Mom pleads for crash witnesses after daughter injured by flying debris

A 12-year-old girl walking home from school was left with a concussion after being hit by debris when two cars collided near her at a Winnipeg intersection.

In addition to the concussion, Jordyn Snyder suffered a black eye, a cut on her cheek, some broken and bruised ribs and other soft-tissue injuries from the collision at Ness Avenue and Mount Royal Road on Jan. 18, said her mom, Shannon Folk.

"I'm pretty tired and kind of fuzzy still because my head is hurting a lot," Jordyn said on Tuesday, describing the crash as sounding like an explosion that left her ears ringing.

She felt something hit her face, near her cheekbone under her left eye, but was in shock and walked home, shaking. She didn't really start feeling the effects until the next morning.

"When I woke up I couldn't really get out of bed because everything was sore," Jordyn said.

Now Folk is having trouble claiming certain benefits for Jordyn's injuries because the drivers left the scene and no one has reported the accident.

Manitoba Public Insurance will cover the costs of physiotherapy, chiropractic treatments and some prescriptions but to receive additional benefits for concussion clinics and personal care, the family must prove what happened.

However, other than some broken car parts and debris on the road, there is no evidence anything happened. There's no police report and no insurance claims from the drivers in the crash.

Looking for witnesses

So Folk is looking for help from the public. She needs witnesses to contact her so she can gather proof of the crash and get coverage for home care for Jordyn.

Folk works full-time and wants someone to be with her daughter. Jordyn can't be at school right now and gets dizzy if she stands for too long.

"We need them to come forward with any information they have. We're not looking for charges to be laid and we're not looking for any money; we're just looking to make sure [Jordyn is] covered," Folk said.

The crash happened in the Silver Heights area around 4:20 p.m., when a car turned right, on a red light, from Mount Royal onto Ness. An SUV in the shoulder lane on Ness ran into the back of beige vehicle. Jordyn was less than a metre from the collision.

Folk has spoken to some witnesses though the details are still sketchy — the car might have been beige or white and just dirty. It may also have been a hatchback while the SUV was possibly a newer Mazda.

One witness who worked nearby said he saw Jordyn stumbling through a field after, Folk said.

"I was a little freaked out, thinking what could have happened had she been any closer to it, or if she had stepped into the walkway if [the light] had turned green," Folk said. 

"But I was relieved she was there in the room telling me what happened as opposed to me finding out by getting a call from the police or an ambulance."

'They started screaming'

Immediately after the crash, Jordyn asked the drivers if they were OK and they said yes, but started arguing about the collision.

"I kind of walked over a little to where the street was and I asked if they were OK because if anyone had some serious injuries and needed someone to call 911 on, I wanted to see if they were OK," she said.

"They started screaming and that's when I started walking back home because my head started to hurt from how loud it was."

No one asked if she was OK.

"They totally didn't ask if she needed help or anything," Folk said.

Jordyn said she knows she'll get better but she worries about smaller kids from her school walking the same way.

"If a little kid from like, Grade 1 or kindergarten was walking down that way and they had the debris fly, it could have been much worse than what I have."