A young runner in a coma after a hit-and-run crash in Miramar on Saturday was sobbing in pain and bleeding from her head but told her friends she had simply fallen, then apologized to them, according to a 911 call released Thursday.
“I’m so sad,” Onyxia Delinois, still conscious, cried at one point in the background, as one of the two running companions who found her spoke to the 911 operator.
“Don’t be sad,” one of them replied.
The 26-year-old had been jogging along the bike lane in the 18300 block of Miramar Parkway about 7 a.m. Saturday when a car hit her and left the scene, police say. Detectives are still searching for the car and do not currently have an idea of the make or model. The area where Delinois was found had no cameras, and few people were out that time of day, Traffic Homicide Detective Jose Rosales said.
Delinois suffered severe trauma to her head. She fell into a coma shortly after the crash and is currently on life support, doctors told reporters at Memorial Regional Hospital on Wednesday. They have performed multiple brain operations but said her recovery was uncertain. Delinois remained in critical condition Thursday, police said.
Her husband, Roosevelt Delinois, had slept in that morning. He was so in shock when he got the call that he told reporters Wednesday he touched her side of the bed, believing she was still there, and has barely left her hospital room since the crash.
Delinois competed in races and ran her own insurance brokerage, according to family and social media. On Facebook, those who knew her and her husband described them as a “power couple.” The two have a son, created for their expenses.
Two women Delinois had been running with heard what sounded like someone in need of help and found Delinois on the ground about 10 minutes after the crash, police spokesperson Tania Ordaz said.
“We’re a group of runners,” the woman told the 911 operator Saturday, adding that Delinois “is on side of road and seems like she may have gotten hit.”
“Hit by a vehicle?” the operator asked.
“Did you get hit by a car?” the woman asked Delinois.
“No, I fell,” Delinois insisted.
“She says she just fell but her injuries reflect a little more,” the woman told the operator. “She’s bleeding from her head and has a lot of bruises and stuff like that.”
Police said they knew Delinois had not simply fallen. They found blood in the bike lane 30 feet from where she was found, suggesting she had been flung by the force of the impact. Her shoe had flown off into a wooded area nearby.
“Can I lay down?” Delinois asked the women.
“No, you can’t,” the woman on the phone said.
“No,” Delinois protested, continuing to wail and cry.
At another point, she said something inaudible and one of the runners replied, “We can’t move you, we gotta stay right where we’re at.”
Delinois then said something else in the background.
“I know you are, but we gotta keep you safe okay?” the woman on the phone replied.
“I got you, I’m not gonna move,” the other woman said.
About two-and-a-half minutes into the 911 call, ambulances arrived.
“They’re arriving already,” the woman told the operator.
“I’m sorry guys,” Delinois can be heard crying in the background, just before the audio cuts out, to which one of the women replies, “there’s nothing to be sorry about.”
Anyone with information about the crash should contact Broward County Crime Stoppers anonymously at 954-493-TIPS or call Miramar Police at 954-602-4000.
