Hit-and-run crashes are no longer rare, freak occurrences on American roads. New research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety says they are becoming both deadlier and more routine, leaving injured people and grieving families with no one at the scene to help, answer questions or call 911. The national numbers are grim, and they match what many in the D.C. region have seen firsthand: late-night collisions, a victim in the street and a driver who simply disappears. With people walking and biking taking a disproportionate hit, the findings are fueling louder calls for cameras, tech fixes and tougher enforcement.
Numbers Behind The Trend
A research brief from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that more than 900,000 police-reported crashes in 2023 involved a driver who left the scene. Those incidents led to over 240,000 injuries and nearly 2,900 deaths. According to the brief, hit-and-runs made up about 15% of all police-reported crashes in 2023, the highest share in recent years, and the percentage of fatal crashes that were hit-and-runs has been climbing since 2010. When authorities did identify the fleeing driver, most were young men, roughly two in five did not have a valid license and more than half were behind the wheel of vehicles that were not registered to them.
Who’s Most At Risk
The danger is not spread evenly. The Governors Highway Safety Association found that roughly one in four pedestrian deaths involved a driver who fled, and that most fatal hit-and-runs happen after dark, according to GHSA. Its state-level analysis points to a growing share of pedestrian fatalities involving SUVs and pickups and a concentration of hit-and-run deaths in larger cities and vulnerable neighborhoods. Put together, those patterns help explain why people on foot and on bikes show up so often among hit-and-run victims.
Local Picture
In the D.C. area, local coverage has already linked the AAA numbers to real-world cases that have gone unsolved. As reported by FOX 5 DC, reporter Josh Rosenthal walked through the study’s main findings and spoke with residents about local hit-and-runs that remain cold. Police and community advocates say that late-night crashes with few witnesses, along with vehicles that are unregistered or stolen, make these cases especially tough to investigate and prosecute.
What AAA Recommends
AAA is not treating this as an inevitable part of driving, and its recommendations lean hard on both technology and street design. In a press release that accompanied the brief, AAA urged wider use of automatic crash notifications from vehicles and smartphones, more traffic cameras and "Yellow Alerts" to crowdsource tips, along with targeted investments in road design that better protect people who are walking or biking. “Drivers must understand that leaving the scene only compounds the harm,” AAA Foundation President Dr. David Yang said in the release.
How To Help If You Witness A Crash
If you witness a crash, officials say your first move should be to call 911, then give dispatchers the exact location, the direction of travel and any plate or vehicle details you can safely observe. If it is possible to do so without putting yourself in danger, take video or photos from a safe spot, but do not chase or try to physically stop a fleeing driver. AAA also suggests checking your own vehicle and phone settings for automatic crash notification features that can contact first responders if you are ever involved in a collision.
The AAA brief frames hit-and-runs as a public-safety problem that can be solved if cities, police and technology providers pull in the same direction. For Washington-area residents, that means pressing for the cameras, alerts and enforcement tools highlighted in the report, and staying alert on the street until the numbers finally start to move the right way.
