Columnist Susan Snyder: Do some drivers lack morals?

Tuesday, May 8, 2001 | 8:25 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Ionce hit a cat.

I was 20-something, late for work and racing through the neighborhood when I heard the sickening, "ka-thump." I stopped and saw the animal lying on one side helplessly trying to get up.

I took the cat to a vet, and found its owner by walking door-to-door. The kitty survived. But I'll never forget the dull thud of a living thing tumbling under the wheels.

So how in the world can someone hit a human being and drive away?

"If you want to kill somebody, just stay sober, get behind the wheel of a car and run them over," said Erin Breen, director of the Safe Community Partnership at UNLV.

Breen was a little hot. The previous day a 4-year-old child was critically injured by a hit-and-run driver.

The boy and his mother were walking across Lake Mead Boulevard Thursday evening when he darted into the path of a car, Metro Police Detective Steve Winne said.

The driver, described as female, swerved and braked but couldn't avoid hitting the child, he said. She stopped for a moment then drove west from the scene. Police on Friday were looking for a 1980s model Datsun 280ZX-type car, Winne said.

"She either panicked or was scared or something," the detective said.

I'm thinking she wasn't the only one.

Winne noted that the mother and son were crossing mid-block without benefit of a crosswalk. Crosswalks in Nevada can be marked or unmarked, he said. An unmarked crosswalk occurs wherever one street intersects another. This was not one of those places.

"The pedestrian was at fault," he said.

Wonder if the little guy even knows he's a "pedestrian."

"He is 4 years old," Breen said. "The poor mom. I can't even imagine. It's another huge tragedy."

This crash happened in the wake of one that defies all decency and logic. Few people will forget hearing that the man accused of losing control of his car and slamming into two other vehicles on U.S. 95 a couple of weeks ago reportedly got out of his car and yelled at those who lay dying on the highway before he got back in the car and fled.

He later went into hiding with his girlfriend at a Las Vegas hotel, while a man hospitalized with injuries mourned the deaths of his wife and 8-year-old son. Another man was also killed in the accident.

"The lack of responsibility is mind-boggling to me," Breen said. "Legally, they have to do something to these people who hit and run."

State lawmakers are being asked to so something. A pending bill calls for imposing a two- to 20-year sentence on hit-and-run drivers. They face one to six years now.

Even if she were drunk, the driver who ran over the child last week would have faced a lesser punishment if she'd stuck around, Winne said. Because "the pedestrian was at fault," the woman would have been charged with a misdemeanor DUI, facing a couple of days in jail and $1,000 fine.

"If the motorist was not intoxicated, there would have been no ticket," Winne said.

How have we allowed this to become about whether there's a ticket or jail time? Winne says Metro investigates about 300 hit-and-run crashes every month. That's about 10 per day.

If you hit something, stop. To do otherwise is morally bankrupt.