Good Samaritan stops to help driver on a Florida highway. He never got back to his car, FHP says

Dhimitri Andoni pulled over on I-275 Thursday night to help another driver who lost control of their vehicle near the 23 mile marker. Troopers say it was one of the last things he ever did.

After Andoni, a 22-year-old Clearwater man, helped the driver get back on the road. Then he walked back to his own car, a 2015 Hyundai. According to a release from the Florida Highway Patrol, that’s when Dana Byrd struck and killed him with his 1996 Ford F-150.

The 30-year-old driver got out of his car and saw that Andoni was dead, troopers said. Then Byrd abandoned his own car and used Andoni’s as a getaway vehicle, fleeting the scene of the crash and ditching the car outside of a engineering consultant firm in St. Petersburg.

Andoni’s father used a GPS tracking system to locate his son’s car a few hours after the incident, but a Florida Department of Transportation Road Ranger didn’t come across Andoni’s dead body along the road until 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Bay News 9 reports a Road Ranger had tagged Byrd’s abandoned truck Thursday night, but didn’t see Andoni’s body due to the rainy conditions that night.

Troopers announced Friday night that Byrd had been arrested at his St. Petersburg residence and charged with grand theft auto and leaving the scene of a crash involving death. He is being held on bond totaling $15,000. According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Byrd has a prior arrest history, including DUI, battery and theft charges.

FHP is continuing the investigation and says they want to hear from the motorist that Andoni helped before he died.

This story was originally published September 22, 2018 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Good Samaritan stops to help driver on a Florida highway. He never got back to his car, FHP says."