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Last updated 8:51 am CT February 09, 2010.
Family Discovers Loop Hole in Hit and Run Law
A West Frankfort family found that out the hard way.
The crash happened May 2 on Route 37. It left Jamie Gower's motorcycle scraped up and his body black and blue.
"He got his shoulder, he got his face, he got his right arm all mangled up...his right knee," Gower's wife Nichole said.
According to the West Frankfort Police Department report, Joseph Hoppers of Johnston City failed to yield at the Cleveland Street intersection and turned his vehicle into the path of Jamie Gower's motorcycle. Police say Hoppers then left the scene.
"A complete stranger who stopped--who actually did stop on the road--she called me and said that he'd been in an accident," Nichole Gower said.
Hoppers faces charges of aggravated DUI, but he has not been charged with hit and run because he returned to the scene approximately thirty minutes later.
In Illinois drivers have half an hour to report an accident, even when someone is lying in the middle of the road like Jamie Gower was. The family was shocked when they found out.
"The fact that you can leave and get rid of anything that you don't want to be in trouble for and have time to do that legally is not OK," Nichole Gower said.
Gower says her husband is recovering and she's satisfied with the charges against Hoppers. She's not satisfied with the law and she plans to lobby to have it changed.
"It's the law that people can leave and they can go get their hair cut and they can go grab a cheese burger before they come to find out if you're OK."
Jefferson Count State's Attorney Jeff Bradley says he believes the law was written to allow drivers on congested roadways to make a police report without causing further traffic problems. This ability to leave someone injured in a roadway, he says, is apparently an unintended loop hole.
By Dana Jay
djay@wsiltv.com
Now: 1265729660
