Father Of Hit-And-Run Victim Asks Driver To Come Forward

NORTH AUSTIN, TEXAS — Police on Thursday afternoon asked for help from the public in locating the driver who fled the scene after striking and killing a pedestrian who was left to die in the street last month.

The collision occurred sometime during the morning of Thursday, July 23, along the 5700 block of West Parmer Lane. The pedestrian who was struck, Scott Gerald Whiting, 37, was dead at the scene by the time police arrived at around 6:30 a.m.

According to a preliminary police investigation, Whiting was walking eastbound on the south curb line at Parmer Lane when an unknown vehicle, also traveling eastbound, struck him. It's unclear if Whiting was walking in the bicycle lane or the grassy shoulder when he was hit.

The driver who hit Whiting fled the scene, according to police, leaving the victim on the side of a road lacking an adjacent sidewalk that the young man traversed each day to and from work. Born in San Antonio, Whiting worked at a medical technology company after having studied at the University of Texas, his father told reporters.

A month to the day after the incident, police staged a press conference asking for the public's help in locating the driver. The victim's father, Johnny Whiting, made an emotional plea for help locating the driver following the formal police presentation.

Police urged anyone who may have information — no matter how small the detail — to contact them. Anyone who may have been in the area at the time of the incident who may have seen something, including a car with body damage, are urged to call police.

“We want the public to revisit that day in their memory,” Austin police Lt. Blake Johnson said at the briefing. “If they live in that area, work in that area, coming and going, any small piece of information they remember, from a vehicle … make, model, partial license plate, color. There is no piece of information that is too small."

For his part, the elder Whiting appealed to the conscience of the driver who ran over his son, leaving him for dead on the side of the road. The victim enjoyed walking to work, and was headed to his job when he was killed. "I am of the opinion that someone knows who did this,” the victim's father said. “Someone other than the driver.”

The elder Whiting has been taking care of his son's beloved beagle named Emmitt since the death of his son. The father described how the dog still walks to the door at the time his master would have been arriving home from work.

Scott Whiting's beagle, Emmitt, still waits by the door a month after a hit-and-run driver killed his master, as if expecting him to walk through the door again. Photo provided by Austin Police Department.

“When you start thinking about losing a child, nothing can compare to it," Whiting's father said. "I lost my mother. I lost my father. I lost my brother. Nothing compares.”

By coming forward, the driver responsible would be unburdening internalized guilt, the father of the victim suggested: “When you do something you know is wrong, it stays with you. Everything stays with you. Food doesn’t taste the same. You don’t enjoy music as much as you did. You know that basically you were responsible for the death of a person. Just like I am never going to forget my son, Scott — I am never going to forget him and what happened — this driver is never going to forget what he did. At some point in time this will get to the driver, assuming the driver has a conscience.”

Anyone with information about the incident should call (512) 974-8544. Tips also can be submitted by downloading APD’s mobile app, Austin PD, for free on iPhone and Android.

The incident marks Austin’s 33rd fatal traffic crash of 2018, resulting in thirty-four fatalities this year, police said. At this time last year, there were 32 fatal traffic crashes and 34 traffic fatalities.

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>>> Photos of Scott Whiting courtesy of Austin Police Department