HIBBING -- An 81-year-old woman severely injured last month by a hit-and-run truck is getting around in a wheelchair and urging the driver that hit her to come forward.
Irene Berarducci was walking to a church function in Hibbing on Nov. 17 when she looked over her shoulder just in time to see headlights.
"And I said to my friend, 'He's gonna hit me,' and bingo, away I went," said Berarducci, sitting in a wheelchair.
She slammed onto the pavement and the driver kept going.
"I'm just so thankful I'm alive," she said Wednesday.
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The 81-year-old is doing much better now at Guardian Angel Nursing Home in Hibbing. She was moved there last week from SMDC in Duluth. She downplays her injuries, saying she is uncomfortable, although she's suffering from a broken shoulder, shattered pelvis, broken leg and various cuts and bruises.
She said she wants police to identify the driver, but not for obvious reasons.
"It's important to me that he is identified because for him," she said. "So he can get help and get released from that heavy burden that he's going to carry."
Hibbing Police Investigator Dale Wright said the investigation has hit a dead end. Police acquired surveillance video of the incident from a business nearby, but Wright said it's dark and not very helpful.
At this point, Berarducci's goal is to get better so she can take a family vacation to Arizona in February. "I think God's going to bring me back to where I was in the first place because I got the determination within me."
Her daughter said the doctors tell her if her mother will ever walk again, it will be with the help of a walker. Berarducci is focused on other things.
"You can't change the way things happen," she said. "You have to bring yourself into balance of how it's going to happen and how you're going to continue to live with this."
The suspect truck is described as a dark-colored early to mid-2000s model, with possible damage on the front right. Anonymous tips can be called into (800) 847-8763.
