Man Involved in Fatal Hit-and-Run Crash now Facing Murder Charges
KANSAS CITY- Haypost.com writes that a man was involved in a tragic hit-and-run crash this week in Kansas City. The driver ran the person over with his vehicle, allegedly on purpose. The victim was identified as a 41-year-old Kansas City man.*
Reports indicate that the deadly incident occurred in the Blue Valley Park in the mid-afternoon. The victim died at the scene of the wreck. The driver fled the crash scene and then abandoned the car not far from the park after crashing the vehicle.
According to the AAA, hit-and-run fatalities are becoming more common throughout the United States. In a report, the AAA stated that hit-and-run deaths rose by 7.2 percent every year between 2009 and 2016. States have tried to lower their numbers of these incidents, but the primary way that officials have addressed the problem is by increasing penalties to punish the drivers. The penalties for committing a deadly hit-and-run vary a great deal between jurisdictions. The maximum sentence runs anywhere from six months in some locations to 30 years in others. As the numbers of hit-and-runs increase, many states increased not only jail time, but also fines and the amount of time licenses will be suspended.
Unfortunately, the penalties are not proving effective in preventing these types of tragic crashes. The number of hit-and-run crashes in states with sentences of up to five years in prison is comparable to those in states with five times as long of a maximum sentence.
In a few locations, states have worked to enact laws that increase the chances of catching these drivers. The effectiveness of this approach has not yet been well studied.
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Sources:
https://hayspost.com/posts/5e8dd5b0eb7f17053601fdf5
https://aaafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/18-0058_Hit-and-Run-Brief_FINALv2.pdf (PDF download)