One of the incidents occurred in Spring Valley on March 1, at about 17:30. A vehicle was driven through the neighbourhood and the driver hit a resident and then drove away. The victim told police that he was making his way home, when he was hit from behind. Paramedics took the injured man to Witbank General Hospital for further treatment.
Another incident occurred at the same time at Spring Valley as well. A cyclist was knocked down by a red bakkie. When police arrived, the injured man was moved to a nearby house because of the rain. They apparently managed to take down the registration number of the bakkie, before it drove away.
Hit-and-run crimes is the common term for an incident where a pedestrians gets knocked down and the driver of the vehicle at fault drives away, to escape the repercussions but what that driver does not realize, is that it is one thing to knock down a pedestrian, but driving away, is a crime in itself.
According to the road traffic act that states it is illegal to move a vehicle at all in the event of an accident. “No person may remove any vehicle from an accident in which a person was killed or injured from the position it came to rest, until such removal has been authorised by a police official’. There is the exception to move the vehicle only if it completely obstructs the flow of traffic and the position is marked clearly by the person that moved the vehicle.
