Warrant Issued for Driver Charged in Multi-Car Chilmark Hit-Run

A 24-year-old Harwich Port woman, suspected in a March hit and run that damaged four vehicles in Chilmark, failed to show up for a court date July 5 in Edgartown, court documents indicate.

A warrant has been issued for Hannah W. Porter, whose employer turned her in to police after she and a fellow employee returned the company truck with collision damage after a day off from their Vineyard construction job March 17.

Porter is suspected of smashing the box truck into four vehicles parked along South Road in Chilmark that afternoon, according to documents filed in Edgartown District Court.

The cars were parked outside the Chilmark Community Center where the Martha's Vineyard Film Festival was underway.

The hardest-hit vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, had its rear windshield and passenger side window blown out and heavy damage to the rear driver’s side, according to police. Three other vehicles were also damaged to varying degrees.

Porter was identified as the suspect driver later the same day when her employer called police to say she and another employee had returned the company box truck, a 2011 GMC Savannah, with collision damage they couldn't adequately explain, court records indicate.

Porter and her fellow employees were on the Island for the week working at a job site on Briarwood Road in Tisbury, according to the court documents. 

She told police she thought she could get past the vehicles parked on the side of South Road and that after she hit them, her companion told her to keep going and she "panicked," according to the court files.

Porter is charged with negligent operation of a vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident with property damage and a marked lanes violation. 

Arrest information does not indicate a conviction. For more police news on and off Martha's Vineyard, please see our Police & Fire news section.