Raleigh police officer rescues unconscious woman after hit-and-run on Glenwood Avenue

Officials are still searching for the hit-and-run driver.

Neighbors, however, say they are not surprised by the accident on the stretch of Glenwood Avenue just south of the Wade Avenue interchange, where Liz Criner was knocked unconscious by a passing car at 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

"It's a virtual speedway," said David Kruczlnicki, who lives nearby.

Criner was walking to a friend's house after a night out on Glenwood South. All she remembers is waking up in the hospital with a serious leg injury after being found on the sidewalk by a Raleigh police officer out on patrol.

“The person who hit me just left me there, drove off. Didn’t get out of the car. Didn’t do anything. Just left me there," said Criner. "And if he wouldn’t have found me, there is a high probability that I would have died.”

Criner has gashes up her side, road burn and an injury on her stomach where the passing side mirror struck her.

WRAL News has reported on some of the more than 100 car crashes over the last five years around the nearby Five Points intersection.

When WRAL Data Trackers analyzed records of pedestrian-involved accidents, we found 32 dating back to 2016 on a 15-mile stretch of Glenwood.

Criner is only the second person to be hit in the last five years on the residential stretch between Glenwood South and Five Points.

Kruczlnicki said he is surprised more people are not hit. He and his wife limit their walking — even on the sidewalk — to daytime hours.

“The traffic is exceedingly speedy," said Kruczlnicki.

“We feel it is dangerous to cross, dangerous to walk alongside because of the speed of the traffic," he said.

Criner will need months of physical therapy, but she’s thankful to be alive – and optimistic the driver will be found.

"Even if they were drunk or impaired in any way, you don’t leave somebody there to basically die," she said.

The car police are looking for is described as a 2015 to 2017, black or gray, Lexus NX-300-H.

Meanwhile, the City of Raleigh is expected to start a traffic study on crashes on that stretch of Glenwood Avenue next month.