A 14-year-old girl who lives just outside Elizabeth City, North Carolina (NC), is recovering from a fractured arm she suffered when she was riding her bicycle and got run into by an unidentified driver on the evening of June 13, 2011. The hit-and-run accident, for which officers from the North Carolina Highway Patrol are seeking a suspect, occurred on Halls Creek Road, WAVY-TV10 is reporting.
The crash near Elizabeth City is similar to, though less severe than, two hit-and-run accidents on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, VA, in May and June 2011. In each incident, the bicyclist was hit from behind, the light was low due to the setting or rising sun, and all the drivers fled the scene without stopping to check on the health of the person hit.
People on bikes have little or no protection from cars and trucks. As a lifelong resident of Norfolk, VA, and as a personal injury attorney practicing in Virginia Beach, Hampton, and Elizabeth City for nearly 25 years, I have seen far too many examples of the physical toll bicyclists pay when drivers run into them. All too often, a collision between a bike and a motorized vehicle proves fatal for the bicyclist, as it did near Williamsburg in February 2011 and on Shore Drive — again — in April 2009.
Also, not that any traffic crash in which a pedestrian or bike rider suffers injuries or gets killed can ever be “good,” hit-and-run accidents are always inexcusable. Virginia and North Carolina both require drivers to stop any time they hit someone or another vehicle. Beyond that, human decency and respect for life should compel anyone to check on the status of a person they may have hurt.
I hope police find all three of the drivers who injured the bicyclists in the accidents mentioned here.
EJL