Boy struck by hit-and-run driver in Charleroi
A pre-teen boy was struck by a speeding car in downtown Charleroi over the weekend before the driver left the scene but later returned at the behest of her brother.
Charleroi Regional police said the boy was crossing Fallowfield Avenue at Third Street shortly before 2:30 p.m. Sunday when the speeding vehicle hit him in the middle of the roadway, seriously injuring his head and right arm, investigators said.
The boy’s age and identity were not released, but court documents indicated he was with his father at the time of the incident and was under the age of 13. He was initially taken by ambulance to Penn Highlands Mon Valley Hospital in Carroll Township, but later flown to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, according to court documents.
Another juvenile who witnessed the incident was able to give investigators the vehicle’s license plate, which officers used to search nearby surveillance camera videos showing the fleeing motorist, according to court documents. Police matched the vehicle to a car registered in the state of Indiana and began searching for it.
While officers searched the area for the vehicle, police said a man who identified himself as the brother of the driver told them she was coming back to the scene. While using a translation app, the man told officers that she had fled the scene, but stopped at an unidentified park and was crying about what had occurred, according to court documents.
Yorgelis A. Matos-Bravo, 29, of Chicago, returned to the scene and spoke with police through the same translation app in which she allegedly admitted to striking the child and leaving the scene “due to the shock and being nervous,” court documents allege. She phoned her brother, who told her to return to the scene, police said.
Police wrote in court documents that her vehicle had “hand prints on the hood” and there was a “significant dent” in the front of the vehicle. The child is expected to survive, although the severity of his injuries were not known.
Matos-Bravo was charged with felony aggravated assault of a child under 13 and misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, accident involving damage and disorderly conduct. She was arraigned Monday morning by District Judge Phillippe Melograne, who sent her to the Washington County jail on $25,000 cash bond while awaiting her preliminary hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 3 at 11 a.m.
Police said Matos-Bravo is of Mexican descent, but investigators did not know her legal status in the country since she had a valid driver’s license in Illinois.
Charleroi volunteer firefighters and medics from Rostraver-West Newton EMS assisted Charleroi Regional police officers at the scene.