Hit-and-Run Drivers Take Toll on Valley

It’s every driver’s nightmare: You’ve hit another car, or worse yet, a pedestrian crossing the street.

What do you do?

All too often, police say, San Fernando Valley motorists flee the scene instead of obeying the law by stopping and identifying themselves, summoning help for the injured and calling police if there’s an injury or crime involved.

So far this year in the Valley there have been 4,569 hit-and-run accidents.

That’s a 14% drop from last year, but even with the decrease, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. William Bowen, the number of hit-and-run accidents in the Valley is “terribly high.”

“It’s a big problem,” said Bowen, a motorcycle sergeant assigned to the LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division.

On Halloween, a 4-year-old North Hills toddler was seriously injured when he was struck by a hit-and-run driver while trick-or-treating.

A 9-year-old boy was injured in a hit-and-run accident earlier in the month when a woman driving a BMW struck him in a Sherman Oaks crosswalk.

Although hit-and-run drivers run the gamut and have included lawyers, doctors and police officers, Bowen said they typically lack a valid driver’s license or insurance and often drive cars purchased for a few hundred dollars, making it easy to abandon the vehicle.

“A high percentage of our hit-and-run suspects who are caught are unlicensed, which is one of the reasons they run,” Bowen said.

Hit-and-run accidents have declined in the Valley for the past two years, Bowen said, due in part to a state law enacted in 1995 that allows police to impound an unlicensed driver’s car for 30 days.

It is also not uncommon for a driver involved in a hit-and-run accident to be drunk, he added. (Bowen suggested that motorists think twice before driving after drinking, noting that a typical drunk-driving arrest ends up costing a driver $10,000 in fines, insurance premium hikes and attorney’s fees. Compare that, he said, to the cost of a $20 cab fare to arrive home safely.)

Other hit-and-run drivers, according to Bowen, are typically law-abiding citizens who simply panic and flee an accident scene without thinking about the consequences.

“Quite often we find the victim was the person who caused the traffic accident,” Bowen said. “Had the other car not fled they would have just been another party to an accident instead of ending up being a felon.”

For a motorist whose car has been struck by a hit-and-run driver, Bowen suggests trying to write down as much information as possible, including the other car’s license plate number, color, model and number of doors, and trying to get a look at the driver.

He recommended following the car to get its license plate number only if the fleeing car is moving slowly.

“Absolutely don’t chase after them, because you’re going to put yourself and other citizens in jeopardy,” Bowen said. “If you have to speed you’re becoming part of the problem . . . and if you crash, you’re going to be in big trouble.”

Bowen said pedestrians can help avoid becoming victims by always crossing at crosswalks and paying attention to their surroundings, never assuming that every car is going to stop for them, even if they are in a crosswalk.

“Always assume that they don’t see you,” Bowen said. “You have to have that little hesitation that somebody is going to stop. Try to make eye contact with the driver and wait until you see them slowing.”