Several readers told Daily Voice they'd spotted the 27-year-old woman walking along the highway divider as far south as Route 4 in both Paramus and Fair Lawn sometime before the fateful crash around 6 p.m. Nov. 18.
"It absolutely scared the living hell out of me to see a lady running in the middle of the highway divider," one said. "There is no reason she have been running near the highway -- let alone on the highway."
Reports that the woman had died Friday night were wrong, authorities said. Her motivation can only be speculated given her condition.
Ho-Ho-Kus police officers responding to a call of someone walking north on the southbound side of Route 17 saw the woman struck between Sheridan and Hollywood avenues.
The Ho-Ho-Kus Volunteer Ambulance Corps took her to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she remained in critical condition with a severe head injury, Police Capt. Greg McBain said.
Her place of residence had yet to be officially confirmed as authorities seek to notify her next of kin, the captain said.
The shaken driver remained at the scene and cooperated fully, he said.
Police temporarily closed the southbound highway at Sheridan Avenue while the vehicle was towed and they investigated. It was reopened shortly before 7 p.m., about an hour after the incident.
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