A 24-year old Chicago woman visiting Austin is fighting for her life in the I.C.U. at Brackenridge Hospital.
Mariel Mentink, a recent graduate of Northern Illinois University and Jimmy John's Sandwich delivery employee was in Austin visiting friends and checking out the city.
Early New Years Day Mentink and a friend were on their bicycles heading home after a bicycling social event when she was struck from behind by a hit and run driver.
The cyclists were riding westbound in the 4700 block of Martin Luther King, Junior Boulevard near Springdale around 2:30 in the morning.
"We were wearing our helmets, wearing our lights, taking up the lane, following all the laws", said Matt Johnson, an Austin cyclist who was riding with Mentink when she was struck from behind.
"What I remember is me turning to say something to her and I just felt the force of a huge object and it just silenced any kind of noise that I could hear", added Johnson.
The crash happened so quickly that Johnson was only able to see the taillights of a grey S.U.V. or pick up truck which hit Mentink with such force that she was thrown into the air.
"They hit somebody and they didn't stop they kept going. I mean that takes a lot of the human qualities out of you to be able to do something like that", said Johnson.
"She was injured so badly that we actually didn't think she was going to make it for the first two days", said Christine Diedrich, Mentink's older sister.
Mariel Mentink was rushed to the hospital with multiple skull fractures, a broken vertebrae, a fractured tibia and fibula and bruised lungs.
Her head injuries were so severe that doctors weren't able to perform surgery during the first six days she was hospitalized.
"She's possibly sedated by medicine or she's possibly in a coma, we can't really know what level of recovery she'll have until she wakes up. The most important thing is let's get somebody who would do this off the streets. There's a lot of people who ride bikes in Austin and that's a wonderful thing", added Diedrich.
Anyone with information about the driver of a grey S.U.V. or pick up is encouraged to call Austin/Travis County Crimestoppers at 472-TIPS.
Any tip leading to an arrest or conviction could mean a reward of up to $1,000
