You’ve probably heard about the recent rash of hit-and-runs in the county.
It’s happened so frequently that San Diego Police’s Crime Stoppers is pursuing more tips and higher rewards for convictions.
And now one crash victim wants to make sure no one suffers the same fate.
Trevor Jensen and his dog Naraku were out early one morning three years ago, on a walk in Clairemont, when he says a driver came barreling through the intersection they were crossing.
“And I had to kind of choose me or my dog,” Jensen said. “It was so fast. Planted one leg, shoved my dog out of the way with the other, and I ended up getting hit on the leg that was planted.”
Flipping up in the air, the basketball lover and former college star says he tore his ACL and suffered a concussion and internal bleeding.
“Lady took off. Rolled down her window, said ‘sorry I'm late for work,’” he recalled. “The other people were looking at me kinda in disbelief, not sure if they just watched someone die or not. I just hobbled off to the side. No one stopped and everyone took off.”
The hit and run shook Jensen’s faith in humanity and for years he wallowed in self-pity. Eventually, he snapped out of it.
“I started looking at it as, ‘OK. Well how can I turn this accident to a benefit? Why did this happen to me? What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen to other people?’” he said.
That’s when he created Pup Protector, a company that sells dog collars and leashes with reflective stitching and LED lights. The goal is to make pedestrians and their pups more visible to drivers in the dark.
“In my own little way I feel like I’m changing the world a little bit,” Jensen said. “I’ve never been happier in life.”
Jensen’s product is already carried by some stores and he has several online deals in the works.
He hopes it’ll make him enough money to have his ACL repaired so he can get back on the basketball court. To learn more about the product, visit this website.
