The sheriff’s deputies in Polk County are searching for the driver and potentially others in a van that collided with the aftermath of a prior accident.
This tragic incident led to the loss of a kind-hearted individual who had stopped to assist.
Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County stated that the van, a 2012 Honda from Arizona, had previously been declared unusable before it struck a pickup truck at the junction of State Road 60 and County Road 630 early on Monday morning.
This resulted in the unfortunate passing of a 34-year-old man from Melbourne, who had halted to provide aid after an SUV had earlier collided with the pickup.
According to Judd, the van was inoperable, and its occupants fled into the woods, classifying this as a hit-and-run incident.
“Did they try to help the victims?” “Noooo… they were too busy fleeing,” Judd adds.
The operator is hard to track down due to the absence of registration.
The SUV’s driver was just 15 years old, too young to legally drive. Judd mentioned that the boy was driving his 12-year-old sister to Frostproof Middle-Senior High School. Unfortunately, she’s now in the hospital in critical condition.
Judd expressed his frustration, stating that the victim lost their life because of reckless individuals driving a small, poorly-maintained van.
He emphasized that they should have been able to see the accident with all the cars twisted in the middle of the road.
He suspects they might still be in the mostly wooded area sloping towards the Kissimmee River. Deputies with bloodhounds are working hard to locate them before they manage to leave town.
“We want them in jail,” Judd stated.
