Anne Arundel Senator Pitches Hit-and-Run Alert System

By Nate Rabner, CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

Senator Bryan Simonaire, R-Anne Arundel, has proposed a “Yellow Alert” system to help police catch drivers who flee the scene of an injurious or fatal collision.

“In my district alone, we’ve had five hit-and-run fatalities in the last two years,” Simonaire said. “It’s devastated our community—and all five remain unsolved.”

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The Yellow Alerts would reach the public through the Emergency Alert System in the same way as AMBER Alerts (child abductions), Silver Alerts (missing persons older than 60 with cognitive impairments) and Blue Alerts (a missing offender who injured or killed a law enforcement officer).

Hit-and-run incidents have killed 96 people in Maryland since 2010.

“If you don’t get the suspect in probably the first couple hours, you’re probably not going to get them,” Simonaire said.

Simonaire is also scheduled to present a bill that would increase the maximum prison sentence for failure to remain at the scene of an injurious or fatal collision, from 10 years to 15.

“It’s over 18,000 hit-and-run cases a year” statewide, he said. “I think we have an epidemic in the fact that people don’t realize they should stay at the scene of the crime.”

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Pictured, the Anne Arundel County Police Department says a Ford Explorer or Mercury Mountaineer that is white or a similarly light color like the ones pictured was involved in a hit-and-run in December in which a woman crossing the street with a walker was killed. The driver slowed down, then sped off, according to police.