At 3 a.m. on Saturday in a Los Angeles suburb, a big rig 18-wheeler ran into a pickup truck after a minor crash about a block away. The trailer was found lying on top of the mangled truck, left behind when the driver fled the scene. A man in the pickup truck died on the scene, while the driver was taken to the hospital to treat injuries. There’s no word on the state of the driver at this time.
Hit-and-run accidents are on the rise all across the United States but are notoriously bad in Los Angeles. During one recent year in the city, almost half of all collisions involved a hit-and-run driver. But this is above and beyond just Los Angeles; this is a country-wide phenomenon.
There was a 13.5% rise in fatal hit-and-run accidents over a three year period recently, all while the average deaths on the road were lessening. 60% of all hit-and-run fatalities involve pedestrians. Most hit-and-run drivers flee the scene because there is something they would get in trouble for if they chose to stay. Many times, this is because of alcohol. Alcoholism is on the rise in the United States, with DUI’s becoming more and more common.
