Colorado lawmakers targeting hit-and-run drivers

Hit-and-run accidents are an area of serious concern in Colorado. Seventeen times every day in the city of Denver alone, a hit-and-run accident is reported to police. Hit-and-run fatalities occur almost three times every month in Colorado, figures from 2012 reveal, and pedestrians are the most likely to be killed.

In 2012, 34 hit-and-run deaths were reported statewide. This number is nearly twice the 18 hit-and-run fatalities reported in 2011. Between the years 2008 and 2012, 104 people died in hit-and-run accidents; 64 of them were bicyclists or pedestrians.

In an effort to put an end to what a former Denver police officer called a "tremendously huge problem," Colorado lawmakers in 2012 passed legislation establishing more severe criminal penalties for hit-and-run drivers if the victim sustained serious bodily injury. Additionally, several Colorado cities have adopted the Medina Alert program, which is designed to enlist the help of the public in apprehending hit-and-run drivers. The program, which began in Denver and is named after a hit-and-run victim, is based on the federal Amber Alert system for locating missing children. The Colorado legislature will decide, during the current term, on a bill to make the Medina Alert system part of state law; it would then be managed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

A study conducted in the 1990s by a University of Vermont economics professor showed that hit-and-run drivers make a decision to flee because they feel they have "more to lose" by staying than by running. The driver may be driving on a suspended license, for example, or he or she may have been drinking. Alcohol is commonly a factor in hit-and-run cases. Hit-and-run drivers are likely to be young and male and have previous criminal convictions, according to a second study, this one conducted by the University of California at Berkeley.

Many of the cases never get solved. As the former Denver police officer described it, looking for a hit-and-run driver is like "looking for a ghost." Lawmakers hope their legislative efforts will have an effect in years to come, but they caution that public perception and awareness must change before the incidence of hit-and-run accidents changes. At least one state representative has suggested a public awareness campaign similar to those that have been effective for seat belt usage and litter prevention.

Those who have been injured in hit-and-run accidents often deal with feelings of anger and helplessness because the identity of the at-fault driver is unknown. Even in hit-and-run cases, however, a personal injury attorney may be able to secure the victim compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages or other damages if the driver at fault can be found before the statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death cases runs out.

The Durango Herald, Careful being a pedestrian in Colo., Burt Hubbard, Feb. 15, 2014

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