A Keys pedestrian was struck by 2 cars, and the first was a hit-and-run, police say
.jpg "A 23-year-old man was struck and critically injured while crossing U.S. 1 in the Florida Keys Thursday night, Dec. 8, 2022.")
The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for the driver of a car that struck a 23-year-old man while he crossed U.S. 1 in the Florida Keys Thursday night. He was taken to a Miami-Dade County hospital in critical condition.
After the car hit the man in a northbound lane at mile marker 82 in Islamorada shortly after 9 p.m., the driver took off Then a Topeka, Kansas, man, driving a 2018 Ford Escape — who investigators say did not see the injured pedestrian lying in the street — ran him over again.
Monroe County’s Trauma Star helicopter ambulance flew the man, who the FHP has not named, to Jackson South Medical Center in Kendall. Updates on his condition were not immediately available.
Lt. Kathleen McKinney, FHP’s Florida Keys subdistrict commander, said that as of Friday morning, there is no description, make or model of the car investigators say was involved in the hit-and-run.
“This is an ongoing investigation,” McKinney said in an email. “We currently have no additional info on the vehicle that left the scene.”
The driver of the Escape immediately pulled into the nearby parking lot of the Green Turtle Inn, according to the FHP.
Police are hoping security cameras in the area may have recorded the original crash so they can get a description of the hit-and-run car, McKinney said.
The FHP said in its incident report that the car “is believed to have heavy front-end damage.”
