Rate of hit-and-run crashes aren’t decreasing, FHP says

A deadly problem that is not getting better. Every night, we tell you about another hit-and-run and the search for a driver. A mother in Cape Coral said she and her family are lucky to be alive after someone slammed into their vehicle, then fled the scene.

On Wednesday afternoon, three men stole a Jeep at a gas station and crashed it into another car as they tried to get away from Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office deputies.

“I just looked over there you know a few seconds ago and all of a sudden the vehicle was gone,” said Milan Fiser, referring to her stolen Jeep.

Fiser said the police went behind the suspects, put on their lights, crossed over the median and the next thing she knew, she heard a crash.

The crash ran right into Olivia Bedford’s car.

“It really came out of nowhere,” Bedford said, “and it was quite jarring.”

The crash happened at the intersection of Sandhill Blvd. and Kings Hwy. Bedford said the police stopped chasing the suspect to help her.

Then, those men took off. Bedford walked away with a scratch, but her damaged car had to be towed away.

”Hit and runs and people leaving the scene of accidents,” said John Bumbera of Myakka Tire and Towing. “It’s a common thing. It’s a shame.”

Consistently, over the last several years, 25% percent of all crashes are hit-and-runs, according to Florida Highway Patrol, which means the problem of drivers leaving the scene is not getting better.

Serra Bruce was getting ice cream with her family when she became a victim of a hit-and-run crash. A truck propelled into her car at 40 mph, she said, totaling her new car.

“The victims in this are going to be the only ones paying the consequences of a now felon after he ran off,” Bruce said.