Word is welcome this week that Surrey RCMP have made arrests following the hit-and-run of a pedestrian on March 18 in the 2700-block of King George Boulevard and multiple public appeals.
That anyone could witness a person being struck by a car, then leave the scene, is unfathomable. That someone could could do likewise while riding in that vehicle – or even driving it – is barbaric.
Peninsula residents will recall a not-dissimilar incident in 2012, when two joggers were mowed down in a crosswalk at 152 Street at 32 Avenue. Both victims suffered from their injuries years later.
It seemed to take forever before an arrest was made, but ultimately, justice prevailed and Barry Christiansen pleaded guilty nearly three years after-the-fact to two charges of “failing to stop at an accident scene involving bodily harm.”
While Christiansen’s nine-month conditional sentence and one-year driving prohibition might seem insubstantial, that his actions of leaving the scene were recorded in court records, in media reports and in police-released video will likely serve as a greater deterrent to future would-be hit-and-runners.
Anybody who watched the traffic-camera images showing the impact and, shortly after, a figure – identified as the driver – approach his victims, lean over them, then rapidly leave the camera frame, will likely not forget his crime.
The court heard that Christiansen had initially remained at the scene, first moving his vehicle out of the intersection and then to a parking lot 40 metres away, then returning to join a small crowd of onlookers before ultimately leaving, allowing police to pursue incorrect reports that the women had been struck by a black car rather than his white SUV.
Whether police have located the correct people from last month’s crime – in which RCMP images of individuals from the scene have also been made public – remains to be determined by the courts. No charges have been announced.
However, it offers hope that investigators give this crime and others like it the serious attention they deserve.
If prosecution of hit-and-run drivers teaches anything, it is only a small part that nobody is exempt from making the occasional misstep.
The deeper lesson must be that when mistakes are made, the parties involved must do the right thing and ensure care for the victims and accountability for their own actions.
As Nola Carlson, one of Christiansen’s victims, aptly put following his sentencing: “It’s the human thing to do, the moral thing to do and it’s going to cost far less in the long run.”