"I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6...."

[HEMI6point1]

Living in south Florida, I'm amazed at how many hit and runs I see on the news every day. While it's wrong for sure, I get the feeling that people hit and run because they are afraid that even if they stop, fully cooperate with the cops and do everything right, they will be charged with some sort of criminal offense (Of course when they are finally caught the penalty is 100x worse).

Case in point: A couple of years ago, a man was driving along the side street of a strip mall. He wasn't speeding or anything. A kid decided to dart out right in the middle of the street for no apparent reason. At the same time, a pickup truck was going in the opposite direction (and not a small truck either, one of those big dually's). The choice for this guy was to 1) slam on the brakes and hope that they do a good enough job and that the stupid kid gets out of the way, or 2) hit the truck at an angle the IIHS calls partial overlap and risk death for HIM.

He choose option 1, sadly the kid did not move out of the way and later died. Despite stopping at the scene, fully cooperating with authorities and even offering the kid's family financial assistance, he was charged with vehicular manslaughter! I never bothered finding out the outcome of the case, but the DA said he was charged because "He had a choice to either total his car or kill a kid. He chose the latter."

WTF?

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Yeah I think it was more of a decision of "The choice was to either kill himself or kill a kid. He's a criminal for following self preservation methods."

Personally I'd charge the parents. Where were they when this kid was darting in and out of traffic?

[anakhouri]

I think it was just a tragic accident and no one should have been charged in that case. Kids do stupid shit because they don't really understand the consequences, parents can look away for 2 seconds and the kid is gone, and the guy did the best he could in a bad situation. Honestly, in a situation like that I would have been hard pressed to think of what to do, as I'm sure it happened very quickly. Charging him was a travesty of the law.

[s_stabeler]

not to mention if he had hit the pickup, there's a good chance his car would have spun sideways, hitting the kid anwyay.

[Tanasi]

A lot of times DA and ADA will bring charges because it's politically good for them and then leave it up the jury to be the bad guys. Either way the DA wins.
I've also been hearing more and more hit-and-runs being reported. Recently a newly graduated UT student was convicted of murder after he ran down and killed a pregnant woman and her unborn baby and the good Samaritan that was helping her and her friend (the friend later killed herself). The student said he remembered hitting a car but thought he had hit a dog. Reality was he was drunk and he needed time to wash the blood and parts off his car. From what I was told the poor lady was split open and the baby was thrown down the road. IMO that boy needs to ride the lighting.