Maria was crossing a two-lane road, in front of her stopped bus, as she has done every day to get on her school bus.
Maria continued, "It had the red lights flashing, it had the gate open, it had the stop sign with the lights flashing. Even on a foggy day, you could have seen it."
An SUV, however, blew through the bus stop sign and hit Maria. The diver never stopped to see what or who they hit.
Today a painted orange X still remains where Maria landed after impact
Maria, "It didn't honk, it didn't put on the brakes, it didn't swerve. I remember when you would come up on someone you would just swerve a little bit. It didn't swerve or anything."
No witnesses noticed a license plate and the only clue left behind was the SUV's passenger mirror.
The driver is still unknown and from her wheel chair, Maria has a message for them.
"They know who they are and they know what they did. Someone, their family, their friend, someone else knows. So they're going to have to speak some time."
Maria's mom, Brenda Taylor, also hopes the driver has a conscience. "I can't imagine the horror of that in their soul. They just need to release it. Or it's going to lead to other horrible things in their life."
Maria, "That guilt is going to eat away at them. And they're going to tell someone because they don't have the courage to go turn themselves in."
Based on the mirror left behind, the highway patrol says the SUV could be a dark colored GMC or Chevy Blazer, Sierra, Suburban, Tahoe, or Yukon that was built between 1992 and 1998.
The highway patrol thinks the SUV was going 45 miles per hour when it hit Maria. Her family is thankful her injuries involve only broken bones which are expected to heal.
