It was a cool March night when ASU student Nick Ruppert was walking home from work at the Kerr Cultural Center. Seconds later, the 21-year-old lay bleeding on the Scottsdale Road pavement after snapping on the bumper and bouncing off the side of a small SUV that plowed through the crosswalk and continued speeding south on Scottsdale Road.

Nick was not breathing and had no pulse when 23-year-old Scott Brady, an off-duty paramedic, began performing CPR in the middle of the three-lane road. The SUV literally shattered Nick's right side, breaking his femur, pelvis, elbow and collarbone.

By the time he arrived at Scottsdale Osborne Hospital, Nick was breathing again, though with difficulty. Doctors expected to sign off on a dead on arrival death certificate, but Nick fought. He lay in a coma for 10 weeks, twitching and struggling. Today, his fight continues in a wheelchair in room S118 at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital. His progress has been quicker than doctors expected. Now he can almost utter an entire sentence.

Hit-and-run drivers have killed at least 33 Arizonans since June of last year, with only a handful of those cases having been solved.

In the U.S. one in five pedestrians killed by a vehicle is left by the drivers of those vehicles. Some of those victims would have lived had the driver reported the accident. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that nationwide, hit-and-run accidents have jumped 15 percent in the past five years, accounting for an average of nearly 10 hit-and-run deaths every week.

In Arizona, the epidemic is even more severe. Recent NHTSA statistics report Arizona has the third-highest percentage of hit-and-run fatalities, more than twice the national average. Only California and Washington D.C. have more drivers who illegally flea from deadly accidents.

Conscience and Consequence

In Phoenix, Bishop Thomas O'Brien leaves a drunken jaywalker to die on the pavement after hitting him while driving home.

A homeless man bleeds to death overnight while implanted in the windshield of a Texas woman's car.

In New York, a fire department captain drives away after hitting and killing his victim.

"Drivers run for two reasons: they're scared or they have something to hide," says Glendale Police Detective Bill Wohlenhaus.

Wohlenhaus would know. Last September, he used Wal-Mart surveillance videos and paint chips to net the driver involved in a fatal hit-and-run.

"If they're younger, they're scared. If they're older, they've got something to hide; they're drunk or they've got a warrant or they have a reputation to protect," Wohlenhaus adds.

Detective Wohlenhaus estimates approximately 20 percent of the accidents he investigates are hit-and-runs, including both auto-pedestrian and auto-to-auto accidents. Like Bishop O'Brien, those who run to protect their reputations often bring worse consequences upon themselves. In many car-pedestrian accidents, the driver is not at fault, but driving away changes a no-fault accident into a criminal felony.

In Nick's case, the driver was not directly at fault. Witnesses say Nick was walking against a red no-walk sign when the driver ran him over without even slowing down. Now the no-fault driver is a felon at large.

The SUV did not swerve or break when it struck Nick at nearly 40 mph. "That's the part that I'm haunted by," Nick's mother Elaine Ruppert says. "How could somebody not even slow down?"

Elaine Ruppert is a small, tender woman with a soft-spoken voice. "I couldn't hit an animal and not give them that courtesy," she adds. "One thing we've felt through all this is that there are so many good people. But there's that one person out there who's so unbelievably thoughtless and scarred."

Nick Before and After

At this time last year, Nick had just finished his sophomore year as a mass communications major at ASU. Summer gave way to more basketball games, more time to play Jimmy Hendrix songs on his guitar, more time to be with friends and make people laugh.

Today, Nick looks and sounds like a different person. And he knows it. "What happened to me?" he asks his mom, the sentence slurring out of his mouth as one long syllable. He's not satisfied with the answer that he was hit by a car. "No, I'm not me," he musters, frustrated. "Look at my hand. Look at my leg," he says of the limb propped up on a pillow. A long scar, traced by smaller perforation scars, covers his left knee. "I'm not the same Nick."

Nick's personality and athleticism defined him. "He was always the free-throw champion in every contest and at every basketball camp," Nick's mother says, rubbing his atrophied forearms to relieve his clenched hands. The seizures and cramped hands are another result of the severe brain trauma.

"He was going to be the first white Globetrotter," Nick's older sister, Krista, jokes of his determination to spin and juggle basketballs. Nick even had his own half-time show at high school basketball games.

Last week, doctors told Nick he would have to eat more before they could remove his feeding tube. The next day, he ate an entire plate full, and today the feeding tube came out, weeks before the doctors expected.

That determination is one reason why Elaine Ruppert knows it's her son sitting in the wheelchair. "He has a tremendous amount of determination. It hurts, but he just keeps trying," Elaine says. Today Nick can do what he could not do yesterday; he can answer simple questions without a feeding tube in his mouth.

Finding Runaway Drivers

Arizona's ugly history of hit-and-run accidents has resulted in more aggressive penalties for the crime. "It's a disappointing reflection on our society," Gilbert Police Lieutenant Joe Ruet says of the increasing number of hit-and-runs.

Detective Twitchell, who investigates an average of three fatal hit-and-runs each year, estimates 60 percent of them go unsolved. Currently, he's doing everything he can to track down the driver who hit Nick Ruppert.

Twitchell has only paint chips and vague witness reports to work with. Like most cases, Twitchell says witness reports are the key to solving the crime. "There's a reluctance to get involved, but we really do rely on witnesses," he says. "Maybe it's a witness who didn't see the crash but overheard a comment. That's the biggest thing."

Vehicle crime detectives say they depend on tips phoned in to silent witness lines. Witnesses to hit-and-runs should note as many details as possible. Often, detectives have relied on seemingly minute details to net the culprits.

Officers also suggest a predetermined moral resolution would prevent drivers from running, and they should be fully aware that running away from an accident is a felony punishable by prison time.

