Hit-And-Run Loophole Lets You Walk After 3 Years; Mike Gatto Wants That Fixed

mikegatto.com

State Assemblyman Mike Gatto, who represents such northeast communities as Atwater Village, East Hollywood, Los Feliz, and Silver Lake, says he'll propose closing a loophole that allows hit-and-run suspects to avoid prosecution after three years. You see, ...

... under current law, the window for prosecuting a hit-and-run suspect runs out three years after the date of the incident, Gatto spokesman Justin Hager explained to us.

Critics say that might be one of the reasons people flee: If they can ride it out for three years they are, as Hager put it, scot-free. Some folks might even turn themselves in or boast about such a collision after three years, he noted, knowing they would face few consequences.

Courtesy Marie Hardwick

X-ray image from a hit-and-run victim in L.A.

Under language Gatto's office is working on, people could be prosecuted based on the time they are actually identified as suspects, giving authorities a fresh, three-year clock for possible prosecution.

Gatto told us:

I read the ongoing coverage in the LA Weekly. There's clearly something the legislature can do here. There's a real problem. The solution isn't fancy. It's just a matter of making it harder for people to run down the clock.

Gatto said he identified with our follow-up story about how bicyclist Don Ward was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Echo Park in 2009 and lived to hunt down the suspect.

The bicyclist that got hit -- that's the route I take home. You put yourself in that person's shoes.

The first deadline to file the proposed amendment this legislative session in Sacramento is Jan. 25 -- a deadline Gatto's folks said they would meet.

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