Governor Approves 'Amber Alerts' for Hit and Run Accidents

A bill signed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown to create a public alert system aimed at tracking down hit-and-run drivers will make streets safer statewide,  a Los Angeles area assemblyman said.

AB 8 calls for “yellow alerts” showing details about a fleeing vehicle -- such as color, make, model and license plate number -- to be displayed on digital freeway and street signs. Such alerts are already used during kidnappings.

“We’re just ecstatic,” Assemblyman Mike Gatto told City News Service, about 10 minutes after receiving the news from the governor’s staff.

“This will make our streets much more safe, will help a lot of grieving families get justice,” he said.

The new law will go into effect on Jan. 1.

Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, explaining to Gatto that he had concerns it would overburden the existing alert system.

“I don’t think the system is too burdened,” Gatto said, noting that freeway signs are being used to urge drivers statewide to conserve water amid an historic drought.

“We shouldn’t have to put up $50,000 rewards to try to catch somebody. We shouldn’t have to flier our neighborhoods,” Gatto said. “We should give law enforcement tools to try to catch somebody by crowdsourcing it, if you will.”

Gatto added his bill is “narrowly tailored” to ensure alerts are only sent out in areas near where the incidents occur and only if the collision resulted in serious injury or death.

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Tamika Butler, who joined Gatto in urging the Brown to sign the bill, said 150 people die each year due to hit-and-runs.

She noted a fatal hit-and-run in Highland Park last month. Butler said she was eating dinner with friends in the area when she heard a crash, then saw a driver flee the scene.

The victim, Yolanda Lugo, died about a week later, while “we are still looking for the perpetrator of this crime,” Butler said.

The Los Angeles City Council earlier this year approved standing rewards ranging from $1,000 to $50,000 aimed at generating leads to capture drivers who flee traffic collisions rather than stop to potentially render aid.

City News Service