Driver arrested in hit-and-run that killed bicyclist, Fort Lauderdale police say
Fort Lauderdale police arrested a woman they say drove a car that struck and killed a woman riding her bicycle on the Southeast 17th Street Causeway Bridge on Thursday morning.
Don Janea Lashay Smith, 22, is being held at the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s main jail in Fort Lauderdale on a charge of failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death and another count of evidence tampering.
Fort Lauderdale police say Smith hit 68-year-old Shelley Lewis as she rode eastbound in the bicycle lane of the bridge around 6:40 a.m. Paramedics took Lewis to Broward Health Medical Center, where she died, said Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman Casey Liening.
Police released a 911 call in which a man reporting the incident said Lewis was “clearly in the bicycle lane” when the car struck her.
“This bicycle lane is actually a wide one, so I’m not sure how this vehicle could have hit her,” the man said, adding the car that hit her was a black sedan.
Another witness told a 911 dispatcher that Lewis was lying unconscious on the bridge, wearing a helmet, and that the bike was “mangled up.”
A judge set Smith’s bond at $101,000. Information about her legal representation was not immediately available. Liening said Smith might face more charges pending the outcome of traffic-homicide detectives’ investigation.
Police ask anyone with information to call 954-764-4357.
