Personal Injury Law

Nurse Hit-and-Run Victim Outside Hospital, Suspect Arrested

By Eddie Farah

Police in Jacksonville have arrested a man they say is responsible for hitting a nurse outside of Shands Hospital Sunday night, then driving off.

The victim, Karen Elaine Hanel, 54, was hit as she was reporting to work and walking in a crosswalk outside the hospital around 7 p.m.

Dvon Biggs, 34, says he was looking in his mirror and didn't see the woman. He then made the grave mistake of leaving the scene. Biggs says he didn't have a valid license.

We are so sorry for the family of Hanel and wish her the speediest of recoveries. Her condition is not known at this time.

Biggs has taken a bad situation and made it worse. Not only were police following him for running a stop sign before he hit Hanel, but after he hit her, he continued speeding through downtown Jacksonville until eventually he ran into an occupied home to hide.

Officers arrested him shortly before 11 p.m. and he is now jailed, facing numerous charges, including leaving the scene of an accident, and is being held on $235,000 bond.

State law requires you stay at the scene of an accident. It is not an admission of guilt. To hit-and-run only increases the charges and rightly so.

Again, we wish this innocent victim well in her recovery. #

Full post as published by Jacksonville Personal Injury Lawyer on June 24, 2009 (boomark / email).