Erie police charge unlicensed 20-year-old in hit-and-run crash that injured pedestrian
Erie police accuse a 20-year-old city man of driving without a license in a March 8 hit-and-run crash on Erie's east side that seriously injured a 43-year-old woman.
Shawn E. Smith was arraigned Monday afternoon on a felony count of accidents involving death or injury while not licensed and summary counts of driving without a license, driving under suspension, careless driving-serious bodily injury and failure to stop and give information or render aid in the March 8 crash.
Police accuse Smith of being the driver of a silver Chrysler 200 that hit the pedestrian on East 24th Street west of Parade Street.
More: Crashes in east Erie lead to death of 91-year-old motorist, injure female pedestrian
Police reported after the accident that officers who responded to the scene found the 43-year-old woman on the ground with several people around her. Witnesses said the vehicle that struck the woman initially stopped, but then fled after the driver got out and checked on the woman, according to investigators.
The woman's injuries included a broken leg and facial injuries, investigators said Tuesday.
According to information in the criminal complaint filed against Smith, investigators reviewed surveillance video from a nearby store that showed the crash, and police later located the vehicle and served a search warrant on it. When investigators did a search on the vehicle's license plate, they learned that the Chrysler was involved in a traffic stop in the city in January and that Smith was the driver of the vehicle at the time, according to the complaint.
Investigators also wrote that one of the 911 calls placed at the time of the hit-and-run crash was made from a phone number that came back to Smith.
Police later made contact with Smith, whom they said confessed to being the driver in the hit-and-run crash, according to information in the complaint.
Investigators wrote in the complaint Smith does not have a valid driver's license, and at the time of the accident he was under suspension. According to court records, Erie police cited Smith on three occasions in 2022 for driving without a license. He pleaded guilty to the summary charges and was ordered to pay fines and costs, according to information in his online court docket sheets.
The accident that Smith is accused of committing was one of two serious traffic accidents in Erie on March 8.
In the other crash, which happened shortly before 3:30 p.m. on March 8, a 91-year-old woman died after the silver Honda Accord she was driving west on East 32nd Street collided with a Chevrolet Trailblazer that was traveling north on Perry Street, according to Erie police.
Investigators said witnesses reported the Honda Accord went through a stop sign when it collided with the Trailblazer, whose driver was not injured.
Authorities said no charges will be filed in that crash.
Contact Tim Hahn at thahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNhahn.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie man charged in hit-and-run crash that injured female pedestrian
