EDITORIAL – Hit-and-run driver’s conscience must win over cowardice

An ArmchairMayor editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THERE’S NO WAY for anyone who hasn’t been through it, to imagine what it must be like to lose a loved one in tragic circumstances. We can try, and we can offer condolences, but the pain felt by family must be close to impossible to bear.

As Cameron Gatey said of the grief of losing daughter Jennifer to a hit-and-run driver Friday night, try imagining the saddest you’ve ever felt, then multiply it by a million.

Seldom has there been such an outpouring of sadness over a death in the community as there has been for this one. People who never knew Jenn Gatey are in mourning.

Much of it has to do with the senselessness of it. Someone looking forward to a pizza dinner with family on her birthday the following day is struck and killed near a bus stop in her Aberdeen neighbourhood.

And worse yet, instead of stopping to see if there was anything he or she could do to help, the driver flees. At this writing, RCMP haven’t found the person responsible, nor are they even sure what kind of a vehicle it was.

Until the driver is found, there will be anger to go along with the grief. We know the likely reasons the driver sped away — panic, fear of punishment, cowardice. It’s happened before, and it never turns out well for the person responsible.

Those initial seconds, hours and days of hoping it might just all go away and that “maybe I can get away with it” must now be replaced with conscience. It’s time for you to come forward, because facing the rest of your life with this secret is much worse than the consequences of doing the right thing.

If you, the driver, have any shred of decency, you’ll come to understand that acknowledging what you’ve done, explaining what happened as best you can, is the only way you can regain even the slimmest margin of self-respect, and maybe even a degree of forgiveness.

mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca