Cops: child not seriously hurt in hit and run
Jul. 16—Police say a young girl escaped serious injury around dusk Sunday on St. Simons Island when a woman allegedly swerved off of Mallery Street in a Subaru Tribeca and struck the bicycle she was riding, knocking the child to the ground.
The woman allegedly drove away afterward without checking on the child's welfare. She later showed up at the Glynn County Police Department's St. Simons Precinct and allegedly confessed, according to a police report.
According to police, the woman "stated she was drunk and she hit someone," the report said.
The officer said the woman smelled of alcohol, although police did not charge her with DUI because of the time elapsed between the accident and her alleged confession.
Police arrested Robin Webb Galego of St. Simons Island and booked her into the Glynn County Detention Center, charged with hit and run and failure to maintain a lane. She was released Monday on a $656.70 bond.
County EMS workers treated the girl at the scene, police said. Her mother told police she would take the girl for further medical attention.
Police said the girl and her two sisters were riding bicycles south beside the northbound lane of Mallery Street near George Lotson Drive at around 8:48 p.m.
Police said Webb was driving north when she allegedly swerved off of Mallery Street as the girls were pedaling toward her.
According to the report "the vehicle made contact with (the girl's) bicycle, which knocked her off her bike, and the vehicle left the area."
The responding officer arrived to find "a little girl ... sitting on the ground in front of two bicycles laying on top of each other," the report said.
The officer also noticed a side mirror belonging to a Subaru nearby. The mirror was taken as evidence, police said.
Later, the officer was back at the police precinct at 1929 Demere Road on St. Simons Island when Galego allegedly "came into the precinct to turn herself in for leaving the scene of the crash," the report said.
In addition to the missing mirror, the vehicle allegedly had a cracked windshield, police said.
"While speaking with Ms. Galego I could smell a strong odor of a consumed alcoholic beverage coming from her breath," the officer wrote in the report. "Due to the time frame of when the incident occurred and Ms. Galego turning herself in I did not charge her with driving under the influence."
Leaving the scene of an accident that did not cause serious injury is a misdemeanor offense, according to Georgia state statutes.
