Lubbock Police Accident Investigation responded to 13 pedestrian hit and run accidents that resulted in serious bodily injury or death in the last five years. This number not including other minor cases.
“We follow up with everything that occurs with the person, through the medical examiner’s office. We follow up to the family members all the way up to court and all the way up to prosecution,” LPD Major Crash Investigation Detective Jimmy Fair said.
The recent fatal hit and run accident that struck a 43-year-old man marked the fourth serious accident of this nature in 2017. Three of the four cases remain unsolved.
Investigators are asking for the public’s help searching for two vehicles that hit and killed Lashone Wilson at 2900 Avenue A at about 2:15 a.m. Sunday.
Police said they believe the first car has a cracked or broken windshield.
“There’s not a lot of evidence that gets left behind on most of these cases,” Fair said. “Unless there’s a license plate or something we can immediately pick up on and try to find a suspect at night, or when the accident occurs pretty quickly after the accident, it takes a lengthy process. We have ways to analyze paint samples and other parts of the vehicle to try to determine the make and model the vehicle is but even after all of that, it’s hard to single it down to a single vehicle.”
LPD responded to two pedestrian hit and runs where both cases were solved. 2015 included three accidents, one remains unsolved. 2014 includes four serious accidents, one remains unsolved. Reports show no pedestrian hit and runs in 2013.
“A lot of accidents occur with pedestrians in the roadway, in poorly lit areas, or maybe that the drivers were intoxicated, or we’ve had where both people were intoxicated, the drive and the victim,” Fair said.
As Lubbock continues to grow in population size, Fair said he has also seen an increase in foot traffic, especially downtown. He added this may cause in increase in these accidents in the future.
“A lot of these cases occur at night time, the late night hours, and they’re occurring in places with not a lot of foot traffic, kind of decollate areas, there’s not a whole lot of people in those areas, poorly lit areas,” Fair. “So whenever these crimes occur you don’t have a lot of people that have information for them.”
He added that a majority of these are solved by Crime Line tips. Anyone with information is urged to call that service at 741-1000, the call can remain anonymous.
