Early Monday morning, 73 year old Amelia Ordona and her 67 year old sister were crossing the street when a car struck Ordona, felling her. Then, Ordona was struck at least six more times, and at least five of the drivers of those vehicles just kept driving, never stopping to see whether their car was responsible for Ordona's death.
As you might expect, the L.A. County Sheriff's office was quick to the scene and quick to start making excuses for the drivers. The words "hit and run" are never mentioned, either by the police or the news reports, but the word "accident" is tossed around like a baseball at Dodgers training camp. I'm not surprised that one would avoid using scary terms such as "hit and runs" when you're still hoping the callous drivers will turn themselves in, but later in the day, when it was clear they weren't coming forward, the police and news were still in full blame-the-victim mode.
Just watch the KTLA report listed above, in just three minutes were given these excuses for the drivers hitting and running, and perhaps killing, a woman. What's even more amazing is that these explanations are given surrounded by footage of the grief-stricken family:
1) It was dark
2) It was the women's fault for crossing the street wearing dark clothing
3) The victim was so disfigured, the drivers didn't know that they hit a woman
A separate story on CBS, also mentioned daylight savings times as a culprit.
Way back when I was earning my driver's license, I clearly remember being told over and over again that I should never be driving so fast when it's dark that I don't have time to break if I see something in my headlights...especially in a partially residential area. What is so hard about taking a couple of seconds to mention that when driver's kill someone instead of just blaming the victim and calling it a day?
