Injured woman hit by one car, driven into 2nd

A Northeast Philadelphia woman became the object of a real life pinball game after being bounced between two cars yesterday afternoon.

As she stood in the middle of Torresdale Avenue near Orthodox Street, waiting to cross, the side-view mirror of a dark-colored van struck her in the back. The impact then forced her onto the driver's side of a passing vehicle, where she bounced off and fell to the ground, police said.

"When the person hit the lady, she bounced up against the car," said Karen Day, a passenger in the second vehicle that was traveling southbound at the time of the incident about 3 p.m. "I heard a thump. It was scary. I thought she was decapitated."

The victim was listed in stable condition at Temple University Hospital where she was treated for a gash to the back of her head and other injuries.

Day, and the driver of the second vehicle, Grady Martin, who live together near the accident scene, claimed that they saw the woman standing in the middle of the road, but didn't notice when she made contact with her car.

Witnesses at the scene say the driver of the first vehicle stopped after hitting the woman, but saw Martin and Day drive off. They returned a few minutes later.

Mohammed Alkurdi, owner of the Abby Auto Shop located near the scene of the incident, remembered hearing a crash. When he emerged from his shop, he saw the woman lying on the ground with blood gushing out from the back of her head, he said.

"I draped a blanket over her and held her hand," he said. "I just kept talking to her and telling her to squeeze my fingers."

He called her husband from her cell phone and stayed with her until medics rushed her to the hospital.

Sitting in the back of a police cruiser, the driver of the van told police she hadn't been driving, and refused to identify the driver, police said. She later admitted being the driver. No arrests have been made. *