Toddler, two adults critically injured in hit-and-run crash
Deerfield Beach man arrested in connection to early Wednesday accident
DEERFIELD BEACH — An early morning hit-and-run crash left a toddler and two adults clinging to life after their car was hit so hard it was nearly unrecognizable.
Police arrested Eric Meyer, 45, of Deerfield Beach, later Wednesday, said Gerdy St. Louis, spokesperson for the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.
Meyer faces a dozen charges, including six counts of reckless driving, five counts of failing to stop at the scene of the crash involving serious injury and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
The crash happened about 1:15 a.m. Wednesday near the intersection of South Dixie Highway and Southwest 10th Street in Deerfield Beach.
Fire Rescue crews had to free the man, woman and child from the mangled wreckage of their silver sedan. The toddler and adults were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Their injuries are so severe, according to the Broward County Sheriff ’s Office, that Broward traffic homicide detectives were brought in to lead the investigation.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, hit-and-run crashes accounted for 27% of the accidents in Florida last year, or 92,247 of 341,399.
Among the 92,247 hit-and-run crashes, there were 20,994 injuries and 256 deaths.
FHP statistics showed 212 (83%) of the hit-and-run fatalities last year occurred at dawn, dusk, or nighttime.
Overall, FHP said hit-and-run fatalities increased by 18% in 2020, even though the number of hit-and-run crashes decreased by 13%.
Surveillance video from a business near the Deerfield Beach crash on Wednesday appears to show the victims’ car heading east on Southwest 10th Street and crossing the railroad tracks at South Dixie Highway.
While the car is on the tracks, another vehicle, which looks to be a bigger, heavier vehicle, perhaps a pickup truck or SUV, clips the car in the rear on the driver’s side at what appears to be a high rate of speed. The force of the collision spins the victims’ car in a clockwise direction.
The speeding vehicle is seen only briefly after the collision, but it appears to keep
heading east after the crash.
A couple of residents said they heard the crash but didn’t investigate. A few employees of nearby businesses said they had to find an alternate route to work because police had a portion of Southwest 10th Street blocked until about 8:45 a.m. as they conducted their investigation.
South Florida has seen its share of hit-and-run crashes recently ranging from a man who had to have an arm amputated in Tamarac to a construction worker killed in Deerfield Beach in June to a driver in Boca Raton that killed a federal judge, then hit a 6-year-old boy and told officers she was Harry Potter.
FHP statistics show Broward County had 10,521 hit-and-run crashes in 2020. There were 2,074 injuries and 25 fatalities as a result of those hit-and-run crashes.
Palm Beach County had 6,155 hit-and-run crashes in 2020. There were 1,724 injuries and 11 fatalities as a result of those hit-and-run crashes.