DENVER -- Colorado Springs police are considering whether to file charges against the driver who left the scene after hitting a pregnant woman, reports KRDO.

Ashley Swendsen, 26, was running away from a bear when she was hit Thursday. The driver asked the woman if she was OK, before leaving the scene.

Police have not released the name of the driver who turned themself into police.

Swendsen was walking on a bike path at about noon Thursday when she spotted the bear.

"I was crossing under the highway and there was a rustling in the stream and I looked back and there was a bear 2 feet behind me," Swendsen said. "I didn't know what to do so I kept walking and it started following me. And then I started running because I was freaked out, I didn't know what to do. And it started chasing me and so I started screaming."

She scrambled up to Vincent Road and while trying to cross the street to get back to her home, she was struck by a car.

"The bumper of the car hit my left thigh and I kind of rolled off of it," Swendsen said.

After Division of Wildlife agents received a call about the noon run-in, they pursued the bear and tranquilized it.

Wildlife agents took a picture of the bear to Swendsen and she confirmed that it was the same bear that had chased her. They then killed the female, 230-pound black bear for showing aggressive behavior.

If she hadn't identified the bear, the bear would have been released.

"This is open space and there's a lot of bears in the area," DOW spokesman Michael Seraphin said. "We do not want to put down the wrong suspected bear."

The area is near an old historic bridge and the walking path is near a drainage ditch popular with several kinds of wildlife, Seraphin said. Area manager Shaun Deeney told the Colorado Springs Gazette that the Cottonwood Creek area is "bear heaven" and bears have just started to come out of hibernation.