The Australian: ‘Mike’s law’ now means hit-run drivers will pay  – 29 October, 2006

Hit-run drivers who cause serious crashes face jail sentences up to 20 years under tough new laws to be announced today. Failing to report an accident in the same circumstances, will now carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The 20-year prison term is equivalent to the penalty given for manslaughter.

Increased penalties are in response to a Waikiki woman’s campaign to make her father’s life worth more than the $800 fine given to the hit-run driver who caused his death. Linda Harris’s 75-year-old father Michael Witkowski was run down on South St and left to die by a 19-year-old driver who hid his car, then went clubbing in Fremantle.

He was charged four days later and the car was found being stripped at the property owned by the passenger who was with him on the night. Incensed by the sentence handed to the teenager for failing to help at an accident scene — an $800 fine and a two-year driving ban — Mrs Harris began lobbying to change the law.

Police Minister John Kobelke said the new penalties, to be known as “Mike’s Law” after Mr Witkowski, were expected to be put to parliament next year. The existing maximum penalty for failing to report an accident causing injuries is an $800 fine and one year in prison, while failing to stop after causing a serious crash has penalties of a $2500 fine and year in jail. Mrs Harris said the penalties did not reflect the seriousness of the offence when death or serious injuries were involved.

After her initial anger, Mrs Harris said she had forgiven the driver for what she believed was “one bad decision” that had brought pain to many people. “My father was literally left in the gutter like road kill,” she said. “The ripple effect that had on our family, and I have subsequently found out on the driver’s family, has been enormous. “For me, the penalty he received was totally inadequate.”

Mr Kobelke said penalties were insufficient to encourage hit-run drivers “with no morals” to help the victims of the crashes they caused. “Mr Witkowski was run down and left for dead by two men as he walked his dog along South St on a Saturday night,” Mr Kobelke said. “We want drivers to know this sort of reprehensible behaviour is unacceptable and the introduction of ‘Mike’s Law’ would ensure there were appropriate penalties to the crime.

“It is callous in the extreme for a driver involved in a crash to leave an injured person lying by the roadside in an attempt to cover up their bad driving or having alcohol in their system.”