Imagine walking to class, worried about being late and the work or parts of the lesson you might miss, when you see a driver crash into another person’s vehicle and that driver does not leave a note and acts like nothing is wrong.
Since the spring 2013 semester, 54 hit-and-runs have been reported on campus, according to El Camino Police records.
The majority of the hit-and-runs have occurred in the student parking lots F, H and L. Lot F is the parking area behind the sports fields, Lot H being the five-story structure near the tennis courts and Lot L being the open area parking lot across the bridge on Redondo Beach Boulevard.
Over $3,000 in damage has been reported since then, with the highest amount being $1,000 in damage to a single vehicle, according to the police records.
Comparing El Camino’s numbers with a couple of other community colleges over the past year, since at least Jan. 27, 2014, EC’s number is in the middle, at 24, according to the police records.
Santa Monica College had 90 reported hit-and-runs in the same time period, Sgt. Jere Romano with Santa Monica College Police said.
Cerritos College had 19 reported hit-and-runs in that time, according to Cerritos College Police.
El Camino has 24,463 students, Santa Monica College has 29,971 students and Cerritos College has 21,335 students enrolled, and all three are labeled as “very large” schools, according to startclass.com, which gathers information from the Department of Education.
These are the numbers, but what about students who have witnessed a hit-and-run?
Janae Griffin, 35, psychology major, was on her way to class in early Februar, when she witnessed a hit-and-run in Lot L. She saw an older tan Chevrolet searching for a parking spot.
“This girl drove up to the spot, backed up and hit this newer black Infinity. It was so nice too, looked new,” she said. “The bumper like popped off, and the girl drove forward and got out. She was on her phone and just said, ‘Oh my god, I just hit a car’.”
The offender had just said that and got back in her car, Griffin added.
“I think that was why she hit the car in the first place,” Griffin said. “But she just said it so nonchalantly, like it didn’t matter.”
In all of the cases on EC’s campus, no one was caught.
Hit-and-runs are classified as such only when there is no note left by the perpetrator, EC Police Officer Jan Caldwell said.
Caldwell gave some insight and tips about how to avoid an accident and what to do if involved in one as well.
Leave a note if you hit someone, give your name and number so the victim can contact you, Caldwell said.
“Don’t leave too much information though. You never know who could pick up the note, you wouldn’t want your license number on there,” she added.
Avoiding accidents is a tough thing especially when you’re in a rush, Caldwell said.
“Slow down. When you’re in a super rush those 10 seconds aren’t going to matter if you’re late or not.”
