Hit and run collisions between student drivers in the parking lot have been a recurrent problem this school year. Five incidents have been reported to administration in the span of six weeks, all of which have happened after school in heavy traffic.

The problem is not that the collisions have occurred, but rather that the students chose to leave the scene of the accident, Assistant Principal Erum Shahzad said.

“I don’t know why students think it’s huge,” Shahzad said. “It’s not. It’s when they flee the scene that it becomes a crime.”

Failure to stop after an accident can result in a fine of as large as $5,000 depending on the severity of the damage. Students who leave the scene of the crime on campus can face consequences at school as well as with the police, Shahzad said.

“[Students] don’t want to deal with it or they don’t know what to do,” sophomore Justin Graham said. “Lots of times people freak out and drive off.”

Junior Payton Chalmers was hit in her 2013 Hyundai Elantra while waiting to leave the parking lot after school. The cost of the repairs to fix her bumper totaled $7,000.

“My mom was mad because it was a brand new car and I had just gotten it,” Chalmers said. “I had just got my license a week before.”

Chalmers and her family felt angry that their insurance had to cover the costs, because the other person involved in the crash did not exchange information at the scene of the crime. The causes of the hit and runs are sometimes unclear because the two opposing sides often present different accounts of the accident.

Cameras are positioned behind the cafeteria, near the portables and band parking lot, by the agriculture building, in the athletic parking lot and in the front of the building, Assistant Principal Rusty Hamric said. The cameras may be used to determine the validity of the students’ claims, but the cameras have blind spots and are unable to record every incident.

“The kids that I’ve talked to have said the traffic was so bad they didn’t know where to pull over and they just left,” Shahzad said. “I would just say typical teenagers are worried that they’re going to get in trouble, whether from home or school, and then they leave the scene.”

The consequences of a hit and run in Texas range from paying a fine to facing jail time. If injuries or deaths occur, then the aggressor is subject to imprisonment.