High 5 Sports - Prep sports coverage from FOX 5 Atlanta - Man struck by hit-and-run driver in Lithia Springs

A father of three is hospitalized with broken bones after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in Lithia Springs. The man's fiancé is pleading for the driver to come forward.

Jacob Downer, 29, had been walking along the side of the road just outside his sister's home when the vehicle struck him.

"The neighbor heard him screaming for help and so the neighbor came and saw that he was on the ground," said Downer's fiancé, Lindsay Davenport.

Downer was found in the road. Georgia State Patrol officials said there were no signs of skid marks, no pieces of broken headlights or any other signs that anything that had happened except for the injured man.  

"Both of his hips had been broken, they have a bolt going through one hip into the other," said Davenport.  

There are also signs that he was dragged about 150 feet by the vehicle.

"He's got road rash from top of shoulders to the bottom of his feet, from front to back," said Davenport.

Lindsay believes the driver knew someone had been hit but took off anyway.
 
"I understand someone having the sheer shock and panic, but to take off from the scene is something I can't fathom," she said.

Lindsay says Jacob's spirits are good, but he has a long recovery ahead.  The two have been dating for close to seven years and planned to finally tie the knot on November 17.  She's hoping he'll be well enough to keep the date.

"I'll push him down the aisle if I have to," said Davenport.

Jacob Downer is in Grady Memorial Hospital's burn unit and will likely need bone skin grafts from the road rash. His thigh muscle was also severed. Davenport said that it will be at least two months before he'll be able to stand on that leg, according to doctors.