PROVIDENCE –– An unknown young woman is lying unconscious in Rhode Island Hospital’s intensive care unit, the victim of a hit-and-run driver in Mount Pleasant late Sunday night. The police have charged the man believed to be the driver, but they are asking for the public’s help to identify the young woman.

All the police know is that the woman was alone when she crossed Atwells Avenue at Unit Street after 11 p.m. when a car crashed into her. The impact sent the woman flying up into the windshield and over the roof of the car, before tossing her in the street, said police Sgt. Paul Zienowicz.

The driver never touched his brakes and never stopped to check on the girl, Zienowicz said.

Although the driver kept going, there was a witness who gave the police a detailed description of the late model blue Hyundai and the man at the wheel, Zienowicz said.

Moments after a description of the car was aired by the media early this morning, the police got a tip that the car was in North Providence. Investigators tracked down the hit-and-run driver and the man’s damaged car right to his door at an apartment house at 7 Brook St. in North Providence, Zienowicz said. The driver, Juan Aguirre, 67, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing bodily injury and other traffic offenses; he is being held for arraignment in District Court tomorrow. Zienowicz said that Aguirre refused to speak to the police after he was taken into custody and instead obtained a lawyer.

Police officers and street workers have canvassed the neighborhood and the Manton housing projects, asking if anyone knows the girl. They’re checking reports of runaways and missing person, Zienowicz said, looking for someone who matches the girl’s description.

She appears to be a light-skinned black woman, with a walnut-sized birthmark on her left hip. She is about 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 150 pounds, the police said. A doctor at Rhode Island Hospital estimated for the police that the girl appears to be between the ages of 16 and 20 years old. Her toenails are painted pink and her hair was in one braid, but the girl is otherwise unadorned –– no jewelry and nothing in the pockets of her jeans, Zienowicz said. She was wearing pink slip-on sneakers, a black fleece jacket and jeans when she was struck, he said. Her jeans were in tatters from the crash.

The police are asking anyone with information about the girl to call the desk sergeant at the Providence Police Department at 243-6191.