Editorial: Searching for the soulless

Friday, Dec. 29, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

It is unconscionable that a motorist would hit something - or someone - and drive away without stopping to see what damage had been done. It is shocking that Metro Police investigate such crashes in the Las Vegas Valley 300 to 400 times each month.

Do the math. That's an average of 10 hit-and-run collisions each day that, according to a story by the Las Vegas Sun on Thursday, have resulted in 18 deaths here this year. A friend of one of those victims, 44-year-old Dennis Scott, told Sun reporter Abigail Goldman that a driver who hits another human being and then drives off "doesn't have a soul."

We are hard-pressed to disagree. So many hit-and-run crashes occur in the Las Vegas Valley that Metro Police have a special unit assigned to investigate only those types of collisions. Most result in property damage, such as banged-up fenders or fences. Others are far more serious.

The Sun reports that Scott was killed around dawn on Dec. 8 as he pedaled his bicycle to work. A witness told police that the motorist who struck Scott drove several blocks with the bicycle pinned under the SUV, leaving a trail of rubber marks from the bicycle's tires. Judging by the manner in which this trail ended, police told the Sun's Goldman, it appears that the motorist either stopped and tossed the bike into the vehicle or threw the bike over a fence. Neither the bicycle nor the motorist has been found.

Certainly, sheer panic could play a part, causing a motorist to drive a few hundred feet before stopping. But what kind of person could keep going without stopping at all? What does this person do once he or she arrives home - hug the kids and flip on the television? The image is revolting. This type of act mars an entire community and shows just how self-absorbed and morally bankrupt some members of our society have become.