Went to court Friday. For a real criminal proceeding, felony no less.
Obviously, I didn't go to jail.
Really, I was only a witness. April 2011, I had worked late and coming home, when I got to town, going down the main thoroughfare, I came across someone standing in the raod waving their arms. It was about 11:30 at night on a Tuesday, IIRC. Anyway, it turned out to be the scene of an accident. There was a fellow in a wheelchair that had been trying to get across the road, and someone had hit him. There are 4 lanes of traffic on each side of a regular grass with curbs median at this area, and he was crossing where there was a left turn cut in the median. His body was in the second lane from the right, with his crumpled chair about 50ft past him. His personal effects were scattered about, as well as the rest of his clothing, as he had been pretty much knocked out of it.
The one guy was in the road, I guess trying to keep him from getting run over again, and there was a couple standing on the sidewalk, watching.
The driver who had done this was nowhere to be found.
I had initially moved over and gone by, as the fellow in the road waving his arms and the low light prevented me from seeing everything until I went by. However, seeing a mostly naked man sprawled in the road, I pulled my cell and hit 911, as there were no police or EMS or anything else there. The dispatcher was asking questions I couldn't answer, so I pulled a u-turn and went back by, another u-turn and I was back at the scene. I pulled my car up about 30ft from the body, hit the 4-ways and got out with my light. Police were now "on the way". The other person was not getting any response from the victim, so I concentrated on getting traffic around us so we wouldn't be next.
Turned out, the impact point was behind my car, so it was parked in the scene. I was there from 11:30 until 1am, when forensics could get picture documentation and I could leave.
The victim was dead on the scene. Whoever had hit him had left him either dead or to die in the street.
Fast forward to last Friday. The trial of the driver. They couldn't prove she had killed him, so she was charged with felony hit and run. More on that in a bit.
My testimony as one of the first on the scene was that she was not there. Seems she was on her way to her sisters' place when she hit this man. She claimed that she had not seen him, and while she knew she hit something, since the whole car shook when it happened, but she didn't know what it was. She stopped at the next intersection to look at the car, and then got back in and went on to her sisters' apartment. When she got out under a light in the parking lot, she discovered the front end of her car was trashed, and wanted to go back and see what she hit. So she gets her sisters car, and goes back. Of course, she finds a big scene, half the police dept. is there, crime scene truck, the whole 9yds. She parks across the street, sits awhile, and works her way around to park and get out where we the witnesses are and the "gawkers". She asks police about what would happen to the driver, they ask if she knows anything, or is she involved. She says no, on three occaisions to three different officers.
An hour later, she lets the officers know she was the driver, and makes a statement.
The coroner testifies that the victims injuries were quite extensive, consistent with being hit by one or more motor vehicles, and caused his death. There was no belief that death was instantaneous from any of the specific injuries.
All of this happened in front of a small credit union building. It had a camera out front to monitor the parking lot, and it had been hoped that the road could be seen in the camera's view. It was, and video told so much, and yet so little. The accident was on the video, sparks fly as the chair is driven into the road, gouging the pavement, telling the impact point, and throwing the victim 97ft, and his chair 140ft. She was driving a small car.
Then came the problematic part. A full 5 minutes and 50 seconds goes by, as well as about 30-32 cars, before someone pulls to a stop, which was me. It is too dark, due to a streetlight which is defective and goes on and off at random intervals, to tell if any of those cars hits the victim again as he lay in the road. This is why she could not be charged with killing him. The gentleman in the road when I arrived, as well as the couple on the sidewalk, and parked in a lot off the street. This is a business area, stores and shops all around, right in the middle of the city. Almost all are closed, but there is still moderate traffic, even this late.
Apparently, the wording of the hit and run statute is rather detailed and specific. For a driver involved in an accident to be required to stop, there must be a reasonable knowledge or belief that injury has occurred. If not, then the driver is not required to stop. Her attorney agued that she did not see the man in the wheelchair, and had no idea what she hit, and so had no belief that she had caused any injury to another person, and was not required to stop.
In a small car, she hit a 200+lb man, in a wheelchair, hard enough to throw him 97ft, and shake the car, and somehow thought there was nothing serious going on. She then came back surreptitiously, and lied to the police in an effort to cover it up, but she thought nothing was wrong.
There are no deer anywhere around this part of town, and never has been in the whole 40+yrs I've been here. I've yet to see or hear of a 200+ lb dog around here.
He was facing away from oncoming traffic at the moment, due to the angle of the cut-through in the median, and the chair had no reflectors and was a dark color. Plus, the lighting is not good there. I can see where she might not have really noticed him there until it was too late, and hit him accidentally, especially if she wasn't paying good attention. I cannot believe, however, that she had no idea what she hit as she was hitting him, and after. In a small car, versus the size of a wheelchair, for her to hit him without ever knowing what it was, she couldn't have actually been looking forward, it would've filled the windshield, especially as his body went up on the hood, pushing it in. He would've been showing well above the top of the hood before she hit him. What else could she have thought was going on? What the hell else can you hit in a fair-sized city that is that size, but a person?
Well, it worked. She got off completely, charges dismissed.
So, you can hit and kill a man in a wheelchair, drive on like nothing happened, and simply deny knowledge of what happened while you are supposed to be paying attention to what you're doing, and get away with it.
And apparently, plenty of people around here just don't seem to mind or care about a body laying in the traffic lane of a major thoroughfare, and drive on by.
Welcome to today's modern "civilized" society, folks.
Also, this idiot is still out driving around on the same roads with me. Isn't that nice?
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Originally Posted by Sniper-T
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