Woman who was falsely accused of a hit and run accident speaks up

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- A South Bend woman is speaking up after she was falsely accused of a hit and run accident that hospitalized a 6 year old boy. The woman, who did not want to be identified, says she's been harassed online and at home because of the accusation.

"The mother actually pulled up on me and asked 'Did you hit my son?'," said the woman. "And I said 'No I never hit your son.'”

The accident happened on Friday. The child was on a moped with a family friend when the friend claims they were t-boned by an SUV that then drove off.

A Facebook post repeating the moped driver's claim went viral, and the woman was eventually identified as the driver of the SUV.

"It was just making me look horrible because I’m not that type of person and then people were pulling up on me talking about ,'You’re a baby killer,' and all that. I would never," said the woman.

Surveillance video from homes in the neighborhood shows that the hit and run did not happen. Instead, the driver of the moped lost control and hit a tree. 

South Bend Police showed those videos to the child's mother and released a statement saying:

"We are aware of this incident circulating on social media. We are also aware that an innocent woman was identified as a possible suspect by those on social media and has since been harassed and threatened. We cannot stress this enough, we understand emotions can run high, but it is extremely important that we all operate on facts, evidence and full information and context in any given situation."

The woman says her heart goes out to the child's family, but she wants the harassment of her and her family to stop.

"It’s still, to this day going on, and I’m still blamed and still have people pulling up on me but there’s really nothing I can do about it," said the woman.