Man charged with hitting cyclist, fleeing scene

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Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 22, 2011 at 10:23pm

all misdemeanors. gotta love that shit.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Willis on March 23, 2011 at 1:26am

Last time I checked a Hit and Run was a felony! With all this stuff going on about enforcing the rules of the road on bike same as cars, this would be a felony!

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 23, 2011 at 9:07am

Hit and run should be a felony -PERIOD!

 

A person has no idea how badly hurt a victim they hit could be.  Failiure to render aid could literally be the difference between life or death.

 

Until society starts to punish those who run away from their responsibility to render aid and own up for their driving mistakes rather than run away, and treat them harsher than those who do the right thing and stick around, then people are going to continue to chose to take the easy way out.

 

Leaving the scene of an accident should be a mandatory felony and 4-5 years in jail minimum.  Once people finally get this harsh penalty into their hard little heads they wont even THINK about running and would rather do the right thing and render aid and identify themselves so they can make amends.  

 

So many times these people are DUI and the penalty for that is so huge they figure it is worth the risk to run.  Until they make the penalty for running much more onerous than the basic penalty for DUI they  are going to continue to run.   It's no wonder people leave the scene.  It's just simple psychology.    

 

It's hard to prove DUI after the fact but I think if a person is caught and there is even a suspicion of DUI that should up the penalty by 2x and should be pursued with a high degree of investigation with witnesses and other proof outside of blood or breath tests.  Hit & Run should turn the DUI situation into an automatic "not a drop of alcohol" situation by law instead of a higher BAC of a regular DUI. If they can get a person to testify in criminal court that the H&R driver was drinking at all before the accident then it should double the penalty.  

 

Something has to be done about people who run away from "accidents" like this and don't even render aid to those they hurt and fail to act like a human being.  Fail to act like a human being and instead act like an ignorant cornered animal and you'll be caged like one for a VERY long time. 

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on March 23, 2011 at 1:38pm

I agree, hit and run needs to carry massive penalties.  Ones far, far worse than those for a DUI.  When I was younger a family friends neighbor struck and critically injured a person only a few blocks from their home, most likely drunk, and fled the scene for home and called the police from there.  Several people saw them arrive home and said they looked intoxicated.  When the police showed up they were WASTED and claims they drank due to the trauma of the accident.  The police were unable to charge them with the DUI because there was no proof they drove the car intoxicated.  Because they, in the end, owned up to the accident the hit and run charge was no big deal.

 

Until the laws are changed this scenario will be played out over and over again, sometimes at a loss of life, because people would rather face a hit and run charge than a DUI.

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Permalink Reply by Vilda on March 23, 2011 at 2:18pm

Sorry Doug that's rough. My Uncle was killed by a drunk driver that fled the scene. This guy was my uncle's friend as well as a VERY rich individual. After all was said and done he did less than a year in jail and paid some kinda fine. My Grandpa was so sickened by the system he never bothered with a civil suit. DUI and Hit and Run's are disgusting crimes.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 23, 2011 at 4:14pm

I think that H&R is 10x worse than DUI.  I don't care if someone is  drunk or sober when they leave somoene to bleed out in the street rather than rendering aid that could help save a life, and just letting that person bleed out until someone else happens by.  A H&R driver should get the book thrown at them regardless of BAC or who was at fault for the accident.  

 

DUI is bad enough but the penalties are already pretty darn harsh right now.  But if I had to make a decision between some guy at .08 who hit someone and then sat by the guy and rendered aid and did his damnedest to save a life and maybe even had to look into the eyes of the person he hurt as they passed on and stuck around to take his lumps for the DUI AND the accident, and someone who decided to H&R I would pick the drunk any day to get the lower punishment.    

 

Hitting someone is bad enough but running away to let someone die alone in the gutter when they could maybe have been saved by a call to 911 and some first aid should be years and years and years in prison.  It should dwarf any DUI charge by a factor of 10 at least.

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Permalink Reply by mike w. on March 23, 2011 at 7:20pm

Sadly, a lot of times the driver responsible for a H&R is an uninsured/unlicensed motorist. IF they are caught at all, there's Sweet F.A. you'd be able to get out of a lawsuit so the best you could hope for is that they get the book thrown at them and get kept off the streets awhile.

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Permalink Reply by Davo on March 23, 2011 at 8:46pm

or they have family with connections

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