Hit and runs are under the influence. Treat them that way criminally.
Those convicted of hit-and-run should be treated as if they were under the influence for purposes of sentencing.
Since motorists committing hit and runs are almost always under the influence, I’ve long thought they should be treated as DUIs in the criminal justice system. Now someone is working toward that goal, albeit with different wording: defendants convicted of hit-and-run would face the same prison terms as drunk drivers who cause accidents.
USC student Adriana Bachan, 18, was killed by a DUI in the early hours of March 29, 2009. Claudia Cabrera, 31, had been drinking at a party earlier in the evening. Her driver’s license was already suspended and a lawsuit was pending in connection with a previous collision. Bachan was in a crosswalk with her friend, Marcus Garfinkle, now 20, when they were hit, sending Garfinkle into the windshield. While Bachan lay motionless on the ground, the car stopped, the passenger, Cabrera’s husband Josue Luna, 34, jumped out, dragged Garfinkle off the vehicle and dumped him on the sidewalk. He got back into the car and Cabrera took off.
Cabrera, a pre-school teacher with five children, denied being under the influence and claimed she didn’t come forth because she was “afraid.” Because police found her much later, they couldn’t prove she was under the influence at the time of the incident and could give only the maximum sentence possible for hit-and-run: eight years for Cabrera and seven for Luna. Cabrera would have been eligible for a sentence of 15-years-to-life had she been convicted of DUI manslaughter.
Bachan’s mother, Carmen Bachan, is determined to insure that her daughter’s life has meaning. “I’ll never see my Adriana graduate. I’ll never see my Adriana get married, have children. I don’t want anyone [else] to go through this.” We should all support Carmen Bachan’s quest to have those convicted of hit-and-run treated as if they were under the influence at the time of the incident, because they almost assuredly were.
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