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Mom wants change to Oregon hit-and-run law

A driver hit and killed two young girls in Forest Grove in 2013. Now, their mom, Susan Dieter-Robinson, is urging lawmakers to change Oregon's hit-and-run law.
Susan Dieter-Robinson testified at a Senate Judiciary committee hearing in Salem on Thursday

SALEM, Ore. — A mother who lost her two daughters in a hit-and-run crash in Forest Grove is pushing for change to close a loophole in Oregon’s hit-and-run law.

Susan Dieter-Robinson testified at a Senate Judiciary committee hearing in Salem on Thursday.

In October 2013 her daughters Anna Dieter-Eckerdt, 6, and Abigail Robinson, 11, were alone in the street playing in a leaf pile when Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, 19, drove through it, felt a bump and kept going.

During the trial, Garcia-Cisneros testified that she heard about the deaths later, panicked and was in disbelief. She only confessed when police showed up at her door the next day.

The jury unanimously found her guilty of two counts of failure to perform the duties of a driver.

The Oregon court of appeals later reversed her conviction, saying Oregon law does not require a driver to return to the scene after learning of an accident later.

More than five years later, lawmakers are considering legislation that would explicitly outline what drivers must do when they learn they have been involved in a crash.

“We are just very grateful for this because it’s change. It is positive change” Dieter-Robinson said.

“It’s common sense. You find out that you have injured somebody in an accident. In an accident. What happened to my girls was an accident. But what happened after was not an accident."

House Bill 4055 passed in the House 59-0 on Feb. 14.

“Hopefully when this is done we will be able to say that there is a law that’s named ‘Anna and Abigail’s Law’ that has brought change,” Dieter-Robinson said

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