An Excuse For Hit & Run?

New York Daily News (04/04/2014)-- "Shocking footage from a nearby security camera shows the moment the 10-year-old boy, David Harris, darted in front of Steve Utash's pickup truck on Wednesday. Utash, 54, stopped to help, but was beaten and robbed by an angry mob of bystanders. Utash remains in critical condition."

Should someone consider doing a hit & run?
I'm not talking about doing a straight up hit & run, but rather leaving the scene of a accident if things should start going South like it did in this case. If this guy would have stayed in his car after he stopped and dialed 911 on his cell phone he would be not have been beaten. He should have stayed in his car until he could have determined the group of people approaching his was not a threat.

Here's my thoughts about doing a possible hit & run. If these a-holes would start beating on his car and screaming, it would be a better idea to get the hell out of there. Pull over a block or two away and come back after police arrive. Even if he would have been charged with hit & run, it would have been far better for his health. Let a lawyer explain to a judge why the driver felt compelled to leave the scene. In a worse case scenario even if he was baked in court, even possibly sent to prison, he'd be far better off then laying in a hospital in "critical condition".

This ever happen to you?
My wife and I were coming home after a concert in center city Philadelphia. We were coming up Broad Street near midnight when I stopped for a red light. I was the only car. Out of the corner of my eye I could see six or seven rough looking dudes leaving the sidewalk headed towards my car. They most certainly didn't look like squeegee people to me. When they got within three or four feet I knew what I had to do. Screw the red light, I gunned it and went through the intersection. Nearly the same thing happened to me again late at night in a bad section of Allentown.

Keep in mind this guy was in Detroit of all places. A city which is not particularly known as "the city of brotherly love" either. No thanks. I'll take my chances with the police & courts any day over risking either I or my family in the car becoming victims of 'street justice'.

This is not to imply someone should be excused for doing a 'hit & run' in all cases. However sometimes discretion is the better part of valor when they and/or their family feel threatened. As most certainly it was in this situation.

Topping this all off the mob of 20 or 30 stole this guy's wallet, cell phone and other belongings. BTW-- the boy's injuries were far less severe then was the driver's after the mob worked him over. "His children remain at his bedside hoping he awakens from his medically induced coma"