Nearly 800 hit-and-run crashes recorded in three years by West Mercia Police

Data obtained by Legal Expert via a Freedom of Information request to all UK Police forces shows that West Mercia Police has logged 231 hit-and-run offences in the last year (2023/24), but figures are down compared to previous years.

The firm requested data from between April 6, 2021 and April 5, 2024, asking for the 'number of casualties and fatalities as well as the severity of any injuries sustained'.

Figures for the last year have fallen from 280 incidents that were logged in 2021/22, and 270 the year after.

The force that covers Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire has confirmed a total of eight deaths due to hit-and-runs since 2021 and 144 serious or life-changing injuries. The data adds that 791 people were also recorded as having sustained 'slight' injuries.

Legal Expert says "hit-and-runs or 'fail-to-stop incidents' as they are known law are criminal offences in any case where injury or damage has been caused. By law, drivers are required to stop at the scene and provide their name and address and that of the owner of the vehicle.

"These incidents can result in devastating consequences, particularly if injuries or fatalities are involved."

The firm adds that the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that only 257 hit-and-run prosecutions have been made in West Mercia during the same time period.

Legal Expert said: "Some 111 cases were brought to court between 2021/22, 97 cases were prosecuted the following year and a further 49 between 2023/24."

The firm stated that nationwide "the number of prosecutions for hit-and-run offences has plummeted from 5,399 in 2021/22 to 3,906 in 2023/24," according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The data release comes after several hit-and-run incidents on Shropshire's roads in the last three years, including when convicted drug-dealer Stephen McHugh killed Rebecca Steer in October 2022 by deliberately driving into a crowd of pedestrians in Oswestry.

McHugh was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years after jurors heard the then 28-year-old drove onto a footpath less than five minutes after snorting cocaine.

Elsewhere, a milkman was banned from diving in June last year after accidentally hitting Will Rogers with his van in the early hours of April 30, 2022.

The 26-year-old died after being hit by Christopher Carloman's Vauxhall Vivaro on the B4368 at Diddlebury, between Craven Arms and Much Wenlock.

Rugby players from the Bridgnorth Bulls and the Riley Tops - a team created by some of Will's friends - recently played out a match in the hit-and-run victim's memory in front of a cheering crown at Bridgnorth Rugby Club.

Last year, a Shropshire mother of two criticised police and was appealing for help to identify a driver after she was run over while taking her children to school.

Kerrieanne McMullen from Shrewsbury was with her children aged six and ten when a car hit her in September 2023 - knocking her off her feet - before allegedly driving off and leaving the mother of two requiring treatment at the accident and emergency department at Princess Royal Hospital.

She told the Shropshire Star last year: "I was with my two children and some friends on the corner of Bell Vue Road and Pountney Gardens. We looked left, and a van had stopped and flashed us to cross.

"We got half way then this red car, which I think was a Renault, hit me. I banged against the passenger window and fell down."

She said the car initially stopped but after Kerrieanne got to her feet, the female driver of the car "sped off".

West Mercia Police recorded another incident in March this year where a 73-year-old woman sustained life-threatening injuries in a hit-and-run crash in Evesham in Worcestershire.

The data was gathered by FOI requests to all police forces in England and Wales, and to the CPS.

Further information on Legal Expert's findings can be found using the link: https://www.legalexpert.co.uk/car-accident/research-hit-and-run-incidents-england-wales/