Police stated that a person was attempting to cross a road in Charlotte at 10 PM when he was hit and killed by the women driving her SUV. The woman failed to stop and fled the accident scene.
Approximately 60 minutes after the crash, the 19-year-old woman returned to the accident scene, where she was charged by the responding officers. The victim reportedly was in a crosswalk when he was hit by the woman.
Our View
Hit and run car accidents are on the rise in many cities in the US. This is causing many state legislators to consider toughening penalties for these car accidents.
For example, there are so many hit-and-run car accidents in Los Angeles that during a recent year, approximately 50% of car accidents in that city had a driver who left the scene of the accident.
Car accident data from the NHTSA indicates that there was 1274 hit and run wrecks in 2009 and 1449 in 2011. Also, the 14% increase in hit and run crashes happened while traffic deaths generally are on the decline.
Approximately 20% of all pedestrian deaths today are of the hit-and-run variety. And, approximately 60% of the hit-and-run fatalities have a victim who was a pedestrian. Alcohol is often a major part of the problems, especially for the drivers involved.
The rise in hit-and-runs has led to tougher laws in some states. For example, in Texas in 2013, legislators closed a loophole in a law that the police said encouraged people to flee the scene of a crash. Before that law was passed, the maximum criminal penalty for not rendering aid at the scene of a crash was only 50% of causing a drunk driving crash death. The penalty for fleeing the scene was increased to a third-degree felony. The maximum prison sentence has been raised to 10 years.
Our Virginia and North Carolina personal injury attorneys are pleased to read that some states are cracking down on hit-and-run drivers. Our personal injury attorneys have handled hit-and-run car accidents, and these events often involve very serious injury and mental trauma.
One car accident case we handled was in Virginia Beach when our clients were hit head on by a drunk driver. The responsible driver fled the scene and we did very careful research to prove who he was. The insurance company for the car owner did not want to pay, but we were able to convince the under-insured motorist insurance provider to pay a settlement of $225,000.
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