HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Dave Beitler and his siblings are missing their brother Larry.
“My hearth is bleeding for him,” he said.
Larry was the victim of a hit-and-run crash that happened on Jan. 4, just one month after his 74th birthday.
“He was a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s only been back for a little while,” Dave said. “A soldier doesn’t deserve to die on a highway."
The crash happened on U.S. 92. Troopers are still looking for the driver.
“People like that are just low-life people,” Dave said, speaking about the driver. “They don’t have feelings for nothing or no one to just keep on going.”
Larry is one of three people killed in a hit-and-run crash on U.S. 92 this year.
“This is a big issue that we deal with here in the Bay area,” said Sgt. Steve Gaskins.
According to a report from FHP, there were over 105,300 total hit-and-run crashes in Florida last year. Looking at the numbers for Troop C, which covers most of the Bay area, there were over 18,000 hit-and-run crashes. Hillsborough County had 7,487, Pinellas had 4,444, and Polk Co. had 3,013. Of those crashes, 43 were fatal.
“Wow, that’s crazy, “ Dave said, shocked and irritated.
But there is some positive news. According to Gaskins, while the Tampa Bay area has some of the highest hit-and-run numbers, FHP has managed to solve most of its cases. Gaskins credits a lot of that to Trooper Christopher Wells. Wells heads up Troop C’s Hit and Run program. FHP launched the program back in 2016.
“About 60 to 70% of what I’m able to work on, we’re able to track those vehicles down, and we’re able to track those suspects down and forward the correct charges,” he said.
But, FHP leaders said it never has to get to that point if the driver doesn’t leave the scene.
“The moment you take off now, you’re looking at criminal charges,” Gaskins said. “You took that whole situation and just turned up the volume on the whole case.”
Leaving the scene of an injury crash could end up costing you thousands of dollars, get your license taken away, and you could go to prison for up to four years. If it’s a fatality, then it’s at least 30 years in prison.
