Identification in Court has to be a formal process with complete continuity. Had the driver been arrested there would have been the opportunity to do a VIPER capture, and then arrange a viewing for the victims and witnesses, essentially a modern take on the ID parade.
Without some kind of formal and credible identification of the suspect you're generally stuffed. There are stated cases on the matter where the court is entitled to make their own judgement on identification based upon the evidence before them, but they almost never do because defence lawyers don't like it, and we can't upset them now, can we?
