Hit-and-Run in Broad Daylight, On Camera

Something I will never understand is hit-and-run drivers.

In Los Angeles on Sunday, a 45-year-old woman and her 17-year-old son were crossing the street, in a crosswalk mind you, and hit by a car.  The driver took off without helping or calling authorities.  The two victims are listed in critical condition and the whole thing was caught on surveillance video.  The driver is a woman and her car may have right front end damage as well as possibly missing the right mirror.    This all happened in broad daylight, around 11:30am.

I really just don't understand how you can hit someone with your car and just take off.  Especially in the middle of the day.  I mean, you have to know you hit a person.  And to hit someone with enough force to cause damage to the front of your car, lose your mirror, and then to just leave them there; that's disgraceful.

How much you want to bet that the driver was texting?  She wasn't paying attention, that's for sure.  And the most common reasons drivers are distracted these days are because they're texting and driving.  The stoplight was red for her and there were people in the crosswalk, how do you miss that?  Because you're not looking.  If she even realized it, she probably panicked because she was doing something she wasn't supposed to and assumed she would get in even more trouble, which isn't always the case.

(*On a side note, I didn't suggest she may have been drinking because it was 11:30 in the morning, but then again you never know.  It is another reason most people take off when they hit someone.)

If you stop and help, it shows that you really didn't mean to hit them, that you made a mistake, and that you're sorry.  It shows the kind of person you are when you take responsibility for your actions and stop and help, as you should.  But if you take off, it shows that you either did it on purpose or you have no compassion for your fellow man or human life.  You don't take responsibility for your actions nor do you care about what you did.

I understand people get scared because that is a scary situation to put yourself in.  You don't know what the law will do to you or the family of the person/people you hit.  Your whole life can change in just one moment.  But that doesn't mean for the worse.  Yes, you or your insurance would have to pay for the hospital bills and whatnot, but chances are people will be more lenient on you if you own up to what you did and truly show how guilty you feel.  Don't expect any sympathy when you hit someone and take off, because when they catch you, and they will, you just upgraded your situation from a non criminal accident to a felony.  Now, you really changed your life.

Sometimes, we can control the outcome of our actions by how we react to the situation.  In this situation, if you stop, you won't go to jail; if you don't stop, you will.