ORLANDO, Fla. — Data shows fatal hit-and-run crashes in Central Florida continue to increase, and law enforcement and family of fatal hit-and-run victims believe a legal loophole prevents some drivers from facing consequences.

  • FHP says fatal hit-and-runs in Central Fla. are increasing
  • McWilliams: Law allows suspected hit-and-run drivers escape prosecution
  • MORE INFO: The Justin McWilliams Act

Jamie McWilliams lost her son Justin in 2002 when someone ran him over and kept on driving.

Not long after Justin’s death, McWilliams turned her grief into action. She says the driver who hit her son wasn’t prosecuted because it happened on private property.

“I promised him when I said goodbye to him that early April morning, I said, 'I’m going to fix this,'” she recalled. “This is not going to happen to another family.”

In 2006, McWilliams convinced Florida lawmakers to pass the Justin McWilliams Act, which McWilliams says closed one legal loophole. But she says existing law continues to allow hit-and-run drivers to escape prosecution.

Florida Highway Patrol says even if they find a car used in a hit-and-run, the car’s owner is not legally required to say who was driving the car when it crashed, especially if that information would incriminate them. Drivers are protected under the U.S. Constitution’s 5th Amendment.

“We know a lot of times when we’re talking to that owner, that owner’s the driver of our vehicle in a hit-and-run crash,” said FHP's Lt. Kim Montes. “And there’s unfortunately not a lot we can do with certain other evidence, and that’s the biggest frustration for law enforcement.”

In 2017 there were 20 fatal hit-and-run crashes in Central Florida. In 2018, that number has already increased to 21, and the year’s not yet over.

McWilliams says witnesses should come forward if they know who was driving in a hit-and-run crash.

“If it was your family member, or close friend, that is hit by someone with a vehicle and left on the side of the road like last week’s trash, how are you going to feel about that?" she said.

And McWilliams is urging drivers to make the right choice.

“If someone walks out in front of you and you hit them, that doesn’t mean you’re at fault,” said McWilliams. “Those kinds of things happen. When you leave a scene and leave them there, then it becomes a crime.”

Right now, a driver convicted of a fatal hit-and-run crash faces a minimum of four years and up to a maximum of 30 years in prison.