Police Ask For Help Locating Driver In Fatal Hit-And-Run

Lexington police have asked for the public’s help in finding the driver who fled the scene of a fatal crash sometime after midnight on Saturday, March 24, 2012, leaving the victim lying by the side of Leestown Road until his body was finally discovered around 4:45 a.m.

At a press conference March 27, which was covered on Kentucky.com, police described what they think happened.

Gary Akers, 57, was apparently walking outbound on Leestown, near Westhampton Drive, when he was struck by a vehicle police believe was a car, not a truck or an SUV, judging from the height of the injuries on Akers’s legs.

Because of the glass fragments on Akers’s clothes, investigators think he was thrown over the car’s hood and into the windshield, breaking it.  Then, police believe, Akers rolled off the passenger side of the car as the car drove away.

It is not known how long Akers lay in the grass by the roadside before he was spotted by passing motorists.  Several drivers stopped and attempted to resuscitate Akers, but “by then it was too late,” Lexington police Lt. Chris Van Brackle said at the news conference.

Police have not been able to locate the driver or the vehicle, and no witnesses have come forward.

The car that hit Akers probably has moderate front-end damage, some breaks to the windshield, and possibly some damage to the passenger-side mirror.

Lt. Van Brackle asked that anyone – friends, neighbors, mechanics – who has seen a car with that type of damage please call police, especially if the car was not damaged on Friday, March 23.

Akers’s sister, Delores Norris, was the last person known to have seen Akers before he was killed, and she is hoping that someone will come forward with information that might help police find the hit-and-run driver.

Norris said her brother suffered from a mental illness and had been taking antidepressants.  She said Akers was unemployed, living in a motel on Georgetown Street, and drawing supplemental security income, but he did not drink alcohol.  On Friday night, Akers took the last LexTran bus to her apartment, showing up around 12:15 a.m. Saturday.  She does not know where he went when he left.

Lt. Van Brackle said Akers had no recent arrest record in Lexington, but police occasionally encountered him as he was walking around town late at night, and being out that late was not unusual for him.

The lieutenant added that it’s unlikely the driver who hit Akers would not be aware he or she had hit something, and the best thing that driver can do is to come forward and talk to the police.

In Kentucky, leaving the scene of a fatal accident is a felony, even if it was not the driver’s fault.  But the driver needs to come forward anyway, Van Brackle said.  Continuing to run and hide, he said, just makes it worse.

The attorneys and staff at Frank Jenkins Law Office would like to join with police and Akers’ family in urging people to call police if they have any information that might help officers.

We ask everyone who reads this to take a moment right now, and search your memory for a car with the kind of recent damage described above.

If you have information, please call 859-389-9344. If you are the driver, please do the right thing.

As Lexington, Kentucky vehicle accident lawyers, we know how difficult and traumatic it can be when you or a family member is harmed in a crash, hit-and-run or otherwise.  Talking to an attorney with experience in vehicle accidents can help answer your questions and put your mind at ease.