COULD ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS BE BEHIND L.A.’S HIGH RATE OF HIT-AND-RUNS?

Because there are so many of them, unless someone is killed, LAPD doesn't bother to investigate hit-and-run car crashes

‘L.A.’s Bloody Hit-and-Run Epidemic,’ an article in the December 6 LA Weekly, claimed that unless a victim died, LAPD's investigations too often were marked by evidence-gathering lapses and disinterest. A January LA Weekly cover story revealed that Los Angeles is mired in a long-running hit-and-run crisis, with drivers fleeing 48 percent of all crashes in 2009. Nationally, just 11 percent of crashes are hit-and-runs.

And according to ‘Chief Beck’s Hit-and-Run Crisis,’ an article by Patrick Range McDonald published in Thursday’s LA Weekly, Los Angeles suffers a staggering 20,000 hit-and-runs annually. Of those, hit-and-run drivers kill or badly maim about 22 bicyclists, 40 motorists and 92 pedestrians each year. According to LAPD's own data, another 324 bicyclists, 1,004 pedestrians and 2,293 motorists are injured less severely each year.

48 percent of all car crashes in Los Angeles are hit-and-runs – now that’s simply astounding. I know that Houston suffers from a substantial number of hit-and-run crashes, but I am sure they do not approach L.A.’s extremely high rate. Many of the Houston hit-and-runs are caused by illegal immigrants who flee the scenes because they do not have driver licenses and the required auto insurance and are afraid of being deported.

I wonder if the high rate of L.A. hit-and-runs result from the high concentration of illegals in L.A. County? Oops, that was not a politically correct question.