Driver, answers sought in hit-and-run on motorcycle

It was Tuesday afternoon when Kim Contreras got a phone call no parent would want. A friend on the scene said her son Matthew Contreras had been in a serious crash while riding his motorcycle .

“I asked her if he was OK and she said no,” Contreras said, “that it was probably best that I get over there as soon as possible, get to the scene.”

Contreras said she rushed to the scene, stopping her vehicle in traffic to find her son at the intersection of Montana Avenue and Yarbrough Drive. He was critically injured and lucky to be alive, which his mother credits to the helmet he was wearing at the time.

“I was in desperation to get to my son,” Contrereas said. “So I parked my vehicle just at Montana, and I ran to see if he was OK. And when I got to the scene, he was laying there and the paramedics were already cutting his clothes open. He just kept saying ‘I’m OK mom, I’m OK. Just don’t look at my leg, I’m OK.'”

Matthew had a open fracture of the fibia and tibia on his left leg, with scrapes and gashes all over his body. Pictures sent to the family by people on the scene and provided to ABC-7 show the aftermath of the impact on the motorcycle and Matthew. Witnesses on the scene told the family Matthew’s motorcycle was hit by a blue Dodge Durango with New Mexico license plates.

“Matthew, you know now he says he saw, tried to swerve out of the way,” said Tony Aguilar, Matthew’s stepfather, “but he got hit in the rear tire, which sent him 20 feet, 20 feet up into the air, and he was – he still slid to where he landed, which was quite a ways.”

The family said Matthew, who is a community college student and studying to be a firefighter, has been in and out of consciousness from the pain and medication for days as doctors work to fix what’s being called a difficult injury.

While the family deals with that, the driver of the other vehicle is still unknown to them and the police.

“Just please come forward,” Contreras said. “Come forward.”

“Accidents happen,” Aguilar said. “Put yourself in our situation. What if it was (the driver’s) son? How would he feel?”

If you have any information that could help police find the blue Dodge Durango with door damage and New Mexico plates or driver, you’re asked to call Crime Stoppers of El Paso at 915-566-TIPS (8477).