Miami, February 1 The state of Florida (USA) averaged 103,000 hit-and-runs by hit-and-run vehicles over the past five years, with a total of 1,251 deaths, despite the fact that such figures in 2022 ” show a worrying trend” According to official statistics, accidents have decreased by 5% compared to the previous year.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) indicated on Wednesday that there have been 515,957 accidents involving “hit and run” over the past five years, resulting in 1,251 deaths, a total of one in the state. 250 per year on an average.
Of those killed in 2022, 144 were pedestrians and 50 were cyclists, “representing 73% of hit-and-run deaths” and representing a 3% increase compared to 2021, the FLHSMV highlighted.
However, the number of hit-and-runs in Florida is set to decrease by 5% in 2022 (104,895 crashes and 266 deaths) compared to 2021 (109,624 crashes and 305 deaths).
“Florida has been experiencing too many hit-and-run tragedies for far too long, and that needs to change,” said Dave Kerner, FLHSMV’s executive director.
Kerner came down hard on hit-and-run drivers, saying they are not only “breaking the law” and will receive a “severe life sentence”, but they “show contempt for life and property”. ” from other persons”.
“Law enforcement, including our state troopers, will track down violators to hold them accountable under the law,” said the FLHSMV’s executive director.
In 2022, in another such accident, a two-year-old boy died after being struck by a hit-and-run driver at an intersection in Miami.
In April of that year, Virginia Selli-Olivo, daughter of Humberto Selli, former Venezuelan President (Parlatino) of the Latin American Parliament, was hit by a truck after stopping her car to help a turtle cross a street in Orange County. collided and was killed. ,
One of the recent outrages that most shocked public opinion was the one that occurred in December 2021 in the middle of the Christmas holidays, when a group of children was hit by a car whose driver fled In which two people were killed and four were injured.
In fact, hit-and-runs cause about 1,500 deaths per year in the United States.
The Automobile Association of America (AAA) warns in a 2022 report that “fatal hit-and-run crash rates are on the rise” across the country.
