Another victim
A 6-year-old boy hit over the weekend remains in critical condition, police said yesterday. Investigators have confiscated two vehicles that may have been involved, but have not pressed charges against the owners at this time.
Updated 22:14, May the 12th, 2009
Four hit-runs in four weeks
PHILADELPHIA. When Calvin Weston counts his children, he still says six.
Then, he corrects himself and remembers he now has five. That's because the hit-and-run death of his son, Calvin Wilkerson, early last Thursday is still so fresh in his mind. The 18-year-old was run down by a van on Ninth Street in Hunting Park as he tried to walk home in the rain.
"People stop when they hit dogs, so that is the harder part," said Weston, a jazz drummer, from the front steps of his home in North Philadelphia. "And [the perpetrator] turned a simple accident into a crime."
Weston, who is planning a fundraiser for his son today at The Fire Lounge, is not the only person rocked by news of a loved one hit by a driver who fled the scene. There have been at least four hit-and-run cases in the city since April 22, but three remain unsolved, including Wilkerson's incident.
Police could not say yesterday exactly how many hit-and-run cases there have been this year involving pedestrians, but reported 4,910 cases of drivers leaving the scene of an accident through May 3.
Legal experts say Pennsylvania law makes it more enticing for drivers to flee the scene rather than get caught intoxicated.
"The selfish man is going to leave that scene and maybe report it the next day," said Jeffrey Reiff, a local DUI attorney who's practiced law for 30 years. "I can tell you that it’s growing at an epidemic rate."
