Fatal Hit and Runs Up 55 Percent This Year

Photo | Boris Thaser, Flickr via Creative Commons

Fatal hit and runs are up 55 percent this year, the Inquirer reports.

Officer Tanya Little, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department, told the Inquirer there were 17 fatal hit and runs as of Thursday. At this time last year, there were 11.

Nonfatal hit and runs are up too. They’ve risen by 4 percent – from 540 this time last year to 560 this year as of Thursday. And there have been 152 nonfatal hit and runs without injuries – up by 30 percent from 117 at this time last year, Little told the Inquirer.

The most recent hit and run occurred around 9 p.m. Wednesday when 18-year-old Kevin Maldonado was struck on the 3900 block of Old York Road in Hunting Park by an unknown driver.

The driver, a woman in a white floral dress, fled the scene and is still at large, police told PhillyVoice. She was driving a stolen white Prius.

Maldonado, who suffered severe head trauma, was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead shortly before 9:30 p.m.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Philadelphia Police Department.

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