Driver arrested in hit and run case that severed motorcyclist’s leg

Police have arrested a woman accused of a hit-and-run crash that severed a motorcyclist’s leg last Sunday.

Officers located Spokane resident Leslie Hester, 33, Friday evening after receiving a tip, said Spokane police Officer Paul Taylor, at which time she confessed to being the driver involved. Taylor credited media accounts of the accident by The Spokesman-Review and other outlets with generating the tip.

Hester has been charged with felony hit and run, and is being held in Spokane County Jail.

Physical evidence on Hester’s vehicle, a gold 2001 GMC Yukon Denali, fit with evidence from the scene of the accident and accounts from witnesses, he said. The passenger side taillight on the vehicle matched a taillight found at the scene, while the driver-side taillight – the area of the vehicle motorcyclist Daniel “Dutch” Inwood struck – appeared to have been replaced with a stock model.

The accident occurred on Southeast Boulevard near 11th Avenue Sunday evening. Inwood clipped the SUV while it was sitting in the middle of the road and was thrown several feet, tearing his left leg just below the kneecap, according to the police and Inwood’s account.

Local dentist and former Boy Scout James Shelby came upon the scene shortly afterward and bound the bleeding leg with a tourniquet of two belts, an action that Inwood says saved his life.