the highway were closed for about three hours after the accident.
Anyone with information about the accident can call detective Stacy Moate at 425-401-7746.
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