Hit and Run Drivers: Destroying My Faith in Humanity

I don’t have much to say about the latest nominee for driver of the year, Miriam Clinton, who hit a bicyclist with her car, breaking both his legs, rupturing his spleen, and more. She had 12 driving convictions at the time, and was driving with a suspended license. It’s pretty obvious that she should be off the road, locked up, in jail, forced to pay huge fines, never allowed drive again, etc. – clear consequences for her poor judgment and lack of compassion.

I do, however, have a couple of things to say about the news coverage, and about whether anything will ever change.

KATU’s lead (and everyone else’s, as far as I could see) was that Clinton “turned herself in.” Well, technically, sure. She did go to the police station under her own power. But that makes it seem like she came to her senses and decided that she should, well, “turn herself in.” What actually happened, which you can see lower down in the story if you have the patience to read the whole thing, is that she was  discovered by police after a tip led to the body shop where her car was. From her car, they could have found her address through registration and insurance. So really, she was found by police.

Having been caught, despite her best efforts to escape all responsibility for seriously injuring an innocent man, this narcissistic horror went to the police, probably on the advice of her lawyer, to complete pre-arrest formalities. Calling that “turning herself in,” and leading the story with that, seems misleading to me.

Will the hit-and-runs ever stop? These stories are so depressing. Isn’t life difficult enough? Isn’t it bad enough that you’ve accidentally hit someone with your car? Do you really have to run away, leaving them to bleed in the street, leaving them maybe to die without help? Is your driving record really so important that you’re going to leave a human being, who YOU just injured, lying in the gutter? Can a human being really be that self-centered?

Apparently they can. And they are, every time a hit-and-run driver leaves the scene. I would love to hear people’s recommendations about how to prevent hit and runs. Personally, I’m getting depressed about the issue. Thank you for making it just that much harder to get out of bed in the morning and face the day, Ms. Clinton.