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Alaska Hit-And-Run Driver Critically Injures Pedestrian, Is More Concerned About Damage To Her Car

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 09:18 PST, Sep 2, 2016

An Alaska hit-and-run driver allegedly hit a pedestrian and caused critical injuries, but then drove off and didn’t tell anyone because she was concerned that the victim’s insurance wouldn’t be able to pay for the damage to her car, Alaska Dispatch News is reporting.

Police say that at about 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night, Danae Kish, 19, was driving in downtown Anchorage when she struck Otto Moses John and then allegedly drove off. Fortunately, eyewitnesses called the cops, and John was taken to a nearby hospital. He remains in intensive care with skull and facial fractures.

He was hit so hard that police found one of his shoes a distance away; the impact had knocked it off of him.

Fortunately, a bystander was able to write down Kish’s license plate number and give it to the police. She was located and arrested a few blocks away, police told KTUU (Anchorage).

“Alert citizens were able to provide dispatch with the license plate number of the involved vehicle which was a blue 2000 Ford Taurus.”

Kish’s vehicle had a dent on the right side of the car’s hood, the passenger side of the windshield was shattered, and her car’s passenger-side mirror had also been broken off. Kish admitted that she had smoked marijuana the day before the accident, but field sobriety tests administered at the scene were inconclusive.

Meanwhile, Kish has given a much different account of what happened that night than what eyewitnesses, and Kish’s own passengers, have given.

Witnesses said that the hit-and-run driver’s vehicle was traveling at about 50 miles per hour at the time of the collision. They said that when John stepped into the street, Kish honked but did not slow down and continued on driving. Kish’s passengers also confirmed that Kish honked but did not slow down.

Kish, meanwhile, claimed that she honked and then slowed down to about 25 miles per hour.

Most distressing to investigators about the incident is Kish’s apparent attitude. Asked why she drove off instead of calling the authorities, Kish said she was more concerned about her vehicle.

“Kish, when asked by police why she drove off, replied ‘My car is messed up’ and ‘He’s not going to pay for it.’ (She) told police she was probably going to make an insurance claim and was unsure if she was ever going to call police. (She) told police she knew she was supposed to stop and help the man but was concerned about the damage to her vehicle.”

According to court records, Kish has managed to rack up a long list of moving violations dating back to 2014, including four citations for not having a valid driver’s license and one citation for running a red light.

This is not the first time an alleged hit-and-run driver has shown almost depraved indifference to their victim.

In an exceptionally disturbing case out of Southern California from earlier this year, Esteysi Sanchez Izazaga, 29, was allegedly driving drunk in the town of Oceanside when she apparently drove onto the sidewalk on purpose and hit a pedestrian. According to NBC San Diego, the man was hit so hard that one of his legs detached from his body, flew through the back window, and landed on the trunk. The man, meanwhile, came to a rest head-first in the passenger seat, his body stuck in the windshield. Police say that Izazaga drove with the man still lodged in her car, parked in a nearby residential area, turned off the car, and calmly walked away.

Back in Anchorage, Danae Kish has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident and was taken to the Anchorage jail. She is scheduled to appear in court next week.

[Image via Jan H Andersen/Shutterstock]

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