Hit and run collisions in the city of Chula Vista reached an all-time high last year, according to data compiled for a public records request.
In 2015 there were 477 total hit and run collisions with 46 arrests made from hit and run incidents, compared to 315 hit and run collisions and only 41 arrests in 2014.
In 2013 there were 341 hit and run incidents resulting in 64 arrests.
In the past five years combined there have been 2,159 hit and run accidents with 347 total arrests. The total figure includes car-to-car, car-to-pedestrian and car-to-bicycle hit and run collisions.
Chula Vista Police Capt. Lon Turner attributes the rise in hit and run collisions to several factors.
“But the anecdotal evidence is we’re still seeing people get involved in collisions and because they either don’t have a driver’s license or don’t have insurance or have a suspended driving privilege, they take off,” he said.
Turner explained that there are several contributing factors as to why there are low arrest rates in hit and run collisions.
One of those reasons includes a reduction in the number of officers. In 2010 the department fully staffed its traffic division with 22 officers. Today the department only has seven officers in its traffic division.
The police department had previously employed a full-time hit and run investigator. That position currently doesn’t exist.
Another reason Turner said why there are so few arrests made with hit and run collisions has to do with victims not waning to press charges.
“In a lot of cases victims don’t want prosecution,” Turner said. “They just want their cars fixed.”
Turner said officers in most cases offer the victims of a hit and run incident the option of prosecution for the alleged crime.
If a victim decides against prosecution then officers will reach out to both victim and suspect and put them in contact with each other to try and workout the issue between themselves or through their insurance companies, Turner said.
Turner said that about 95 percent of all hit and runs are misdemeanors, but hit and run incidents that cause injury or death are considered felonies.
“Your hit and run is somebody bumps you and looks like they are going to pullover on the side and nobody is injured and the person continues down the way and never stops,” he said.
He also said a typical hit and run is when somebody backs into another car and there is damage to that car and the driver proceeds to leave.
Turner said the police department prioritizes its hit and run investigations based on the seriousness of the crime.
“Obviously life takes precedence over anything,” he said. “An injury to somebody takes precedence over any level of property crime.”
