Not Every Hit-and-Run Is What It Seems

We hear “hit-and-run” and immediately imagine the worst: recklessness, cowardice, someone speeding off to avoid responsibility. And sometimes, that’s exactly what it is. But not always.

Recently, there have been cases where drivers—especially those operating large vehicles like buses or semi-trucks—have struck individuals who were lying in roadways or parking lots, often at night, in low-visibility conditions. In one case, a public bus driver unknowingly ran over someone lying in the middle of a parking lot at 1 a.m. In another, a truck’s rear tires rolled onto a sidewalk and critically injured a man who appeared to be sleeping there.

These are devastating incidents, but they raise a difficult question:
What if the driver never saw the person? What if they truly didn’t know?

The law says you must stop, report, and take responsibility—and rightly so. But the human side of these stories often gets lost. Drivers can face charges, lose their jobs, or carry deep emotional scars for accidents they may not have been able to prevent, or even realize occurred.

We can hold space for both truths:
That someone was hurt or killed, and that the driver may not be the villain the headline implies.

In a world where tragedy and fault don’t always align neatly, we owe it to everyone involved to look deeper, judge slower, and remember that not all “hit-and-runs” are created equal.

It’s worth noting that emerging technologies in autonomous and driver-assist vehicles—like Waymo’s self-
driving cars and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving systems—are designed to detect objects and people in the
vehicle’s path, even those lying low to the ground. These systems use a combination of sensors such as
LIDAR, radar, and cameras to monitor surroundings in real time, often performing better than human
drivers in low-light or unexpected situations. While not perfect, this technology has the potential to
prevent tragedies where drivers might not see a person sleeping or lying on the road, offering an
important layer of safety that traditional vehicles currently lack.