Data from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reveals that hit-and-run fatalities, including those involving pedestrians and bicyclists, continue to climb in Florida.
While preliminary data for 2023 shows less than one percent decrease in crashes, there was an almost 2 percent increase in fatalities from 2022.
We’ve seen some pedestrian hit-and-run fatalities here, including:
• Jamie Weinz, 40, was killed Sept. 11, 2022 as she was walking along Rolling Acres Road in Lady Lake, not far from American Legion Post 347. Her male companion was also hit and was airlifted to Ocala Regional Medical Center with serious injuries. A suspect in the case, Tara Schiessle, 32, of Lady Lake, was arrested months later. Schiessle originally reported to her insurance company that she’d hit a deer.
• Also in 2023, a Mississippi woman was charged after a 2022 hit-and-run crash killed a man on U.S. Hwy. 441 near UF Health-The Villages Hospital. The driver turned herself in after confessing to her mother that she knew someone had been hit.
Between 2015 and 2023, 923,000 hit-and-run crashes resulted in 2,162 traffic fatalities, approximately 84 percent of which occurred during dawn, dusk, or low light conditions. In 2023, 219 (81 percent) of the 271 fatalities from hit-and-run crashes occurred during dawn, dusk, or low-light conditions.
Additionally, 159 of the hit-and-run fatalities in 2023 were pedestrians, and 47 were bicyclists, totaling 76 percent of hit-and-run fatalities last year. While overall hit-and-run fatalities were down compared to 2022, the percentage of bicyclists and pedestrians who died in hit-and-run crashes rose by 3 percent for the second year in a row. Vulnerable Road Users (VRU) which include bicyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists were involved in 404 hit-and-run crashes with severe bodily injuries. This includes 263 pedestrians, 137 bicyclists and 4 motorcyclists. VRUs make up 46.38 percent of the 871 hit-and-run crashes with severe bodily injury according to preliminary data in 2023.
“If you are involved in a traffic crash, the law requires you to remain on scene,” said Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner. “When you operate a vehicle, you accept the responsibility of operating your vehicle safely and responsibly. Leaving the crash scene is reckless, irresponsible, and illegal, and State Troopers will work diligently to arrest you.””
Hit and Run Penalties
Under Florida law, a driver must stop immediately at the scene of a crash on public or private property, which results in property damage, injury, or death.
If a driver flees the scene, the situation becomes even worse.
- If the crash involves property damage, leaving the scene is classified as a second-degree misdemeanor with penalties of up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
- Leaving the scene of a crash with injuries is a second- or third-degree felony, and a driver, when convicted, will have their driver’s license revoked for at least three years and can be sentenced up to five years in prison and incur a $5,000 fine.
- Drivers leaving the scene of a crash with a fatality could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison and incur a $10,000 fine.
Of Florida’s 104,273 hit-and-run crashes last year, 86,987 involved property damage only, such as a parked car with no one inside, mailbox, fence, or landscape/garden. If involved in a crash involving property damage, you must stay at the scene and attempt to locate or contact the property owner. If you cannot locate the property owner, the driver responsible for the crash should leave contact and insurance information in an identifiable location.