Rose Baca, 92, talks to her son, Ron, on Thursday from her bed at a local nursing home. Baca was run over by a golf cart last year at a Las Vegas apartment complex, and the family has filed a lawsuit. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

At age 90, Rose Baca was no match for a golf cart.

Loved ones of the Las Vegas senior say Baca was walking to the mailbox at the Carefree apartments on Valley View Boulevard, where she lived last year, when a maid at the apartments inexplicably ran over her with a golf cart.

Authorities said that after Baca was struck, she was dragged 48 feet underneath the cart, leaving her with fractures in the skull, neck and ribs, a broken hip and a severe staph infection.

"It was terrible," said Baca's son, Ron. "Her face was twice the size of normal. She didn't look like herself -- it looked like someone had beat her."

Rose Baca spent more than a month in the hospital and had hip replacement surgery. She is now in a nursing home, but loved ones say she is not the same as she used to be.

Last month, Baca's family filed a lawsuit against the apartment complex, Carefree Living and Templeton Developments, saying the complex and its owners were negligent in allowing maid Maria Elena Almazan to drive the golf cart.

"They negligently entrusted this vehicle to her," said family attorney Joseph L. Benson II. "In her statement to the officer, she said it was her first time on a golf cart."

Attorneys for the Carefree apartments did not respond to a request for comment Friday on this story.

According to police reports, Baca was walking to the post office when she was struck in the parking lot of the senior living complex, near Charleston Boulevard.

Witnesses described a horrifying scene in statements to police.

"I was sitting having my morning tea with the door open and heard lots of screaming," reported witness Fay Hill. "I walked onto my balcony and saw a golf cart with what appeared to be an arm sticking out."

Almazan gave a statement to police saying she had encountered Baca and told her to "watch out for the little cart."

"But when I braked while talking to her, I lost control of the brake by accident and I could not stop because my foot slid," Almazan said. "Please, I did not do it on purpose. It was an accident."

Police uncovered no evidence to indicate that the incident was intentional. No charges were filed.

But Baca's loved ones say the accident has prompted a decline in her health.

Before the accident, they said, Baca was an independent woman whose only significant health concern was difficulty hearing.

Her mental condition has deteriorated significantly, family members say, and it's difficult to communicate with her.

"It's just so wrong," said Baca's daughter-in-law, Cathy Baca. "No one should have this happen to them, but she, least of all, deserved this."