Driver Suspected In 2 East Bay Hit-And-Runs Caught On Camera
PLEASANT HILL (KPIX 5) – A driver's dashboard camera captured an alleged hit-and-run driver who got into two hit-and-run crashes in the East Bay last weekend.
Media strategist Alan Wang was driving on Taylor Boulevard in Pleasant Hill when he noticed a woman driving an Acura with the airbags deployed.
"There she goes, it's a total hit and run," Wang said in the video.
Wang turned on his camera and captured Ira Schaffer following her. Schaffer's car had a dangling rear bumper.
"She just rear-ended me," Schaffer said.
Schaffer said the suspect then sped toward Springhill Road in Lafayette.
"She almost hit oncoming traffic on Pleasant Hill Road a couple times, and then I just watched her in slow motion as she went through a red light and broadsided the van," Schaffer recalled.
Wang told KPIX 5, "It was scary. What if there was a woman walking her child in the crosswalk?"
In the video, Wang asked the driver, "Why did you keep driving, after you hit this man from behind?" The driver appeared to be confused by the question.
Police said she suffered a head injury in the accident. No one else was injured.
While officers discourage people from trailing hit and run drivers, they said what Shaffer did was right.
"The citizen did the right thing, by getting us involved, by getting other agencies involved," said Corporal Chris Anderson of the Pleasant Hill Police Department. "That's the best lesson is use your cell phone, call 911."
Police said the woman is being treated at a hospital, and that this is not a case of driving under the influence. They say she had an undisclosed medical emergency."
Officers said they're collecting evidence in a criminal hit and run investigation, and the district attorney's office will decide whether or not to press charges.