A hit-and-run collision just north of Burien last month left active community volunteer Teresa Vert with a broken rib, five breaks in her pelvis and kidney damage.

"It was a block and a half from my house on South 112th Street and Eighth Avenue South at a four way stop," she recalled recently.

"I looked and there was nobody coming. I stepped on the gas and as soon as I turned the wheel, and out of nowhere comes this blue car that was probably doing 50 miles an hour."

The driver of the other car left the scene of the accident without stopping.

Vet and her friend Rose McMullen were on their way to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church around 5 p.m. March 27 to make sandwiches for homeless people.

"My friend that was in the car with me has broken ribs. We're both going to make it, but it's going to take a long time to heal," Vert said.

Seven weeks is the minimum recovery time for her injuries.

Burien Police along with medics responded to the collision and later, because of the nature of Vert's injuries, the investigation was transferred to Detective William Butterfield of the King County Sheriff's Office Major Accident Response and Reconstruction (MARR) unit.

"We've identified the suspect who was driving the car, who we believe was driving the car. Now the question is can we get an eye witness to identify that person who was driving the car?" said Sgt. John Urquhart.

Two witnesses observed the hit-and-run and described the driver as a white male. One followed him immediately after the accident until he abandoned the vehicle and continued to flee on foot, said Vert's daughter Chris Carlson.

The sheriff's office has identified the owner of the car, a woman who was not at the scene.

"We believe we've created a photo montage and sent it to one of the victims or one of the witnesses to see if they could identify it and haven't heard back from her yet," Urquhart said.

He explained that investigators are trying to get enough evidence so the driver can be charged with a crime.

"Their hands are basically tied because no one can identify the driver. And (Butterfield) said the owner of the car is under no obligation to cooperate," Carlson said the woman "doesn't have to tell them who she gave the car to, who was driving it. She doesn't have to cooperate at all. And I didn't realize that and I think a lot of people probably don't realize that."

Vert is philosophical.

"I'm thankful that it was no worse," she said. "I have to be thankful for what I have. I just hope that they can teach this individual a lesson that you don't do things like this and take off.

"You have to accept the responsibility for your actions. And if it saves somebody else, that's all I want."

Vert serves on the North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, volunteers two days a week at the Burien District Court house and another day each week reading with first grade children at Saint Bernadette School.

For the past 25 years, she has worked on the annual Kennedy High School auction.

But these activities have been cancelled since the accident. Vert intends to resume them after she recovers.