Nick's Justice and Future

Four months ago, Elaine Ruppert had never seen the "Neuro Rehabilitation" sign on the first floor of St. Joseph's Hospital. Now she knows it well.

"We've been here now every day for the past 10 weeks," Elaine says. Nick's journey back to life has already taken the Rupperts to four different hospitals. This week, room S118 is home.

"It was just total shock," Elaine says of the night the police knocked on her front door, announcing the accident. "I kept hoping it would just be a bad nightmare, but it wasn't."

Nick is sitting, reclining rather, in a custom wheelchair. The muscles in his neck can only hold his head up for brief intervals. It flops forward toward his chest or back toward the headrest.

So far, Nick's improvement has exceeded expectations, but not without a financial impact. His medical expenses are already nearing the $1 million cap his insurance policy allows. But the Rupperts are hoping for a miracle-that Nick will walk again. They are still in contact with the paramedic who saved Nick's life, and daily he is surrounded by balloons, friends and family.

If any family could find a way to welcome an apologetic driver to the crowd supporting Nick, it may be this one. Elaine is gentle, even compassionate, as she explains the only justice she wants for the driver who hit her son. "For them to see how they've changed his life, for them to see what they've done to him and how he was before."

Elaine speaks softly. "I would like them to have to face me and tell me why they didn't stop."

For more information, visit:
www.NickRuppert.com
www.deadlyroads.com
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

Donations to the Nick Ruppert Medical Fund:
Account # 4689123427 at any Bank of America branch or via PayPal to medicalfund@nickruppert.com

Hit-and-runs below as listed at deadlyroads.com

May, 2005

5-4 Scottsdale, an unnamed man runs into traffic. Driver does not stop after striking him. Scottsdale Police Department.

5-6 Flagstaff, an article that appears in the Arizona Daily Sun on 5/12 about the local coroner and his office, mentions a hit-and-run fatality victim being brought in between 5/4and 5/7. No other information is given in the article.

April, 2005 (3)

4-28 83-year-old Robert Andrews was driving when he was killed in a hit-and-run in Mesa. The Arizona Republic

4-14 Pedestrian, 2-year-old Vanessa Monroy in Lake Havasu City.

4-5 37-year-old Matt Kelly is hit on his bicycle in Flagstaff. Kelly was hit the day he found out his anthropology dissertation had been accepted. He left behind a wife, who was pregnant with their first child. Arizona Daily Sun

March, 2005 (4)

3-25 An unnamed male fleeing from a minor non-injury accident was killed when he ran into heavy traffic and was struck. Apache Junction.

3-10 Motorcyclist Powell Williams, 27, in Tucson. The Arizona Daily Star

3-7 Near a disabled vehicle, Christina L. Belcher, 31, in Tucson. (second vehicle that hit her stopped). The Tucson Citizen

3-3 Driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Alejandrina Corral in Yuma. Yuma Sun

February, 2005 (3)

2-13 Pedestrian Gerald Lee Gishie, 22, in Phoenix. KPHO

2-8 Unnamed pedestrian male in Phoenix. KOLD

2-5 Pedestrian Richard Mullan, 70, in Tucson. Tucson Citizen

January, 2005 (6)

1-28 Pedestrian 65-year-old Nancy Lee in Phoenix, Arizona (in wheelchair - driver stopped a mile down the road - with the wheelchair trapped underneath it).

1-22 Near a disabled vehicle, 21-year-old Justin Smothermon in Phoenix. KVOA

1-22 Near a disabled vehicle Colin Rodriguez Griswold, 25, in Tuscon. Arizona Wildcat

1-19 14-year-old pedestrian Karen Gavino in Phoenix. (possibly hit by car drag racing. Karen pushed her 9-year-old brother out of the way before she was hit.) The Arizona Republic

1-3 Driver of vehicle, 26-year-old Technical Sergeant Kelea Barcelona in Glendale. West Valley View

1-1 Passenger Bobby Jim, 31, in Mesa. The Arizona Republic

December, 2004 (5)

12-25 Motorcyclist Walter Bragagnolo, 46, in Tempe. Ahwatukee Foothills News

12-25 39-year-old pedestrian Larin Troy Redbird in Phoenix. The Arizona Republic

12-22 While riding a bicycle 55-year-old Bart Hatcher in Yuma. Yuma Sun

12-19 Unnamed female pedestrian in Phoenix. The Arizona Republic

12-13 While riding a bicycle, Edward William Rose, 63, near Marana. (Numerous calls to 911 reporting animal carcass on road turns out to be human - police report not one motorists stopped while numerous struck the victim - original hit-and-run driver stopped at nearby overpass just long enough to remove bike parts and human remains from vehicle. According to eTrucker.com a semi is suspected as initial hit-and-run vehicle and only 25% of Mr Rose's body was recovered.)

November, 2004 (1)

11-21 Unidentified Hispanic female pedestrian in Phoenix.

October, 2004 (3)

10-3 72-year-old pedestrian Alice "Licha" Cuen in Avondale (survived by five sons, four daughters, 26 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren).

10-17 Peter Visconti III, 42, in Tucson.

10-10 Rayna Perez, 55, in Phoenix.

September, 2004 (4)

9-25 23 year-old Joseph J Walton in Tucson.

9-11 35 year-old Walter Stelling II in Glendale.

9-6 Unnamed male in Prescott.

9-1 Unnamed female pedestrian in Coolidge.

June, 2004 (2)

6-28 James Edward Lambert, 66, in Glendale..

6-11 35 to 40 year-old Hispanic male in Phoenix.

May, 2004 (1)

5-22 14 year-old Jaime Orozco-Alcaraz of Pima County died when the car he was a passenger in was struck.