According to a Projo article,
The police arrested a 20-year-old Central Falls man on a charge of leaving the the scene of an accident Friday after witnesses reported seeing his car hit a young bicyclist in the area of Burnett Street and Pleasant Avenue.
Fortunately, the 11 year old cyclist managed to escape with only bruises to his right knee. Had the motorist done the right thing and stayed at the scene of the accident, I’m sure he would have driven away without being arrested or even ticketed; so goes the laws when it comes to striking something with your car.
What I find really disturbing about this article is the reader comments on the Projo site, along the lines of:
Your car doesn’t have nerves. He wasn’t exactly running from the law, so he probably didn’t even know he hit the child.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I notice when my car bumps a curb. Fortunately, I’ve never hit a pedestrian or cyclists, so I’m not exactly sure what that would be like, but I have a hard time believing you wouldn’t notice the impact… unless of course I were drunk.