Hampton Roads Topics: Hit and Run Accidents

This week Hampton Roads Topics will focus on a crime that has been getting a lot of attention lately in Hampton Roads:  hit and run accidents.

Three high profile hit and runs in Virginia Beach this year have caught the public's attention.  In February, 12 year old Camryn Johnson McCall was left for dead when a van struck her just off Lynnhaven Parkway and then left the scene.  The driver, Mark Tiejen, a man with a long history of vehicle violations, was later arrested when a witness gave investigators his license plate number.  At last report, the victim was still in critical condition at a local hospital.

Two bicyclists have been injured by hit and run drivers on Shore Drive; one in May and one in early June.  Both of those cases remain unsolved.

These three recent cases are really just the tip of the iceberg.  Virginia Beach Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant says during the program that since early 2009, his office has prosecuted 65 felony charges of hit and run involving property damage or injury.  There may be hundreds more hit and run property damage cases that have gone unreported, he says.

I talk with Bryant and Virginia Beach Police Public Information Officer Adam Bernstein about why as many as one in ten traffic accidents involve a driver who flees, and what can be done to reduce the number of hit and run incidents.

Hampton Roads Topics airs Sunday mornings at 6:00 on these stations:  92.9 The Wave, ESPN Radio 94.1, Star 1310, and 97.3 The Eagle.