‘Have a heart’: Halifax woman pleads for hit-and-run driver to come forward

A woman who was injured in a Halifax hit and run is speaking out.

Tavia Raiche-Marsden is looking for answers after she says a hit-and-run in Halifax Saturday night changed her life.

“I was the passenger in my own car. We were driving home down Jubilee (Road) ... and then someone ran through a stop sign,” says Raiche-Marsden. “I think I registered that they were coming towards the driver’s side of the car, and that they just weren’t slowing down as much as they should be.”

Raiche-Marsden says she blacked out on impact with the other vehicle. She was taken to hospital shortly after and says her injuries continue to affect her.

“I did find there were some more areas of bruising on my body, as you’d expect, some bumps on my head. The main thing that’s been really troubling is what I assume are the concussive symptoms,” she says.

Const. John MacLeod, Halifax Regional Police’s public information officer, told CTV News the other vehicle “left the area.”

Raiche-Marsden, a 33-year-old internal medicine resident, says she knows it could have been much worse, but says it’s left lasting effects.

“Last month I was looking after patients in the ICU every day, many of them who were there because they’d been in motor vehicle accidents. I count myself lucky compared to them. I’m not lucky compared to the way that my brain needs to be functioning in order to do my job. (It’s) certainly not there,” she says.

According to Halifax Regional Police, there were:

• 333 hit-and-run collisions between Jan. 1 and April 23, 2023
• 463 between Jan. 1 and April 23, 2024
• 390 so far this year

While police say the fluidity of the numbers can be attributed to a multitude of factors rather than one or two specific causes, Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay, public information officer for the Nova Scotia RCMP, says in cases like these, collecting information is key.

“First and foremost, think about your safety. Secondly, if the other driver does flee the scene, if you do have information such as their licence plate number, the make and model of the vehicle, or the colour or the number of occupants, maybe you even caught a glimpse of the driver that was inside the vehicle…that’s all information that our investigators are going to want to gather for that investigation,” says Tremblay.

Raiche-Marsden had none of those things, and took to social media for help getting answers. She says she’s received thousands of views and hundreds of tips.

“I recognize that I had an enormous privilege to walk away from that, so to speak, and be able to try to at least do something to spread some awareness. Overwhelmingly, after I posted, stories flooded in and people reached out to me to say that they’ve been through something similar and felt very helpless,” she explains. “I wanted to spread the message out there that even though it may be a scary thing to come forward and own up to what you’ve done, you have the chance to do good and save a life.”

Police say the investigation is ongoing and as they look for answers, Raiche-Marsden says she will continue to do so as well.

She says she would like to see a more formalized forum where people could come forward with helpful tips more easily and anonymously, but she feels grateful for the flood of support.

“A big part of getting the word out was really to assist with the investigation. And so far it’s been doing a pretty good job at that,” she says. “The biggest thing is, if you’ve hit somebody with your car in any capacity, have a heart.

“You have the opportunity to do good. You have the opportunity to save a life. You have the opportunity to relieve people and their families of a lifetime of suffering simply by providing answers. And if that matters to you…come forward."

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