Striking a Pedestrian

Pensacola police officers have searched a damaged GMC van in an effort to find evidence that might link it to a fatal hit-and-run pedestrian accident that occurred on Sept. 9, 2009. This Pensacola News Journal article reported that the 52-year-old victim was struck and killed while walking along Cervantes Street near H Street in Pensacola.

Pensacola police were notified about the van after a Gulf County Sheriff’s Office captain got a tip from a confidential informant. The informant had heard that a relative had asked family members to pick up a van from a Gulf Breeze tow lot because he had hit a pedestrian while driving it and did not want any possible links between them and the van. The van was towed to the lot after the driver was arrested on an unrelated charge in Santa Rosa County two days after the pedestrian accident occurred. Pensacola police found the van had damage to its hood, windshield and front with tape on the shattered windshield.

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A recent Bradenton Herald article describes a Florida pedestrian accident that claimed the lives of two young men who were struck and killed while walking along State Road 70 last August. The Florida Highway Patrol said that the two men were struck by a 2000 Ford truck around 3:25 in the morning on S.R. 70 at Mizell Road. Both men were reportedly walking eastbound on the shoulder of the unlighted road with the flow of vehicle traffic when the truck struck them from behind.

FHP officers investigating the pedestrian accident scene said that one victim was a 23-year-old Sarasota man and the other victim was believed to be around 19-years-old. His name and address had not been released when the article was published. Troopers said that a witness to the accident called 911, and emergency response personnel called the FHP. A FHP spokesperson said that the 18-year-old driver of the truck remained at the accident scene.

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