Police call 26,000 to find hit-run car
Use alert system in Somerville hunt
Police have called 26,000 phone numbers in Somerville through an automatic notification system, searching for the driver of a blue BMW that struck and seriously injured a 9-year-old girl last weekend.
Police Captain Paul Upton declined to identify the girl, but said she was flung onto the hood and against the windshield of the car at about 7:10 a.m. Saturday. Upton said she was treated at Children's Hospital Boston, but it was not clear when she was released.
WBZ-TV identified the girl as Natalie McPherson. She told the station she does not remember the accident, and her injuries forced her to miss summer camp. The Globe could not reach her family yesterday.
The girl and her mother were on Highland Avenue helping another family move when she was hit, Upton said. He did not know whether the girl had been in the street or whether the driver had swerved off the two-lane roadway, which has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour.
After striking the child, the car continued traveling east on Highland Avenue, Upton said.
Police based the color and variety of car believed to have hit the girl on a piece of molding found at the scene, as well as information from a witness, who was not named. The witness did not get a license plate number, Upton said.
Police decided to use the electronic notification system to call all the city's listed numbers and reach as many people as possible, Upton said.
"The number of manpower hours it would take us to contact 26,000 homes, it's just unbelievable," he said.
Of the 26,000 numbers the electronic system dialed Wednesday, 16,000 were either answered live or directed to an answering machine, Upton said.
The downside is that it might tip off the person who struck the child, Upton said. Police decided the benefits outweighed the risk, he said.
"There's also the possibility that somebody in a body shop would see this and act responsibly," he said. "There aren't too many M-Class BMWs around. We already know what the list is that's registered in Massachusetts."
Maddie Hanna can be reached at mhanna@globe.com. 