There have been ten reported hit and run accidents that took place in the garages so far this semester, eight in West and two in Thomas, but only one has been resolved. Sophomore Stef Crocco’s car was the victim of one such accident in West.
“I made the mistake of parking next to a truck in the second floor of West last Thursday and come Friday my friend and I noticed black scratches and missing paint on the back end of my bright yellow Ford Fiesta near the taillight,” she said. “It looks like the truck must have backed out and swiped my car, but they didn’t leave a note or anything.”
These incidents are considered “hit and runs” when they choose not to take responsibility for the damage and drive away without leaving contact information.
Another victim of such a crime is freshman Melissa Guarino who discovered that her car had been damaged in West Garage, but how it was damaged remains a mystery.
“I thought someone backed into my car or something but then my friend was looking at it last weekend and he said it looked more like someone hit it then backed into it, which is probably right since it’s just a smaller dent in the middle of my trunk and not the whole trunk smashed.”
After she discovered her damaged car, Guarino decided to talk to security and see what could be done to solve the issue.
As the frequency of these accidents increase, students like Mackenzie Hill are finding that security has not been able to provide the closure they are hoping for.
“All security did for me as take down the information and then take pictures of where my car was hit,” Hill said “They said I could pick up the report when it was looked at and put through the system.”
When a student enters The Security Office with a complaint of a hit and run accident, they are told to complete a report for a motor vehicle crash. Security will take the report and try to use the garage security cameras to identify the vehicle that caused the accident and then attempt to track it down. If found, the owner of the vehicle would be referred to student conduct. Director of Campus Safety, Kevin Howell says that anyone who is the victim of a hit and run should consider their options.
“If you got your car hit and the person didn’t leave insurance information you have the opportunity to call law enforcement because a hit and run crash in the state of Florida is a criminal offense.” Howell said.
Guarino, like many, hoped that security tapes would be helpful in identifying when and who had damaged her car.
“I went to the security office and told them and they wrote a report and said they checked the tape and they didn’t see anything,” Guarino said.
Victims have found that this result has been the most disappointing, but Howell says that unfortunately, this is usually the case.
“The video cameras that are put into the garages are not set up to give [a quality view] of a tag so even if we can see the vehicle doing it, more than likely we are not going to see specific information,” he said. “What we’ll do is look at the vehicle and then try to identify it over time as it’s coming and going. Because more than likely it’s going to be a student, whether residential or commuter.”
The poor quality of the cameras is, according to Howell, a campus wide issue and officials are aware that the cameras are in need of an update. The problem, as Howell explained, is not necessarily money, but how to allocate money in the best ways possible.
“It’s not that we can’t get the money, but in order to do, say West Garage, cameras could cost maybe five or six hundred thousand dollars to replace the equipment that’s there,” Howell explained. “I’d rather try to obtain funds and use them for personal safety around to further the personal safety side for the students. I would rather have a thousand cars damaged every day than have one person be a victim of something. Cars can be fixed and replaced, the people can’t.”
Even if the school were to update the security cameras, they would still only record footage. There is not an officer or a person watching what the cameras record from a screen room somewhere. Howell says that he does not have enough manpower for that to happen.
“There are 200 plus cameras on campus and we’d have to have four or five people watching them,” he said. “We use them more as an investigative tool to go back when something is reported and see if it’s in our field of vision for that camera because even in the garages not every inch of campus is covered. It’s impossible to accomplish that. We try to cover the largest area that we can. The garage cameras are designed to look at a specific area, such as the blue light phones.”
Although the cameras play a role in the small number of hit and run cases solved, other factors play a large part as well. When a student realizes that their car has been damaged, a large contributor to whether it will be solved relies in when was the last time they saw their car without damage.
“We’ve [sometimes] got a whole range of dates and we have no idea when it would have happened,” Howell said. “It becomes very time intensive to take someone out of the manpower rotation for that shift to sit them down and say you have four days [of video] and you can’t zip through it because it moves so fast that you almost have to move at live pace to find when they park and then there’s so much traffic. It’s very time consuming. I wish it were easier, but it just isn’t.”
Guarino and Hill, who both went to security with their reports, have heard no resolution to their accidents at this point, and Hill was not particularly pleased at the result.
“Unfortunately the university isn’t responsible for anything that happens to your car while it’s parked in the garage so I will have to pay for all the damage my self,” Hill said. “It’s a pretty sh**ty situation.”
Mia Glatter can be reached at mia.glatter@spartans.ut.edu.
My car has been in a hit and run while I wasn’t in my car, keyed, backed into when I was in my car (and that car sped off, no damage at least) and I’ve found a used condom under my windshield wiper in the parking garages here. Parking garages everywhere aren’t safe from accidents, especially hit and runs. It’s a risk we have to take bringing a car to college. I’m just worried about the day that someone will come flying around a corner in west parking garage and take off the front of my car.
People complain too much. You are supposed to protect yourself, not rely on others. Even the TPD or HCSO can’t stop hit and run drivers like this. It is all based on what happens afterward. Security at the school sux, sure, but they make due with what they have. If you pull into a spot and you are worried about your car, take a minute to snap a picture of your car and the cars around it before you go. This could help if something happens. Not always, of course. Quit expecting people to hold your hands, you are adults now!!! Just saying
If the quality of the system is not good enough to see details of vehicles, how can they expect to protect students if say one is accosted in the parking garages? They could not even solve the rash of laptops stolen from faculty in Fall 2010 either.
Howell said. “It becomes very time intensive to take someone out of the manpower rotation for that shift to sit them down and say you have four days [of video] and you can’t zip through it because it moves so fast that you almost have to move at live pace to find when they park and then there’s so much traffic. It’s very time consuming. I wish it were easier, but it just isn’t.”
Taking their time away from what? Smoking, eating in the cafe or spartan club. Or is it people watching? Perhaps it’s stalking the commuter lot as if they were called parking enforcement.
The security here is a joke. No questions about it.
The Ford Fiesta belongs to another student who is quoted… what has this generation come to? Apparently just reading titles, captions and the first line of articles 🙁
Also maybe people should stop FLYING up and down the ramps and and zooming in the middle lane around blind turns.
Oh and learning to park even remotely straight would be wonderful.
She clearly states her car was a ford fiesta, yet you use a picture of a VW beatle. Do your dudiligence first you moron.
I bet if you told security there was a student seen in the parking garage with a fake ID the cameras would work. It’s a joke, you never see ANY security roving buildings or maintaining a presence in high population areas on campus. You will see them in golf carts 24/7 texting or smoking in the corner of the commuter parking lot though.