The Rocky Mountain Collegian

A Saint Louis University student was sideswiped by a maroon coupe heading south on Grand Boulevard late Sunday night. At approximately 11:10 p.m. Kate Kovarik, a junior, crossed Grand against the light on her way home from 10 p.m. Mass.

"I was trying to catch up with a friend," Kovarik said. "Someone called my name, and after she got my attention someone else yelled, 'Watch out!'"

Kovarik said that she turned and saw headlights and tried to get out of the way.

"It bumped into me; it didn't really hit me," she said.

Kovarik said she remembers being dragged out of the middle of the road by someone, but couldn't remember who it was.

"A DPS officer started asking me questions, and then the driver [of the coupe] drove away," she said.

Kovarik remembered a person asking the officer if he was going to let the driver go.

"People yelled out numbers to the license plate [of the car]," Kovarik said.

Department of Public Safety Sergeant Robert Hoffman said that an unmarked DPS vehicle caught up with the driver at the intersection of Laclede Avenue and Spring Avenue.

"He said he was going to turn around and park out of the way," said Hoffman. "The St. Louis Police Department talked to him and brought him back to the scene."

Hoffman said that police questioned both the driver and Kovarik, and determined that the driver could not be brought in on charges of leaving the scene of an accident.

Kovarik's only injuries were bruises and abrasions on her left foot, which left her on crutches. She wanted to thank the people who took her to the hospital: Karen Arthurs, Katie Fitzgerald, Maggie Leisner and Phil Hustedde.

"I've been pretty accident-prone," Kovarik said. "Over Christmas I got in a car accident in Granite City, Ill."

That accident happened during a flash flood, and Kovarik found herself in a car that was filling with water.

"The guy in front of me tried to U-turn," she said. After the two cars hit each other, Kovarik's car rolled into the water.

She was soon rescued by a semi-truck driver, whose vehicle was unaffected by the flood.

Kovarik thought that some sort of solution should be proposed to stem the number of students crossing against the traffic light.

"A lot of students take that risk all the time," she said.

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